Matrix (was 1930's Taxes was Holiday Tasks


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Posted by Jock on November 23, 2006 at 00:43:04 from 87.105.81.146 user Jock.

In Reply to: Re: 1930's Taxes was Holiday Tasks posted by PeterH on November 22, 2006 at 20:33:45:

perhaps we should remember that AR probably did not think this all
through when he wrote the stories. We are, in a sense, looking for a
matrix which does not exist. I very much doubt if the question of Maria
Turner's tax position was at the forefront of his mind as he struggled
to finish PM. He was, after all, writing for children!

AR wrote somewhere that he "knew much more about his characters"
than he put in his books. He had his own special technique of starting
with real people and adding a bit here and taking a bit away there was
part of the reason his characters were so real. He also said that he
wrote for books for himself and disparaged writing for children.

So I think that 'reverse engineering' the matrix is a valid exercise.
It seems to work reasonably well with the Swallows. When this is
applied to the Beckfoot household there seems to be a disconnect.
Part of the Beckfoot 'scenery' - houseboat, sailing dinghy, rowing
boat, motor launch, the much travelled James Turner, the distant
boarding school - would relate to a very rich household. But Beckfoot
is quite a modest place, the croquet lawns and tennis courts are
untended and the number of servants seems to go down from 2 1/2 to
1 1/2 during the series. No doubt AR had somehow worked out the
details to his own satisfaction in his own mind.

It's also fascinating to look at the ingredients that AR may have
used to weave his magic and create his characters. If the Hobbsian
hypothesis is correct and the Crossley girls were the original
Amazons then their household arrangements underwent some serious
'downsizing' by AR's pen.



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