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Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6490
Author:  Nightwing [ Wed Aug 26, 2009 7:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
When I was reading the CS as a kid none of the storylines bothered me, not Joey becoming a State Hero in Belsornia, not the Richardsons's father taking off into space, not even the increasingly bizarre coincidences of long-lost relatives turning up.

But now, as an adult, I find the farfetchedness of some of the plots almost bizarre, particularly towards the end of the series, and I was wondering what other people thought. What was the first CS book you read (as a child or an adult) which you found to be just too full of coincidences, or where the plot is just too unlikely? Are there any books you loved as a kid that make your hair stand on end now?
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Wed Aug 26, 2009 7:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Having read a lot of the books in the last year, for me most of the plotlines seem somewhat absurd - though mainly thanks to you guys! I tend to find that EBD's writing sweeps you along and it's only when you stop later on and go "hang on..." that the plots start to make less sense.

As I still retain hopes of becoming Joey someday, I think it's safe to say they never quite lost the appeal they had as a child...
Author:  Alison H [ Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I suppose most of the books have a few too many coincidences and accidents and so on, but that's the same with any book or film or TV programme. The books'd be boring without them: no-one wants to read about/watch someone just getting up, going to work, coming home, watching a bit of telly and going to bed :lol: .

The repeated plot in the later books of people turning out to be other people's long-lost relatives does grate on me a bit, especially as it adds nothing to the storyline - it would make no difference whatsoever if Adrienne were not related to Robin, Mélanie were not related to Jeanne le Cadoulec and the Richardsons were not related to the Rosomons, and it wouldn't really matter if the two Sams didn't turn out to be long-lost cousins. & Prof Richardson blasting off into space is just bizarre :roll: .

The one that really gets me, though, is the beginning of Summer Term. Mrs Standish leaves the guardianship of her daughter to someone whom she met briefly as a teenager, has had no contact with for the best part of 20 years and does not even have a contact address for. Her solicitors are apparently OK with this. Erica then bumps into this guardian in the street and immediately recognises her from an old photo. Even better, it then turns out that Erica is a big fan of Joey's books but that it never occurred to her, her mother or the solicitors to try contacting Joey via her publishers.

I think it's just part of the general decline in the series towards the end, though.
Author:  Nightwing [ Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Alison H wrote:
it would make no difference whatsoever if Adrienne were not related to Robin, Mélanie were not related to Jeanne le Cadoulec and the Richardsons were not related to the Rosomons, and it wouldn't really matter if the two Sams didn't turn out to be long-lost cousins.


I don't really mind the Richardsons and Adrienne, because I like that they find they have someone that "belongs" to them when they previously thought they were entirely alone. With Mélanie I think it's a little superfluous, but at least she isn't related to the MRB clan, and it's good to hear what happened to Jeanne even if it's such a sad story.

But the two Sams really gets to me. They've both already got families; they're not keeping the School Family alive by being related to an Old Girl; and the moral of the story seems to be that they only reason you'd be friends with someone who isn't your own age is because you're related to them! It also irritates me no end that everyone talks about how similar their names are...
Author:  Abi [ Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Definitely agree about the long-lost relative obsession - it does get a bit ridiculous. On the other hand, there are many GO books which are far more far-fetched - there's remarkably little of the international jewel thief rounding-up, or secret passage/hidden treasure-finding, or ghost-hunting that so many other books in the genre seem to find nevessary.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I think that's why some of the CS farfetchedness can ring really oddly to me - because EBD is on the one hand so obsessed with the most daily of routines and details (exactly how to make a rechauffee, how the tables get cleared after meals, the morning dormitory routine). EBD clearly loved writing that stuff, to the point where there are entire books where there's no plot at all, like Joey Goes to the Oberland, which is really just about packing and travelling.

But then into the middle of this detailed ordinariness you get kidnapped princesses, endless near-death experiences, and the weirder excesses of the late Swiss books where everyone turns out to be long-lost relatives escaping from possible prostitution and sulking over motorboats while falling down thunderbolt craters on the playing fields or escaping flashfloods.
Author:  JB [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Have just typed this once and lost it! If it appears twice, I apologise.

Adrienne is the most far-fetched to me. It's not as dramatic as Summer Term but EBD has to try so hard to justify the Robin/Adrienne relationship that it stands out for me. And why was OOAO the one to spot the resemblance? She lived next door to the Maynards for a year during which time Robin wasn't living at home so she can't have known her that well.

The story would have worked perfectly well without Adrienne finding a long-lost relation but by the point in the series, every new girl has to be linked to an old girl of the school in some way and OOAL is constantly returning to Switzerland to pop unnecessarilly.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
JB wrote:
...and OOAL is constantly returning to Switzerland to pop unnecessarilly.


Ouch!

I think that the Adrienne connection would have been more plausible if EBD had remembered that the Robin had her mother's angelic loveliness (I've got that the wrong way around now, haven't I?) It was nice to find out that Robin wasn't alone in the world, though, and I think it was a sweet thing for EBD to think of, given that she could have just not mentioned the Robin again, and most readers probably wouldn't have given a second thought to it.

In fact, I think in general that a lot of the coincedences in the later books are still perfectly plausible but that EBD just doesn't craft them as well as she used to. Look at the number of times they meet "Frau Berlin" - that in itself is quite improbable, as there's usually a disaster/huge argument just around the corner when they meet her, but these are in, IMHO, EBD's strongest books and she makes it work quite well.
Author:  Abi [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
In and of themselves, most of the coincidences are plausible-ish (though Adrienne and Erica are pushing it a bit, I think), but the sheer number of times they happen just makes it seem silly. The same goes for all the near-fatal incidents - there are too many.
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Coincidences do happen - I once bumped into a former neighbour whilst I was in Boston (the one in Massachusetts, not the one in Lincolnshire!) :roll: - but the ones in the later books do get silly. & they're totally unnecessary, whereas the ones in the earlier books aren't. Prof Trelawney and Cdr Carey happening to be on the same expedition is integral to the storyline as it draws Mary-Lou and Verity together, but the two Sams turning out to be cousins is just pointless.
Author:  Catrin [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Compared to Enid Blyton's stories, most of EBD seems fairly reasonable - after all, although Joey does get into quite a few coincidences, she doesn't manage to stumble across twenty-one mysteries, one on every holiday, like the Famous Five do . . .
Author:  andydaly [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 1:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I remember thinking when I was a kid that it was far fetched that a princess would come to the school - I think I supposed that they would be taught by tutors, rather than go to school.
Author:  Smile :) [ Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
The two sams thing really, really irritates me. It always has - why would they be related just because they had similar first names? And why does everyone feel the need to go on and on about it?

When I first read the Princess at the Chalet School the story seemed perfectly plausible. Now it's just ludicrous!

I have to say that I do like the fact that Robin and Adrienne are related as it brings Robin (one of my favourite chracters) back into the story a little bit. It's also useful for Melanie to be related to jeanne le Coudalec as it lets us know what happens to her.
Author:  Nightwing [ Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Smile \":)\" wrote:
When I first read the Princess at the Chalet School the story seemed perfectly plausible. Now it's just ludicrous!


That's actually one that I don't mind - I think because to me it always seemed to be more of an adventure story than a school story!

Was having a secret princess at the school a GO trope? I mean, are there other school stories which do the same thing?
Author:  Abi [ Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Cecily Fox - That New Girl Anna
Rita Coatts - Under Sara's Wing
Dorothea Moore - The Runaway Princess
Ann Castleton - The Secret of Storm Abbey

All of these have incognito princesses and various corresponding exciting plotlines. Other GO books that involve royalty include:

Beverley Merton Bingham - The Mystery of the Treasure Tomb
Frances Cowen - Honor Bound
Sylvia Edwards - Sally Baxter, Girl Reporter - The Runaway Princess
Peter Grey - Kit Hunter, Show Jumper - Royal Command
Lorna Hill - Return to the Wells and subsequent
Dorothea Moore - A Young Pretender
Arthur Wyatt - The Schoolgirl Princess

Just a selection! It seems to have been a very popular idea - I suppose the possibility of romance, semi-fantasy and adventure were very great.
Author:  JayB [ Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Quote:
Was having a secret princess at the school a GO trope? I mean, are there other school stories which do the same thing?


Yes, it was a very popular storyline in the '20s and '30s. Angela Brazil did it at least once. Dorothea Moore went a step further - she wrote a couple where the jolly English girl ended up in the Balkans impersonating, or being mistaken for, the Ruritanian princess in order to thwart the evil revolutionaries. Good fun.

ETA - Oops, cross posted with Abi. I didn't know Dorothea Moore's Runaway Princess, so that makes at least three Ruritanian stories by her (I've read A Young Pretender). The other one I know of hers is Darry the Dauntless.
Author:  Mel [ Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
There's also Her Schoolgirl Majesty, Princess Imelda - can't remember authors and Brenda of Beech House - again can't remember author, but love a princess called Brenda!
Author:  Nightwing [ Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Thanks, Abi, JayB and Mel! I'll definitely have to check some of those out when I have a chance - especially the 'incognito' storylines.
Author:  mohini [ Sat Sep 12, 2009 4:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I love Cs books. But I somehow never thought or imagined them as real life plots. What I mean to say is that I wished to go to Malory Towers but never to CS as it seemed a fairy tale a story.
The only book I really do not like is the one with Balbini Twins. I have read it many times but cannot find any reason for the book.
It seems so pointless.
The plot line is also very absurd.
Why should the kids hate the school so much and go about playing tricks?
Other books have coincidences and repeat plot lines but that seems OK.
And having lived in my city since I can remember, I find that I am related (if not directly ) to many of my friends. (My cousin marrying their cousin and so on)
So I did not find it surprising.
Author:  Newiegirl [ Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I think if you write down the plot of just about any novel or film in a couple of sentences, it will sound absurd. But if the work is well-executed, you don't think about whether or not it's really plausible in real life. I think that's why I don't find most of the CS books implausible. In fact, the only thing that really grates with me (and it didn't bother me as a child) is that Joey continues to live next door to her old school for the rest of her life and her husband never once suggests they move and start acting like normal people....
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
mohini wrote:
And having lived in my city since I can remember, I find that I am related (if not directly ) to many of my friends. (My cousin marrying their cousin and so on) So I did not find it surprising.


But having lived in one place for a long time, it's natural that you are interconnected to lots of other locals - I'm the same where I grew up. But EBD makes two complete strangers from different countries who meet at the CS turn out to be cousins, having felt there was some reason they liked one another! And one of Joey's random houseguest-new girls turns out to be the niece of a long-dead CS girl! And a rescued Parisian orphan turns out to be a long-lost second cousin of her Polish-British rescuer (even though the connection is figured out by the fact that they look alike, despite the fact we're always told Robin looks like her mother, yet the connection is via Robin's father... :dontknow: ) :D :D
Author:  Liz K [ Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
And a rescued Parisian orphan turns out to be a long-lost second cousin of her Polish-British rescuer (even though the connection is figured out by the fact that they look alike, despite the fact we're always told Robin looks like her mother, yet the connection is via Robin's father... :dontknow: ) :D :D


That always puzzled me too. :banghead:
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sat Sep 12, 2009 5:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I don't know - I'm supposed to look just like my uncles thanks to "beetling eyebrows" (thanks mum!) but someone on the other side of the family swears I'm the spitting image of a distant relation I can't even begin to fathom, so I guess it is possible. More likely an EBDism, I admit, but...
Author:  Kate [ Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I think people can manage to look like two sides of the family at a time. It's weird and unexplainable, but does happen. My brother is the image of one of my uncles on my mother's side - but I found photos of my dad as a teenager recently and if not for the fact they were black and white I would have thought it was my brother. I don't know how he can look like both of them at the same time, but he does.
Author:  JB [ Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Kate wrote:

Quote:
I think people can manage to look like two sides of the family at a time. It's weird and unexplainable, but does happen.


We always thought my uncle resembled my grandfather (both had much darker hair than anyone else in the family) but the last time I saw him he'd gone grey and there was a much stronger resemblance to my grandmother.

To get back to the resemblance between Robin and Adrienne, isn't it as much as about mannerisms as looks? Something they do with their hands ...... :?
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
JB wrote:
To get back to the resemblance between Robin and Adrienne, isn't it as much as about mannerisms as looks? Something they do with their hands ...... :?


That's right, they both have a 'little trick' with their hands when they speak. Although I'm even less clear on how that could be 'inherited' - unless all EBD means is that Adrienne picked it up from Robin while she was staying at her convent before she goes to the CS, and it's that, combined with the resemblance when Adrienne's had her hair cropped, that makes Mary-Lou see the likeness?

Although pre-Vatican II nuns were strictly trained to keep their hands out of sight when not needed for work or prayer, so I can't imagine Soeur Marie-Cecile would still waving her hands when she talks in the convent as she would have done before she entered, so that ruins that theory... (Mind you, aren't we also told that Joey has a 'bad habit' of waving her hands when she talks - it's that time she knocks a bowl of boiling soup all over herself and a younger girl during her schooldays...?)

I suppose we have to put it down to the same Gothic liking for mad coincidences that has Charlotte Bronte making Jane Eyre collapse starving on her unknown cousins' door etc etc. Or conclude that the mysterious locket should have provided some clue, but EBD forgot about it....
Author:  Tan [ Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
The whole Adrienne plotline confused me - particularly given that they are not strictly speaking 'blood' relatives so the resemblance couldn't be explained that way.

The other plotlines that I find far fetched are the ones in Redheads!
Author:  alicat [ Tue Sep 15, 2009 1:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Redheads was the worst one, as far as I was concerned.

By the time I read that (at about 14) even I could see that the idea of a drug smuggler actually kidnapping a girl for so long was ridiculous, quite apart from th bit about the inspector turning up in the nick of time.....
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
alicat wrote:
Redheads was the worst one, as far as I was concerned.

By the time I read that (at about 14) even I could see that the idea of a drug smuggler actually kidnapping a girl for so long was ridiculous, quite apart from th bit about the inspector turning up in the nick of time.....


God, yes. But the bit that really made me giggle in that one was the fact that when the murderous evil gang realised they'd got the wrong girl, rather just dumping her somewhere, they put her on a train in the right direction, still drugged, with a valid ticket in her pocket! Massive international criminal frauds, kidnaps and murders, yes, travelling without a ticket, no... :D :D
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
Massive international criminal frauds, kidnaps and murders, yes, travelling without a ticket, no... :D :D


Ah, but you see, this was actually quite cunning. For if she has a valid ticket, she shan't draw attention to herself (well, much, what with still being drugged and rambling about being kidnapped when she is put up somewhere) but if she is found without a valid ticket there will be an instant scene. Cunning thinking...

I like that EBD can imagine Flavia being turned into a drug addict, and is happy to write that it would have happened - however improbable that in itself might be - but won't mention what sort of world Adrienne was going to be embroiled in soon (presumably prostitution?) as if one is any worse than the other.
Author:  JB [ Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:

Quote:
Massive international criminal frauds, kidnaps and murders, yes, travelling without a ticket, no...


Perhaps they'd heard about Al Capone being arrested for tax evasion? :wink:

If i'd kidnapped Val Gardiner by mistake, i'd return her sharpish.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Poor old Val - the whole thing is her dastardly fault for sneaking out to visit her sick brother, and when she miraculously gets back to the CS unscathed/unaddicted/undisfigured, her mother isn't even allowed to rejoice over her escape in front of her in case it gives her the idea that it's not all her fault...

Not sure about the ticket thing either - if they'd stuck the ticket in her hat band, yes, because then the conductor could check it and not wake a 'sleeping' passenger, but if she's unconscious with a ticket invisibly in her pocket, wouldn't he have had to wake her to ask her to produce a ticket, and she either wouldn't wake, in which case there's a fuss, or would wake all disoriented and not knowing she had a ticket? :dontknow:
Author:  Cel [ Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I love the idea of the master criminals being so slapdash in their reconnaissance that they simply picked up the first red-haired girl they saw! No checking out her identity (surely a brief inquiry around the Platz would have established that Val had family at the San?); no no, clearly anyone unlucky enough to be walking around with ruddy locks would do...
Author:  Josette [ Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:03 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Especially as there seems to be such a high proportion of redheads at the school :) EBD definitely liked "striking" colouring - poor old brown never gets much of a look in.

(Sorry if this appears more than once: I've typed it three times now and keep losing it)
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Maybe we should include the comparative absence of brown-haired girls at the CS as a far-fetched thing in itself?

Also, as Josette says, the unlikely prevalence of redheads! Even where red hair occurs most in the world - northern and western Europeans - it's still only between 2 and 6% of the population, which suggests it's over-represented at the CS... Perhaps the gang was working off the 'red hair is rare' model, not realising that red hair is pretty common at the CS...?
Author:  Nightwing [ Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
Perhaps the gang was working off the 'red hair is rare' model, not realising that red hair is pretty common at the CS...?


And suddenly I'm struck with the image of a bunch of tough gang members sitting around a table filling out Punnett squares...
Author:  blanchgirl [ Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
alicat wrote:
Massive international criminal frauds, kidnaps and murders, yes, travelling without a ticket, no... :D :D

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I actually loved Redheads when I was younger but realise now the farfetchedness of it all...I love Copper in that book and wanted to know more about her...but nothing!! Very upsetting :banghead:

The thing that mostly upsets me as a teacher is how new teachers know the girls names within a class...if you've 25 girls in a class and you teach 7 or 8 classes a day, there's no way you would know all their names so quickly (except the naughty ones of course...I always know who they are within the first 2 mins!!)
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
When we started secondary school, we had to sit in alphabetical order for the first few weeks (might even have been the first half-term), and we had to have little cards with our names on them propped up on our desks.

& a couple of weeks ago, at the beginning of September, I saw some kids - presumably first years - wearing name badges.

CS mistresses always seem to be able to tell people by their cheeky faces, though!
Author:  JayB [ Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
In New Mistress, EBD shows Kathie trying to remember names, worrying about getting them wrong, and sticking to the ones she knew when she had to pick a girl to run an errand - thereby giving the impression that she knew all the girls' names when in fact she didn't.
Author:  mohini [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Maybe the Mistresses had good memories.
One of our Forensic teacher had a very good memory. On the first day he took roll call and glanced at our faces.
Next day he called names of about 20 students( out of 60 in Medical college) . From next day onwards he used to look around our class and mark us present or absent.
And we knew he was not pretending because my friend had a chance to meet him after 25 years and immediately he called her by her maiden name and roll number in college. ( We checked it was correct, the roll number I mean.)
And he must have taught at least 20 batches after our batch.
So I do not find it amazing if CS mistresses can match the names and faces.
Author:  Travellers Joy [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Tan wrote:
The whole Adrienne plotline confused me - particularly given that they are not strictly speaking 'blood' relatives so the resemblance couldn't be explained that way.


It used to bother me too until I remember how my brother is the image of my father - only, they weren't related! (My brother is really half-brother, from my mother's first marriage.) His paternity was the dark family secret (the truth only emerged after my father's death), and given the likeness, no one ever suspected that he didn't have the same father as I did.

The likeness was later explained when I eventually met my mother's first husband - he could have been my father's brother! There was no relation at all, but nevertheless they looked as though there ought to have been.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
mohini wrote:
Maybe the Mistresses had good memories.


Perhaps they had been studying Derren Brown memory techniques. Having had no idea who he was until last week, when the entire internet stopped to discuss his 'prediction' of the lottery numbers, I skimmed his book Tricks of the Mind in the library and rather enjoyed the stuff on hypnosis and memory training. The latter would be perfect for remembering a new form of names. I think one of the techniques involved taking a mental snapshot of the person with some object or situation that suggested his/her name - like you'd imagine Mike with a microphone, Alice with an Alice-band etc.

Unfortunately when I apply that to the CS, I find myself thinking Mary-Lou with a flushing loo. Or I suppose a loo on a lawn if you wanted to remember her surname as well. (Which I suppose could be a CS game.
Who's in an Empire-waisted dress associated with a French Empress clutching a betting slip? Who's in a costume from Cats chasing a rooster?) You'd know I didnt get any sleep.... :)
Author:  Len [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
(Which I suppose could be a CS game.
Who's in an Empire-waisted dress associated with a French Empress clutching a betting slip? Who's in a costume from Cats chasing a rooster?) You'd know I didnt get any sleep.... :)


Josephine Bettany, and.... no, can't get the second one. Anyone?
Author:  Tor [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Grizel Cochrane...? (Cock Ran...?)
Author:  Catrin [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
There were five Sarahs, three Jennies and five Catherine types in my class of 30 girls at school. I always suspected the teachers of just looking in a general direction and saying a common name . . .

naturally wouldn't work at the CS as they don't go in for "all those dreadful Joans and Bettys - so aging"!
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Len wrote:
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
(Which I suppose could be a CS game. Who's in an Empire-waisted dress associated with a French Empress clutching a betting slip? Who's in a costume from Cats chasing a rooster?) You'd know I didnt get any sleep.... :)


Josephine Bettany, and.... no, can't get the second one. Anyone?

Tor wrote:
Grizel Cochrane...? (Cock Ran...?)


Move straight to a form containing people three years older than you, both of you. :) Well, it might have been a vaguely fun idea for one of those Saturday evening entertainments the prefects were always having to come up with ideas for. (Too awkward to work across languages, though...)
Author:  dentian adventurer [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Garrghh

New I'd seen a post ion this topic somewhere... just had to butt in because, like others, normally I can read without struggling with the more far fetched elements. However..

Yesterday I read the opening chapters of Goes to it for the first time. Firstly I was puzzled that Joey and her retinue were hustled off into the dangerous waters and even before they meant with trouble, all concerned were extremely anxious and yet all the other many people who also had to make the trip did it most casually. Why was it any safer for them? (I've since decided that the nice navy ship popped back and collected them all en masse and started a craze for being rescued by officers not doctors!). Then I tried to work out why on earth Rev Howells would be just wondering into the school. There is no way he was just "in the area" thereby making it easier to pop in on the off chance he would be recieved than to send a letter! He'd have felt pretty daft if he had been refused entry or if they'd said "no thanks"!

:oops: Rant over! :oops:

Sorry if this is old news... and if I'm wrong I'll happily take correction!
Author:  JB [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
dentian adventurer wrote:

Quote:
Then I tried to work out why on earth Rev Howells would be just wondering into the school. There is no way he was just "in the area" thereby making it easier to pop in on the off chance he would be recieved than to send a letter!


You're right - another thing i'd not thought of before. It is a bit unlikely that, during wartime, he'd be able simply to nip across to Guernsey or that he would want to, given that he's about to go off on active service.

Another odd thing about the start of Goes to It is that a term has elapsed since the end of Exile and the crashed German plane, yet the staff are talking as if it has just happened.

When Joey is nervous, prior to the crossing, I think Jem says something along the lines of "How do you think I felt last week when Madge and the children were crossing?"
Author:  dentian adventurer [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
As they all happen at the start of the book, I wonder if EBD was just in a hurry to get them all onto the mainland?
Author:  trig [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 3:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Doesn't she have to hussle them off the island as it's not long till the Germans get there in real time? I expect EBD was really seething with Hitler for spoiling her plot ideas - lots more La Rochelle tie-ins and expansions of Guernsey were probably on the cards.

I'ts been my theory that EBD left linking the plots with real events because of this annoyance - hence the big gap to Highland Twins
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I have to confess not knowing 'Goes to It' well - we had an old library copy with a page ripped out, lots of pen scribbles and some dubious stains, not the most inducing thing for a comforting read :roll: - but (and correct me if I'm wrong) didn't Madge go during the day? Presumably there would have been less attacks on the channel than at night where it would be easier not to be spotted.
Author:  Abi [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
trig wrote:
Doesn't she have to hussle them off the island as it's not long till the Germans get there in real time? I expect EBD was really seething with Hitler for spoiling her plot ideas - lots more La Rochelle tie-ins and expansions of Guernsey were probably on the cards.


I have a feeling you might be right on this (not too sure of the exact timelines, but I'm fairly sure I've read something about it somewhere - probably on here!). In any case, it would have seemed pretty ludicrous to her readers to have the school happily on Guernsey when it was in German hands. I guess she had no choice really.

Goes to It was my first ever CS boook - I read it when I was about nine and the beginning, with the staff meeting and all the War stuff (given that at that point I had learnt nothing about the War) was so bizarrely confusing that it completely put me off. Luckily I borrowed Mary-Lou a couple of years later and fell in love!
Author:  dentian adventurer [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Abi wrote:
trig wrote:
Doesn't she have to hussle them off the island as it's not long till the Germans get there in real time? I expect EBD was really seething with Hitler for spoiling her plot ideas - lots more La Rochelle tie-ins and expansions of Guernsey were probably on the cards.


Abi wrote:
Goes to It was my first ever CS boook - I read it when I was about nine and the beginning, with the staff meeting and all the War stuff (given that at that point I had learnt nothing about the War) was so bizarrely confusing that it completely put me off. Luckily I borrowed Mary-Lou a couple of years later and fell in love!


I like that idea - I finished it today and came to the conclusion that it was a strangely uneventful time for the CS - the prees didn't even get to come up with imaginative punishments for the fourth, and it seems likely that the story arc was going nicely in Guernsey and that Goes to It was a very annoyed tangent! (or filler whilst the "story arc" was replotted! - does anyone know how far in advance EBD planned?)

Abi - I was fazed and it wasn't my first CS, glad you found another way in!
Author:  JB [ Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I'm also liking the idea of the Nazis ruining EBD's plans for Guernsey. I've no idea how far ahead she plotted, although I doubt it was too far - and before Exile the series had almost come to an end at Chambers' request.

Janie Steps In, the last La Rochelle book, was published in the early 1950s IIRC but fills in the story to the point when the Chalet people arrive on the island. I would say this must have been written around the time of Exile or early in the war, primarily because of the references to Nan Blakeney, particularly in Highland Twins. I can't imagine EBD writing those few lines and then going back to fill in the complicated back story.
Author:  andi [ Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
I'm now having visions of Indiana Jones-style Nazis sitting round a boardroom table with Hitler announcing "Gentlemen, der Chalet School ist toast!", and then EBD/Indy popping up with victorious backing music and a copy of 'Goes To It'.

Clearly I need more coffee this morning.
Author:  JennieP [ Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Quote:
I'm now having visions of Indiana Jones-style Nazis sitting round a boardroom table with Hitler announcing "Gentlemen, der Chalet School ist toast!", and then EBD/Indy popping up with victorious backing music and a copy of 'Goes To It'.

Clearly I need more coffee this morning.


Sounds like me when I've had too much coffee!

Maybe moving to St Briavels was EBDs gritted teeth "I AM going to write in the school being on an island with lots of watersports/ birdwatching/ near fatal aquatic accidents regardless of those wretched Nazis messing up my plans. I've done the Channel Islands, and Dorita Fairlie Bruce has done Scotland. Where else is there?"
Author:  claire [ Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
Channel Islands were occupied from June 1940,
Exile was published in 1940 (according to NCC about the same time as the invasion) so I think it was real life that forced her to move it.

I'm imagining her listening to the radio and shouting at the newsreader
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
JennieP wrote:

Maybe moving to St Briavels was EBDs gritted teeth "I AM going to write in the school being on an island with lots of watersports/ birdwatching/ near fatal aquatic accidents regardless of those wretched Nazis messing up my plans.


This is what I've always thought. I imagine her glued to the radio, and everyone assuming she's afire with patriotic war fervour, whereas she's really muttering under her breath about having her plans for an idyllic Channel Islands interlude for the CS ruined. In fact as the expresion goes in fan fiction, Hitler 'jossed' EBD! :)
Author:  dentian adventurer [ Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I can see her seething - do you think it "threatened to warp her character?"
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Oct 01, 2009 2:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Farfetchedness (Farfetchedity?) of CS storylines...
:lol: EBD spent the whole of the war doing everything she possibly could - just to get her precious channel islands back!

I can imagine her being in a thorough-paced rage when the news was announced, particularly if it was just after the book had been released. Talk about bad luck!
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