Posted by andy bolger on August 23, 2001 at 18:49:31 from 213.122.206.214:
In Reply to: Re: Resemblances - adult baddies posted by Brad Henry on August 22, 2001 at 22:35:23:
I first made this distinction when I was a kid. Most of the popular series of books for children, Blyton, Saville, the Hardy brothers etc involved juvenile detectives foiling adult crooks or spies. One of the reasons why AR appealed to me was that by comparision they seemed "realistic". I thought with a bit of luck and imaginative manipulation such adventures could happen to me.
Now from an adult perspective, I agree that AR's books contain many exceptions to my "no adult baddies" rule. It clearly doesn't apply to the "stories" of PD and ML. Mr Jemmerling's gun is sometimes given as a reason for including GN in this category. The burgalars in S&A I have always glossed over as a sub -plot introduced before AR got a grip on his genre.
Although Capt F and the GA are adults I never counted them as "baddies"
I just thought of them as "family (native) problems" and everyone has them don't they? As for the Hullabaloos, they are not criminals but well just well Hullabaloos. I agree that B6 gives my thesis indegistion but
I still feel rather attached to it.
Do others agree that this is one of the reasons which helped AR stand head and shoulders above the books that competed with him for my attention on the libary shelves all those years ago?