Half a glove and some GO character thoughts

[selenay]

Last night I ploughed on with the new mittens through Holby City (now a BAFTA award winning continuing drama, dontcha know - sounds much more dignified than "cracktastic soap") and I got the cuff done and part way up the hand. I added an extra repeat of the cable pattern because I know that my hands are very long and so far it looks beautiful.

I'm knitting in the round on double pointed needles for the first time and I seem to be doing it OK because there is no sign of a seam between needles. Yay me! It's very exciting and there is actually a good chance that I'll have one mitten done by the end of the weekend. So they're quick as well as beautiful. Yay!

Then it's back to my sister's blanket for a few weeks. So far, we have 14 out of the 63 patches done and the first row has been crocheted together. Getting that first bit put together always makes a project feel like it's going somewhere.

In other things, I had a thought earlier this evening about characterisation in Girl's Own fiction. I'm currently reading Upper Fourth at Malory Towers (Enid Blyton) and I'm noticing the characters are a bit less rounded than the Chalet School characters. I know that many GO books don't have the deepest, most well-rounded characters. But it strikes me that some are much better in this department than others. Perhaps this is why I love Chalet School so much? Although EDB does things that modern writers would never get away with, she does give her characters more personality and layers than many of her contemporaries and her characters are allowed to grow with time. So far, in the fourth MT book, there isn't actually very much character progression for some of the characters and all of them are still rather 2D sketches.

A thought to ponder.

Comments

[evil_plotbunny]

Well, I think you're talking about two extremes. Enid Blyton characters are almost always 2D, while Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's style focused on character growth (especially within individual books). There is a middle ground I think, but Enid Blyton wouldn't be it.

I see the same thing in American series of the same period...they run the gamut, depending on authorial intent (and that's still true today).

[nic]

Do the Malory Towers books hold up with re-reading? I LOVED them when I was younger but am afraid to destroy those memories. ;)

[selenay]

Hmm, yes, I think you're right. It's not just Malory Towers where EB has trouble with rounded characters. She seems to have always written quite simple stories - perhaps that's what appealed to a lot of readers? EBD tended towards character growth, but often let continuity go out the window when she got excited about an idea or a character set.

What would you say is the middle ground?

[selenay]

I didn't read MT when I was a kid, but I'm enjoying them muchly as an adult so I'd say they hold up well :-)

[evil_plotbunny]

I really don't know. Possibly the more "literary" stories. And now the titles I'm coming up with are all American or fantasy....