Autumn Term at the Chalet School

[Vintagejazz]

Just starting a new thread here as I can't spot a new one.

So my lambs feel free to keep spreading the hanes, but watch the slang!

Embrace your freedom, Obligatory - sounds like you had a near miss of either betrothal or illicit drugging by a 'domestic tyrant' - I'm not convinced either of these possibilities are much to be envied.

For me, what I think I find dubious about the 'oh you're a doctor so of course you can randomly bathe a teenage girl' thing is that it all flows so seamlessly from doctor-patient relations to entirely improper relations - does that make sense? I suppose it's quite probable this is something about the times, rather than EBD specifically? (Interested if anyone can comment on this.) So, these doctors are very much 24/7 in 'doctor' mode which makes it OK for them to take girls/women they don't know back to their house and give them baths, sedatives etc; and yet they're also 24/7 in 'potential SLOC' mode, which leads to stuff like Phil Graves keeping Hilary tucked up in bed, possibly sedated, for a week or two, and then somehow promptly proposing to her. And isn't poor sweet Phoebe's relationship much the same?

I also noted the protective circle to shield nekkidness in Carola and thought that it definitely doesn't happen in the various Tyrolean instances of 'let's make a rescue rope from our undergarments', but I suppose that's entirely down to the possible presence or otherwise of men, right? And also the desperation of the situation I guess, in terms of the decisions characters are making, but unless I miss my guess I think EBD never allows this to conflict with what's 'proper' - no random goatman ever wanders past when they're making a string of petticoats to haul someone out of a crater, right?

Makes sense that they would generally be fairly uninhibited about (near-)nekkidness in front of each other, though - that must be a side effect of boarding school? I think this explains why it seemed perfectly reasonable to go rifling through the staff's undergarments in Bride...

Oh! And anyone who enjoys Book Reviews is the truest Chaletian of them all, regardless of subject matter!

But most importantly of all, why is Phil Graves taking a great whacking knife with him when he's only walking the dog??? Was this normal behaviour? I find this man problematic. He also seems to provide his wife with random tranquillisers to offer to complete strangers when unforeseen incidents occur. Why?

My sort-of-first-ed Lintons has arrived and it makes me happy.

ATM I am reading a book about inter-war spinsters ('Singled Out', Virginia Nicholson - is v recommendable) and keep picking up and promptly forgetting bits that I want to mention here because they seem relevant to things we've talked about before. I will probably try to make some coherent and relevant comments on it when I've finished it...

Well, gels never moved without their big guide knives, so it stands to reason that Dr Graves who is a man wouldn't leave home without a machete, doesn't it?

Hasn't he got a spaniel? Probably needs to cut the mad bugger out of bushes on a regular basis. Luckily my dog is spaniel X staffy and has a short coat or I'd need a knife too

Surely a decent doctor's dog is trained to instant obedience.

she ended up with a tiny bit of stubble on her forehead. She looked ridiculous until it grew back Oh dear. Does it look less ridiculous as it's only half my fringe?

Wasn't one of the progressive games picking up peas with chopsticks? Surely picking them up with a knife is just a less refines way of playing that?

Are you suggesting Jack wasn't a decent doctor then Nell? I mean Bruno wasn't exactly the model of an instantly obedient dog

Honey. We need honey to keep the peas on the knife, or so goes the rhyme anyway.

We-ell. I suppose you could just blame Joey for Bruno. But that said, I'm not convinced there's much of a case for Jack being a decent doctor anyway - much too much wife-sedation for the most tenuous of reasons.

And Juniper, how marvellously convenient, when the School has its very own honey! Not even much scope to fetch the wrong thing from Matey's cupboard there, is there.

DeWee my lamb just put a hat on, and don't let it blow away like Biddy's did. Only fast women with cheaply pretty perms go out without a hat on, anyway. Don't forget to tie your scarf across you too.

Black treacle maybe, that could make a lovely mess all over the frilly underthings.

When did it keep bees? I don't remember that.

Erm, I think Armishire? The only reference I can think is (I think) at the beginning of Lavender when Aunt Sylvia has some in her meeting with Nell.

Or, I suppose, there's Jack Lambert's golden syrup for doors. That'd work. We could call it a sugar and petticoats party, in place of the overdone sheets and pillowcases efforts.

That would make sense I suppose, with all the veg growing and chicken keeping during the war, I mean, who didn't keep their own bees then? . Off to dig out Lavender now...

Sugar and Petticoats. I like that!

Are baby angels allowed at a sugar and petticoats party? I've superglued my halo to my head, so unless someone is going to give me an illicit haircut I'll need to stay a baby angel for a year or so.

mornington my lamb I'm sure DeWee's DS would be only too happy to oblige... Or Lonny's... Or thebody's DD... You're positively spoilt for hairdressing choice here.

Not that I'm trying to get rid of your halo. I think it goes just wonderfully with your trig and trim brown gym slip and flame tie, or are we in gentian blue already now?

Oh I'll help with the hair mornington.

Too right I will

Evil cackle? Overlooked? We'll be having none of any of that at the Chalet School so that's where your toes turn in, I'm afraid.

Fck, I think Thursdays ARE German days. deepest apologies, Mornington*! I need a punishment that fits the crime...speaking German all week? I shall be dumb (except for ich heisse Cheddar; ich wohne in Scotland; und (er) ich bin elf jahre alt (or I was elf when I last learnt German, a v long time ago!)!

Bonjour, mes enfants.

Sorry to post and run on you weeks ago. I had a perfectly splendid time at the Tiernsee, riding on the steamer and the train, climbing to the Barenbad Alm, striding up the Sonnalpe in the cable car and enjoying veal until we could veal no more. It really is such a lovely place to holiday. We are hoping to go back for Christmas 2015.

But did you fall in/slip into a stream/get caught on the wrong side of a path/need a handy doctor to rescue you??? (Very jealous here...keep trying to persuade DH we should go but to be fair DD and i have no passports and it costs so much more than a week's UK camping...)

Oh, and it's now Saturday afternoon so does that mean we can speak whichever language we like??

Any German speakers around? Is it an EBDism that Marie is being referred to as Marie von Wertheim, when I thought Eugen was Eugen von und zu Wertheimer, or is that actually a perfectly allowable version of her title?

TooSpotty, that sounds wonderful. Have you come back married to a doctor? The nearest I've got to the Tiernsee is Innsbruck which I loved, but I didn't have enough time for the trip up the mountain. Do you have any hotel recommendations, as I gather Herr Braun has retired to that island paradise with Elvis and Diana so is no longer in business.

Cheddar mein liebling, if you spent all day Thursday speaking the wrong language you must owe a fortune to the staff gin fund fines box. That's all your summerhouse money for the rest of the term gone [sighs sympathetically]. And for some punishments to fit the crime? Well, [dons prefect badge], since you lerv French so much I condemn you to translating into French, and writing out a hundred times, 'Her voice was ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman'. And instead of joining us in a lovely, fast hockey game on the pitch this afternoon, you must walk decorously around the nearest country lane conversing in French with Mademoiselle Someone-Or-Other (choose your own, it doesn't matter as they're interchangeable and equally devoid of personality). No stopping off in Sainsbury's for a slab of madeira, mind!

Do you think EBD didn't like France / the French? She seems to dislike all her French characters unless they are so pathetic as to be invisible / interchangeable.
She is horrid about Simone all the way through I think.

I've often thought it's interesting to compare EBD's French (teacher) characters with Enid Blyton's - because Blyton really does treat them as mere joke figures, and EBD doesn't quite descend to that, but they are remarkably stereotyped for all of this difference. I think she clearly thinks of Jeanne de Lachenais and Julie Berné as likeable characters, but they're also completely identical!

Otoh, I think Mlle Lepattre (whichever spelling and first name we're using today...) is just a character she misjudged - she turns out rather nothingy, IMO, but I don't think she was originally intended to be so really and I think she also suffers from EBD still sometimes perceiving Madge as the 'real' head throughout the Tyrol books. In a way I think she's so carefully not usurping Madge's position as Wondrous Head that she ends up getting accidentally usurped by a more decisive Senior Mistress... It does feel to me fairly forward-thinking that she ended up putting a Frenchwoman as Headmistress in the 1920s, but perhaps I'm wrong, I've not really got a standard to measure this against...

Simone is v interesting because it does seem as though EBD doesn't think much of her at all and yet she somehow gets presented in what I find a very sympathetic fashion. I feel really pleased for Simone when her fiancé comes back to marry her, and again when they suddenly inherit the chateau - and on both occasions think Jo looks quite bad (the unhelpful commandeering of Simone's wedding, and then the constant bitching about 'real families' and the decorative failings of the chateau).

Isn't there a character at some point who does her hair well or dresses effortlessly or something because her grandmother was French?

Actually I think someone should write a very good fanfic about either Jeanne or Julie and flesh out their off-stage life a bit. They are both (identically, grr) likeable and could be perfectly interesting.