Posted by Ed Kiser on August 31, 2005 at 22:02:26 from 205.188.116.6 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: Least favourite among the books posted by Mark D. on August 31, 2005 at 15:00:47:
When I was typing in these books, the presence of the Eels' Password and its Countersign presented for me quite a typing challenge. I finally settled on a substitute, where I typed AAA for the password and BBB for the countersign, then when the whole thing was done, went through the files and did a global replace with very careful checking out of the replacement strings before doing the execute. That little effort saved a lot of redoing and correcting that would have been the result if typed in the normal way. As for Daisy's wrong version - that was CCC.
As for the Amazons being in the story - I felt that Nancy was out of her element. She was the stranger, no longer on home ground, and therefore somewhat of a displaced person. It has always seemed that she would be the one to be the instigator of whatever adventure is to be done. She was the natural leader. But here, she comes into the story after the adventure was already set up, in motion, and underway, with her just jumping in and is left to try to conform. She tried to get something started by having a "war" but that ran contrary to John's adamant plan to get the mapping all done by the time the Goblin returned. When she went ahead and did the attack anyway, John was quite put out and distressed that she showed such little attention to the main purpose of the expedition. Her going out that last early morning to complete a portion of the missing map was a part of trying to make up for the distraction her "war" had produced. John was a serious task master. He was there on assignment, and commanded obedience to the resolution of the final results of getting that map completed. It was not a fun thing; it was an assignment, like a term paper to be handed in just before school ends. He made it a very serious project, and Nancy was counterproductive to his desired result. Nancy does not easily give up her role as the leader and felt she had to "stir things up" a bit. This seemed to cause a problem between these two friends that left a bad impression on that friendship. Her final night attempt to make up for lost map making helped, but it was her recognition that is was HIS SHOW, not hers, and she had to knuckle under and conform. She was less than satisfied with the whole idea although at first excited about the prospects of what fun they could have. Her idea of fun ran contrary to John's concept as to his assignment (not fun at all, really). It was upsetting to see this friction between these two principal characters.
There were several times that a play-"war" was done in these stories. The original was not so much a war, as a disagreement resulting from a misunderstanding, that of the S&A being at war with Captain Flint, resulting in his walking the plank. The next war was not so much a war as it was a contest, in that they competed to try to capture each other's ship. In Swallowdale there was another "war" where the Amazons warned the Swallows that one day, when they could slip out of the house, they would come and "attack" the camp at Swallowdale, but this war did not actually materialize as when they did make their attack, no body was there, as the Swallows were hiding in the cave. Even when they finally disclosed their hiding place, the original concept of having a "war" was practically forgotten.
But in Secret Water, I found it unsettling that this time, the "war" actually came to some degree struggle with body contact. Not exactly were there fists to the face kind of thing, but there was enough contact to where there was the wind being knocked out by a head-butting. There was more of a physical struggle, an aggressive contact between friends, that just seemed to emphasize the controversy between John and Nancy as to what this expedition is here for. There was also that upsetting concept of the Amazons joining sides with the Eels, and so were against the Swallows. The orignal concept of "Swallows and Amazons Forever" seemed torn with an act of treason, a siding with the enemy. And that was a disturbing, an unpleasant aspect of this story.
The main thing that I enjoyed about Secret Water was the actual map making itself, the usage of the compass to give bearings on certain key locations, and to make the map from these readings. Being strong in Math, and enjoying the trigonometry involved in these calculations, I appreciated this actual application of those classroom examples.
One surprise to me which came only in these last few years of renewed study of these Ransome stories, was to discover that in the map shown in WE DIDN'T MEAN TO GO TO SEA, showing the chart of the approaches to Harwich, there in the bottom left of that chart is the area that was to be the central location of SECRET WATER. I had never noticed that particular collection of islands in that chart has having any particular meaning, as the story of WD had no involvement in that area. This discovery was a bit of a shock to think it had been there all that time and I had never noticed it. Amazing what new stuff one can learned by reading a book 55 years later.
SW was not really a happy story. A work assignment, a lot of mud, and the learning about tides and their tremendous effects, and the dissension between ex-allies, with even the "Play" at sacrificing Bridget by imaginary slicing off pieces of Bridget to add to the pot was a bit unpleasant, even though all done as imaginary activity.
The LAKE stories were the best. Nancy was on home ground, and she was in charge. She was the life of those stories, and that made them fun.
Ed Kiser, South Florida