Posted by Elizabeth on January 10, 2009 at 20:40:07 user Elizabeth.
In Reply to: Re: SA and SW posted by John Nichols on January 10, 2009 at 13:58:34:
John--
I'll take up one part of what you said--I'm not good enough at probability to argue with letters & numbers--
You said "AR preferred the S's."
I don't know if you mean he showed statistical preference to them or if you are trying to say that he actually liked them better, but I do think it's interesting that at least in the first two books, he gives much more time to the Swallows' points of view than to those of the two Amazons. It would be easy to believe that he "liked" the Swallows better, and knowing what we do about how the books came to written adds fuel to that idea. However, he sets Nancy up to be the only person with enough imagination, gumption & local knowledge to really be the leader whenever she is around and often by dint of messages even when she can't be there physically. She is the most exciting character--things are always happening around her. You could suggest on the basis that AR gave her the "best" role to play that he liked Nancy better.
I'd love to hear what others think about this.