Posted by Edwin M. Kiser on 12/18/99 from MIAMB208-40.splitrock.net:
In Reply to: Re: War & SW betrayal (was WAR!) posted by KL Clark on December 17, 1999 at 06:48:55:
The "violence" of Peter Duck and the threatened violence of Missee Lee
are not a problem as these two stories are supposed to be just that -
"STORIES" the kids made up. So no matter what "happened" in the book,
nothing really happened, no more so than for today's kids to play at
zapping the Klingons which are totally imaginary anyway. Contrast this
imaginative whimsy with the actual (well, we take it to be actual,
anyway) danger of the Swallows when they were swept out to sea in
WDMTGTS. Definitely a threat to life and limb there, but that was not
"Play" - that was serious stuff. No pretending there, but real
seamanship in order to survive.
Ed Kiser