Mouth-opening-and-shutting
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Posted by Tim Johns on October 30, 1997 at 10:43:53:
The discussion of waking up in the morning set me thinking of other repetetive behaviours in the Swallows and Amazons novels. One which I noticed when I first read the books some 50 years ago was the tendency of the characters to open their mouths to say something, and then to change their minds, as in the following citations:
- Captain Flint opened his mouth and shut it again. (SA)
- Captain Flint opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing. (PD)
- Bill opened his mouth and shut it again. (PD)
- Roger did open his mouth to speak, but even he, when he saw Captain Flint's face, knew without being told that this was not the time to remind him of the treasure box in the deckhouse. (PD)
- The boy opened his mouth to speak and shut it again. (SW)
- John opened his mouth to speak but said nothing. (SW)
- John opened his mouth to speak and shut it again. (SW)
- Old Mrs. Halliday looked severely at the Death and Glories, opened her mouth as if to say something, but thought better of it and pretended that the three small boys were not in the shop. (BS)
- Dorothea opened her mouth to speak, but said nothing. (BS)
- (Nancy opened her mouth to speak but changed her mind.) (ML)
Seven out of the three mouth-openers-and-shutters in the citations are the children themselves. Now as a child I suspect I very rarely opened my mouth to say something and then thought better of it: I would either just keep quiet, or would blurt out what I had to say, often with unfortunate consequences. Only with age have I started my own mouth-opening-and shutting.
The frequency of mouth-opening-and-shutting in the S&A novels could, I suppose, be interpreted in at least two ways:
- A middle-aged author giving a characteristic of his own behaviour (under the beady eye of Evgenia, perhaps) to his young characters.
- A device of the author for getting his young readers to think about motives and actions: what was the character in the story about to say, and why did (s)he decide not to say it?
Observations (and relevant verses from the blues) would be welcome!
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