Sequels, Prequels etc etc


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Posted by Mike Dennis on August 19, 2006 at 18:35:50 from 84.71.2.186 user MTD.

I have followed the previous threads on sequels etc. and 'fan fiction', not because I am actually interested in any of it but because I am interested to know why others are!
For me the mark of a great book (or play or film or TV drama) is if you find yourself wondering about the characters sometime after you have finished reading or viewing. AR did this for me as a child and does occasionally as an adult in a deeper way. For example the discussions about the character's schools to me concentrates too much on which school, my thoughts were always about what their school life was like - for me I guessed it must have been like my own, not much fun and the prospect of adventures with real friends during the holidays kept them going through their school terms. But... of course that reflects my view and experience of school, which is part of the problem when going down the route of sequels etc. – they only reflect the view of their writer.
In a previous thread it was suggested (sorry I have forgotten by who) that the books and their characters are frozen in time, no matter what happens in the real world the S & As will be on the lakes and the Ds will join them when they are not solving crime on the Norfolk Broads. None of them will get any older than when we last see them in GN.
I suppose I am arguing I don't want to know what happened to them, or what school they went to or which train they caught to get to where their 'real' lives took place. It is their adventures and the way they interact that matter.
Of the series (leaving aside PD & ML which are to me best viewed as the characters own fantasies, and entertaining as such) the books that take the characters too much out of their 'natural' environment are the ones that, for me, are the least interesting - WDMTGTS & GN and to a lesser extent SW (this appeals to me because I live nearby!). Perhaps that is why AR never continued with what Brogan entitled Coots in the North - the characters were away from home and he found it difficult to know what to do with them.
It does seem there is a danger in thinking too much about what happened to them all, maybe we would become disillusioned by them, maybe they all became tiresome adults - the kind of people you avoid in everyday life!
Perhaps the answer is to enjoy them as they are and remember what they meant to you in childhood - all I know about sailing etc (having never sailed in my life or had the inclination to) come from AR, for that and the books themselves I am grateful!


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