Posted by Eric Abraham on March 11, 2002 at 14:35:53 from 199.240.138.83:
In Reply to: Re: Free Speech was Titty posted by andy bolger on February 28, 2002 at -1:19:13:
It seems that what we are talking about is essentially "artistic licence" or making "aesthetic decisions" -- in other words, if it works withen the art work, it works -- and one knows it. It is a certain magical thing that is very difficult to explain, even by the artist, or in this case, the author of a story (and an author IS an artist using words to paint and sculpt his/her image!). When telling stories, we all bend, stretch and embelish to make the story "fit" - to make it more interesting and suspenseful - to make it "right". I think Mr. Ransome was telling the story to his best advantage - to make it all "fit" - to make it an on-going narrative that pulls us into the remainder of the story. As Andy says above, to send the pigeons to Roger, was to Mr. Ransome, the "right" way to do it.
Nancy, also, would be doing the "right" thing by her own bent of imagination, to fullfil her own plot of the adventure she was planing, to send the pigeons to Roger instead of Titty. And to do this, Mr. Ransome had to think as Nancy would - to "play" each charactor as if he were an actor in a play.
EA