Posted by Duncan on November 16, 2002 at 17:09:37 from 205.188.209.46 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Re: HULLABALOOS posted by andy bolger on November 16, 2002 at 01:19:20:
Can anyone think where the writer of that very interesting article would have ascertained that George Owden was working class? I confess I had never seen him as being so. I think there is something of a class sub-text in Coot Club and the Big Six that is fascinating (the Death and Glories briefly rather resent Tom Dudgeon who - as a doctor's son - is excused mis-demeanors or is somehow above suspicion). Although we've had the debate about AR's elitism, where class is consciously dealt with I've always found that the working-class (or indeed 'peasant' to borrow Hugh Brogan's analysis of Cumbrian farmers...) are elevated above the wealthy.
Look at the villains:
The Great Aunt - the classic haute-bourgeois grand-dame who is only redeemed when she shows a bit of spirit after camping out rough in a boat...
The Hullabaloos - to my mind 'decadent' wealthy young adults with a tendency to be frivolous.
Mr. Jemmerling - A profiteering, grasping, very wealthy, very greedy 'bad' man, masquerading as a man of science.
George Owden and Ralph Strakey - I've always seen them as well-off boys, whether they are not they still, like Jemmerling, make their money in a dubious, unworthy way. Whether we think AR had Marxian leanings or not, there's a very clear letter in 'Signalling From Mars' showing that he bought into the basics of Marx's labour theory of value.
The goodies - whether they're private school educated explorers or hard-working farmers and boatbuilders' sons - all, when at their best, WORK. It might not be 'real' work in the eyes of the native world, but they always work. Pigeon Post is my favourite example of this (the way in which the value of the products of their labour changes through the text is fascinating too, but I don't want to try and carry people too far on this...) but bird protection and salvage is work too. With the eggs, it is the coots (the birds not the club-members) who have done the work (or the divers in Great Northern?) and Owden and Jemmerling are just parasites making money out the work of the birds. Dare I go on to suggest that the eggs have surplus value to collectors (as a kind of capital), even though the 'bird-workers' have not received the full fruits of their industry in the form of chicks? Or is that going too far?
I've strayed a bit from the Hullabaloos... Possibly a Thirties' kind of yuppie is quite a good way of envisaging them?
Duncan