Posted by Peter H on December 07, 2005 at 20:45:48 from 86.140.52.159 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Industrial Heritage (was Lydia Eva - was Re: Silting of the Yare) posted by John Nichols on December 07, 2005 at 16:48:39:
there are more
I can suggest one more AR topic, but it is a serious philosophical one, possibly too serious for this board. It is this: is it necessarily a 'good thing' for adults to read Ransome? We automatically assume that it is, but I am going to say the unsayable and assert that in many cases, reading AR's books can bring out the worst in people. I am doing some serious analysis of this at the moment, along with another (adult) AR enthusiast. We ask: is there such a thing as the 'spirit of Ransome', or is this phrase really just a nonsense? There is no doubt whatever in my mind that just because someone is an 'AR aficionado' (a phrase used recently on Tarboard), this is no guarantee that that person is polite and fair-minded. I say this out of bitter experience over the last 10 years. It is not something I like saying, but these things have to be faced up to, and I may be proved wrong.
We should not be too shocked at such a suggestion - reading a children's book in adulthood is surely dysfunctional on the face of it, and the adult reader, having immersed him/herself in the attitudes and instincts of childhood, may find it difficult to re-enter the adult world, particularly where AR topics are being discussed. Reading AR is a 'risk factor'.
I could say a lot more, but I'll leave it there for now. (NB - Yes, I am aware that the above theory applies to me as much as anyone else, and I am also aware that many adults read AR with no adverse effects. However, the frequency of 'adverse effects' among AR readers seems to me to be too great to be a general average.)