Posted by John Birch on July 02, 2000 at 00:16:34 from m197-mp1-cvx1a.man.ntl.com:
In Reply to: Re: Parody - someone will eventually posted by Prue Eckett on June 29, 2000 at 22:31:26:
In replying to another message I have come up with an Angle...
Swallows & Amazons 2000, in which children of the same age and social background find themselves in the lakes and attempt to have the same holiday as the S&As of the 30s. The possibilities are endless...
* Mrs Walker interviewed by Social Services for abandoning her children on an island, or allowing them to sleep there overnight. Follows tip-off from local shop-keepers worried about children running riot.
* Mind you that is assuming the owner of Holly Howe let them use Swallow - insurance? Woudl Mrs Walker sign an undertaking not to take legal action, etc. etc.
* Children find it impossible to get any milk or other provisions from the farms due to EU and MAFF rules
* Susan unable to make fires due to various rules and fact that local shops won't sell them matches
* Children make no contact with charcoal burners due to their being told not to talk to strangers
* The adder, being a protected animal, could not be kept by the Charcoal burners anyway
* Mind you there wuldn't be any charcoal burners....
One could (depresssingly) go on and on.
Later books would be similarly affected, including the renaming of "Pigeon Post" to "Mobile Phone".
Were the 30s really as idylic as the books suggest (assuming you had a job, of course) I wonder?