Posted by Duncan Hall on March 29, 2001 at 15:00:16 from 205.188.199.167:
In Reply to: Aubrey de Selincourt posted by Lionel Hill on March 29, 2001 at 13:43:58:
Its interesting, but I think people are slightly mistaken about the stasis in the S&A books, and about the children still being interested in the same things each year.
There are the obvious developments (Titty's finding and losing of an 'imaginary friend', Roger's developing interest in motor boats, the 'D's learning to sail, etc.) but I think there are some more subtle ones too.
By P&M it is considered odd that Nancy - in particular - should behave the way she does. First of all, the Amazons attempts to be the perfect hosts (even if they're perfect hosts with jolly rogers and scarabs all over the place) show that they've grown up and are wanting, in a way, to behave more grown up. And the whole hiding of the martyrs is treated in quite a different way from 'native trouble' in earlier books. When Mrs. Tyson (wrongly) chastises the prospectors for starting a fire in Pigeon Post they are chastised as naughty children (even though even there there are some important character developments from the earlier books) - the Doctor, the postman, Timothy, etc. are all cross with Nancy in P&M in quite a different way and a way which the young Ds don't really understand.
I could come up with hundreds of other examples. The Amazons and older Swallows talking about school, etc. when they first meet in SD, leading Titty and Roger to tire and go exploring. Think how much Dick has changed from Winter Holiday to Great Northern?
What there doesn't seem to be (and I'm not sure it's all that surprising) is any suggestion that John, Nancy, Peggy and Susan (who, after all, must be well into their teens by the last books) start having adolescent interests. It's more as if they go straight from being children to being expected to be adults (but again that's got much to do with both the period it was written, and perhaps even more likely, the time when AR was a child himself). But I just don't think he was interested in writing about those sorts of feelings - they'd get in the way. There's the odd bit in, say, Great Northern, when John and Nancy go off together and perhaps some of them get a little more bothered about what others think of them by the last books - perhaps that's as much suggestion of adolescence as could possibly be needed in children's books!