Arthur Mitchell Ransome

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
In one of my recent videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLxIMeravxM

I said a few less than complimentary things about the pipe smoking literary giant AR


"But here’ s a confession – one that will go down very badly with the locals because Ransome is a bit of hero to many of them.

I have tried to read his stuff - I really have tried – but even as book devouring 9 year old I would get 100 pages in ,put the book down and could never quite find the strength to pick it up again.
His swallows and amazons are even wetter and more annoyingly stuck up than Enid Blytons famous five"



Blimey I have ruffled a few feathers


I wonder if I stand alone

this could be our Spartacus moment
 
I admit I enjoyed the stories as a kid but mostly because I wanted to read about messing around in boats, and AR is the leader in the genre. Even as a wee kid I found his writing terribly twee, Colonial, and very very English. So much so that I wouldn't admit to my friends that I read the books.
 
I read "Racundra's (First & Third) Cruise" many years ago. As far as I can remember they were enjoyable - probably because they described sailing in a different area to the ones most cruising books cover.
 
dylanwinter said:
"His swallows and amazons are even wetter and more annoyingly stuck up than Enid Blytons famous five"
Click to expand...

It's a point of view, I suppose. In what way would you see four children aged (iirc) 7, 9, 11 and 13 going off to spend a week sailing and camping on their own as "wet"? And could you possibly give a few examples of what you mean by "stuck up"?
 
Well, if it wasn't for reading Arthur Ransome during my child-hood, I might not be following the career I have nor be a sailor. Winter Holiday probably formed my interest in the Polar regions; all of them set my interest in sailing. And Dick (of Dick and Dorothea) probably helped shape my interest in the sciences! In my child-hood, characterization of children in books was always like that; children were set in a kind of 1920s middle-class time-warp - you simply discounted it as a part of the usual literary convention. But I think that Ransome did a good job within the literary conventions of his day; and his children (being based on real-life models) are much more believable than Enid Blyton's - and the standard of the English is far higher than Blyton's!
 
I enjoyed them. Partly the nautical theme, partly the nostalgia for a simple, innocent time, which probably never existed. Wet? The protagonists aren't American action heroes, they're ordinary kids whiling away the summer.
 
I have read a lot of his books over the years and enjoyed them. The children in Swallows and Amazons were 'middle class' in the books but it made good reading. I used to dream of being able to sail all the school summer holidays.

As another post said at least they aren't action heroes .....
 
I'm with you Dylan, on this 110% - they seemed to inhabit a world that was a million miles from the one I was stuck in.
Totally normal families with seemingly no worries other than passing the time from one hols to the next. Oh and waiting for Daddy to come back from somewhere whilst Mummy did stuff and looked after the house.
Maybe a deep seated social envy or something.

Their sort lived on the other side of the park.

Could never imagine the time when I would get on a boat, let alone have one to play around on, look after and have adventures.

All in all, it's like sprouts - just 'cause other people like them does not mean that I have to eat them!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Well, if it wasn't for reading Arthur Ransome during my child-hood, I might not be following the career I have nor be a sailor. Winter Holiday probably formed my interest in the Polar regions; all of them set my interest in sailing. And Dick (of Dick and Dorothea) probably helped shape my interest in the sciences! In my child-hood, characterization of children in books was always like that; children were set in a kind of 1920s middle-class time-warp - you simply discounted it as a part of the usual literary convention. But I think that Ransome did a good job within the literary conventions of his day; and his children (being based on real-life models) are much more believable than Enid Blyton's - and the standard of the English is far higher than Blyton's!
Click to expand...

Well in those days all our fictional heroes had (to us) a middle class background even Just William, not to mention the heroes of PG Wodehouse,whose writings I devoured, but also Conrad (thanks to school) found his place as well as many Arctic biographies. We now seem to be living in a different age, my youngest granddaughter has managed to get an A in GCSE Eng. Lit., amongst a fistful of As & A*s without reading a single book through, still half-educated in my opinion, however she has managed to be the first female to play for her village 1st 11 in 120 years and now plays for Kent under 17s. - different priorities!
 
They are upper class and spoilt, but that's how folk who went sailing in them days were.

I like the fact that they went off on their own and there wasn't a bogey man behind every tree "out to get them" and all adults are surrogate parents, but in Bob World where I come from that's how it should be.
 
From a literary point of view, the sainted Mr Ransome is rubbish. The utter lack of character progression being his primary fault, followed by his plodding plots.

When I was a kid I thought he wasn't very good. Bit like Magic Roundabout which some people seem to rave about. When I was a member of the target audience I thought it dreadful.

Ars non desputandum.
 
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I loved the books as a child and I have re-read them as an adult and really enjoyed them. They smack of innocence to me, which is charming. It's useful to remember when they were written and enjoy them for what they are. Take off your politcally correct glasses will you, and just enjoy a good story. :D
 
Oh Dylan, you are a troll.... :D

F.w.i.w - I read every one of them multiple times when I was a mere "yoof" and it forever changed my life in that from that very moment I knew I wanted a boat..

...so here I am at pushing 50 and I finally have one, all because of those books...
 
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