Kat Gordon
The CBB -> Book Discussions
#1: Kat Gordon Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:21 pm

Please discuss Kat Gordon here...

 

#2:  Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:14 pm

I always liked Kat Gordon. I always wished I was as sensible as she was. Talk about the 'parental child' concept--she has Clem beat on that score by a mile. So, in today's world, she would be pathological, but in the CS books, she was a wonderful heroine for me, one of those characters who was well aware of the follies of adults and just looked after herself and her aunt.

As a child, I wanted to be like her, essentially because she was so level-headed, capable, independent, and, of course, phenomenal at sports. Kat just always seemed to know the right thing to say, whereas I never did. For instance, when she's asked if she's ever played tennis before, she knows innately to do the false-modesty thing and say that she's learned 'a bit'. So even at the very beginning of her CS career, she knows the code--what you can and can't say.

Even as she grew older and became a prefect in Switzerland, she always seemed a bit more mature than the others. One of the only times I've ever seen Mary-Lou compared unfavorably to someone is to Kat Gordon when they are both asked to forgive Joan Baker for eavesdropping. There's some passage that indicates that Kat is older than Mary-Lou and has seen more of life and therefore isn't so easily swayed or something.

I do need to put in that the Katharine Mary/Mary Katharine subplot in Wrong was very confusing to me. Perhaps it's clearer in the hardback, which I haven't read, but at some point, even the people at the Chalet School--even Jo!--got confused as to who was Katharine Mary and who was Mary Katharine and whose parents were where in China. If I were Jo, this whole episode would have made me rethink naming all my daughters Mary, but...apparently not.

 

#3:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:48 pm

My library used to have 'The Wrong Chalet School' which I always enjoyed reading but then it disappeared and I haven't seen it anywhere since.

I always liked this book. She is a great tennis player but she's not so wrapped up in her tennis like Nina is with her music that Kat doesn't let it interfere with the rest of her life. I don't remember much about Kat as a prefect though.

 

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