Posted by Peter Ceresole on November 01, 2003 at 01:28:46 from 193.195.0.101 user PeterC.
In Reply to: AR and John Walker. posted by John Nichols on November 01, 2003 at 00:37:09:
John Walker is based on AR and not Dick. JW does the same things in the books in a slightly less mature fashion than AR but the adventures are comparable.
Especially if you relate 'Racundra' to WDMTGTS, that's certainly true. But one doesn't exclude the other. AR was a novelist, and he could put something of himself into both John and Dick- and Dorothea. Dick and Dot were presumably introduced when SA, SD and PD had been huge successes and AR realised he was in for the long haul and needed to give himself some headroom; to create some characters that would give him some more themes and variations without straying so far from the original stories that he would lose the audience. Of course he also extended the locations and characters to Norfolk, but the Ds were the linking core.
So in them he created characters who would serve to comment on what was going on for non-sailors, people who actually needed newspaper to light a fire. And at the same time he introduced some more personal aspects of himself; John had been a very straight character, the very model of a responsible and enthusiastic young sailor who cared about being in the Rugby team. Susan had the motherly virtues and explained how on earth they got permission to go off onto their island on their own. Titty represented sensitivity and Roger was the classic Shakesparean rapscallion, light relief. The Amazons were a perfect foil to the Walkers' 'normality'.
I'm just trying to make the point that these are the bones of AR's initial construction. With the Ds he could open it out. He could introduce Dick to represent his own geeky side (not that he'd have called it that of course) and Dorothea was in fact a very adult device, an affectionate satirical take on AR's own profession as author. I think they were also a kind of companionship for AR as he kept the series on course. I always thought that he felt with the Ds more than any of the others. Dorothea in BS gets as much authorial admiration as any other character in the series- along with John in WDMTGTS. Dick in PP comes close behind. I think all three were aspects of AR's own character as he'd have liked it to be.