Help! The Chalet School has stolen my brain!

[elen_nare]

Q1: Given a person who is obsessively reading every Chalet School book (boarding school stories for girls, published 1925-1970) she can get her hands on, and gleefully enjoying them, estimate her age.

Q2: Knowing she is, with equal delight, writing slash fic about the mistresses, revise that estimate.

...

Seriously, these books - and the resultant fic - have taken over my brain. I've already posted the first two I wrote here (Pretence of Decorum and Swiss Mail), and I'm currently writing, and posting on a fandom-specific forum, a new multi-chapter one. I've never written multi-chapter fics before! The people in the forum are really nice, though, and I'm having fun writing it. I'll cross-post once it's done :)

As for the pairings, I defy anyone who's read the books to tell me it's impossible to read Hilda Annersley & Nell Wilson, and/or Kathie Ferrars & Nancy Wilmot, as couples :P
I'm perfectly aware that's almost certainly not the reading the author intended, but I think it's fairly plausible, and I like it.

(This post was brought to you by sleepy Elen who is sleepy and had more to say but is too sleepy to remember it!)

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Hi - I was adding a couple of people to my flist who I've had interesting conversations with and share tiny fandoms with, and that it seemed silly not to friend, so have friended you. I hope that is okay?

Anyway, having recently done a big re-read of the Chalet School books, I'd have to agree with you. I really enjoyed your Miss Wilson & Miss Annersley fics. I tend to have quite a complicated view of those two, though, but yes - it is very hard to read certain "friendships" in this book without shipping them and wondering, even if Elinor never intended it, whether in her long associations with various schools she was inadvertently recording some rl lesbian relationships...? Probably not, but I did wonder on this re-read.

Anyway, I'd agree about the shipping - it's very hard not to read Kathie/Nancy as thing (they're very free with the endearments, and the whole school knows Nancy will be upset if Kathie is ill), Nell Wilson/Constance Stewart (if they'd stop sharing beds and running down corridors hand in hand, maybe not, but they do) and then Rosalie - even as a child who was utterly oblivious to such subtexts in the usual way, I couldn't help reading it as a romance in some way between her and Tom and that really is how it's structured, plot-wise.

I fluctuate a lot with Nell and Hilda, though, but they are the characters I love the best these days. I ended up shipping them much more literally this time round, but I still hesitate as to how much. (I kind of wonder if I'm still somewhere at a very deep friendship/platonic love, but Nell being in love - with her history with Con Stewart suggesting that she is gay/bi-sexual, but maybe Hilda isn't. And then I read some of the descriptions of them and ship them uncomplicatedly anyway. Mind, I'm still shocked when they smoke in canon. :lol:) Anyway, I did a lot more shipping of everyone this time round. There are - for all the protests that they don't do that sort of thing - a lot of crushes various girls seem to have on each other. Jo really does seem to have a thing about how pretty Gillian Linton is, which is quite funny.


(Anyway, the short version of this was: I have friended you and am always happy to talk about CS. But I think that's now pretty obvious.)

[elen_nare]

Hi! It's more than okay to friend me :) I have to admit to looking through your journal at your CS posts a couple of times - and that "obscure and british comment fest" you have looks fascinating (I've bookmarked a couple of prompts for when I have time/inspiration to write them!).

That's an interesting idea that Elinor might have been inadvertently basing friendships on RL lesbian relationships... It is possible. I wonder how much she drew on real people for her characters?

they're very free with the endearments, and the whole school knows Nancy will be upset if Kathie is ill
I think Nancy tends to give endearments to everyone, but she does it with Kathie constantly, and Kathie's are usually directed at Nancy. Interestingly enough, I was reading "Coming of Age", and it's Biddy who's Kathie's closest friend. I wonder which book starts the "Miss Ferrars and Miss Wilmot, greatest of friends"?

Nell Wilson/Constance Stewart (if they'd stop sharing beds and running down corridors hand in hand, maybe not, but they do)
*snort* Quite! Not to mention living together in Nell's "ducky little cottage" for a time until the school re-opened in "Exile" (followed, unfortunately, by Con spending the whole of "Goes To It" in a bad temper and finally getting married - presumably without Nell being there, since she'd already been sent on to England).

You're right about Rosalie, too, it really does read rather as a romance.

I understand what you mean about not being sure how much you ship Nell and Hilda. They're obviously close, but you can argue just how close that is. Nell is easier to read as being in love somehow - not just the history with Con Stewart, but she's the one who makes that beautiful speech in "Gay From China", and goes to stay with Hilda at her cousin's (the Randolphs, I suppose?) over half-term in "Mystery", and is always visiting her in the Swiss years. We don't seem to see Hilda's feelings (about anything!) so much - she's more reserved, even with the readers. For example, we see from Nell's own thoughts that she misses Hilda in "Oberland", but it's Rosalie Dene who 'tells' us that Hilda misses Nell in "Shocks". (Something I recently noticed on re-reading: they're the only ones described as missing each other, though most of the Oberland staff went there from St Briavel's). Personally, I usually do ship them, but I can see the other perspective too - and enjoy those fics!

There are - for all the protests that they don't do that sort of thing - a lot of crushes various girls seem to have on each other. Jo really does seem to have a thing about how pretty Gillian Linton is, which is quite funny.
There really are! Jack Lambert with Len, of course, and Francie Wilford's violent jealousy of Ruey over Margot, everyone worships Wanda and Marie's beauty...

I've friended you, and I'm always happy to talk about the CS too :)

[thisbluespirit]

There are some rl parallels and things in them. (For instance, Elinor had a rl adopted sister, like Robin, called Hazel.) However, clearly a lot of it is based on general observation, and it was a thought that struck me on this re-read, but it would be impossible to ever know.

was reading "Coming of Age", and it's Biddy who's Kathie's closest friend. I wonder which book starts the "Miss Ferrars and Miss Wilmot, greatest of friends"?

I can't quite remember - but presumably it happens after Biddy marries and leaves, I suppose.

We don't seem to see Hilda's feelings (about anything!) so much - she's more reserved, even with the readers.

Yes, I think that's a very good point - and what probably trips me up sometimes. I shipped them much more this time, but I swing from friendshipping to shipping with them quite frequently and then back again. I like them either way, but, yes, Hilda's reserve is very true.

(And, :lol:, yes about Nell and Con!)

And, yep, so many crushes - lots of people towards Jo (she's immensely attractive to other girls!), and the most open one is Tom's for Daisy Venables, where she even loses her appetite over the whole business. But I think, for all the less realistic attitudes, Elinor was very truthful about people's characters, and teenage girls in an all-girls environment like that will have crushes, and while she's careful to point out nobody's being "silly" or "sentimental" (as she puts it), she still acknowledges it's real, so it is very interesting, really. (There was also, c. 1930, following a court case, a scandal over lesbianism and more awareness of it than there had been before - a lot of girls' school stories from that time also seem to feel the need to defend themselves against (a now unseen) accusation in that regards. The Dimsie books have an anti-soppist campaign (and try to put a stop to the other girls who are giving older girls flowers and collecting pictures of them and such things), but it even comes up in Sayers's Gaudy Night.

Wanda and Marie are just admired like works of art... :-D

And thanks for the friending back! And, yes, feel free to poke around the comment fest.

Are you taking part in fic_corner, btw? Nominations are still open and there seem to be a fair few Chalet School fans on board, looking at it. (And I noticed you doing things for fan_flashworks for quite a few child. lit tiny-fandoms).

[elen_nare]

I didn't know Elinor had an adopted sister... I don't really know much about her beyond the wiki article, really.

I had to look it up now I'd thought of it... the perils of a detail-obsessed mind, lol. I'm half-way through "Richenda" at the moment, and Kathie is currently bewailing the fact that Biddy's leaving at the end of term. The next one I have is "Ruey", and by that one they're 'great friends', most of their scenes are with each other, and they even get a Saturday together in Basle ;)

Look at Hilda's nickname, even: 'The Abbess' seems more distant than 'Bill', 'Charlie', 'Willie', 'Ferry' and the rest. Another thing I noticed is that I can't think of a book in which she gets much of the spotlight. Nell has "Gay from China" (not just the speech I mentioned, we learn about her family, too), "Exile" during the escape, and in "Oberland" she's pretty much the only adult character. In the Swiss books, the younger mistresses (mainly the Old Girls plus Kathie) are the Staff characters of choice as I recall. Hilda... I suppose there's "New Chalet School", with her becoming Head and the part about her mother (which is so sad!), but I can't think of any other.

But Jo is The Perfect Chalet School Girl That We Must All Aspire To Be Like, don't you know? :P (I like Jo, but I'm not above poking fun at the idealisation of her). Is Tom's crush on Daisy during "Tom Tackles..."? I haven't read that one.

The bit about the court case and the scandal is really interesting! I'd no idea, but I had noticed a marked decrease of sentimentality between writers like Angela Brazil and L T Meade (read the first chapter of this, and tell me it isn't the slashiest thing you've ever read!), and more 'modern' ones like Elinor BD or Enid Blyton. I just put it down to changing tastes in writing - the 'soppiness' of the earlier ones seemed to go hand-in-hand with the more purple prose.

Poor Marie, though - whenever anyone mentions how beautiful she is, someone always retorts that Wanda was much prettier!

Are you taking part in fic_corner, btw?
*groan* Now this is the time when I should be sensible and say no, I'll have a lot to do for uni, I shouldn't be writing fic... but let's be honest, I'm going to be writing anyway, I might as well give and get gift-fics out of it :P Especially since it's a kids-lit fest! Now what to nominate? CS, probably Swallows and Amazons, what else? Hmm...

[elen_nare]

I've signed up for the Fic Corner exchange. I blame you :P
Are you taking part?

[thisbluespirit]

\o/

Yes, though only just!

[elen_nare]

\o/ last minute sign-up by any chance?