marknotgeorge
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Don't be silly. I went to a comprehensive, albeit Catholic, so by the time I got my mitts on them, the Greek chappie was already well endowed.Eton or Harrow?
Don't be silly. I went to a comprehensive, albeit Catholic, so by the time I got my mitts on them, the Greek chappie was already well endowed.Eton or Harrow?
Yay! Tricky in a skirt though, eh? So I don't use mine for commuting if I have to dress up, whereas I will occasionally brave the hybrid in a frock.
Ah yes, I remember the Willard Price books as well. (Am I right in thinking that's 3 women who remember enjoying them? Interesting, given that you'd think they were more "boy's books" (not of course that one should describe books thus, but hopefully you know what I mean.))
True, my sisters liked them too, it was because it was about animals but also because I just saw myself as Hal Hunt. I mean, not that I "liked" him, I wanted to be him. You did learn a LOT from those books too even though some of it was patently bollix (rescuing that dolphin in Diving Adventure, its lungs would have blown up due to pressurised air...). I always liked it when they were stuck somewhere and had to hunt and forage and build a raft and ESCAPE. Hmm. Yes. That's the dream...Yeah, just shows kids will simply gravitate to what interests them, given a chance.
I have a bit but chucked the book out as I felt vile having it in the house. Margaret Atwood has a lot to answer for.He's me too, I think - except I haven't read the Marquis de Sade...
Exclusively, we drew willies. Our limited knowledge of other bits came from Clegg & Clegg, The Biology of the Mammal. Our copies pre-date this edition by quite a few years. It was a brilliant text book and stood us in good stead for the subsequent practicals.You are quite right, but also if teenage boys were to draw 'those things' (how quaint), they would almost certainly be vulvas not vaginas. Just saying.
That's fascinating, and about as good a definition of racism as I can remember coming across. Ie, not the widely held misconception that racism is about not liking certain kinds of 'other', the conviction that people's nature are set in stone by their racial origins. And in that - true - sense, I don't think racism is anything like as redundant as we often (like to) imagine.The thing about Johns' racism as displayed in Biggles is that it is insidiously manifest in a set of assumptions rather than explicit actions. I'm not sure that Biggles ever uses racially offensive language directly to another person (unless the various terms for Germans used during the wars are regarded as offensive). But the starting assumption about every single person is defined by their racial and/or national origins. Black people are stupid, lazy and needing leading; orientals probably clever but potentially duplicitous; Americans naive; French and other Mediterraneans emotional and ineffective; Scots hard working but destined for subordinate positions; Germans sufficiently like English to be quite decent chaps if they hadn't had the misfortune to end up on the wrong side; etc; and "half-breed", a pretty offensive term in itself, is a lazy indication by Johns of someone who should never be trusted because their mixed background prevents them being true to any one thing, innit. There are plenty of examples (well, some, anyway) of Johns allowing his characters to overcome the handicap of their origin and being treated surprisingly positively by him (Biggles' own chosen successor in the unfinished final book is technically a "half breed"), so when he put his mind to it, he could overcome his racism; but the universal, unthinking (and offensive) assumption is what becomes wearing after a while.
I think only if you were born into the upper classes, or middle classes as well, maybe? Not sure this would apply to the working classes.In Johns' day, it was a given that to have been born English was to have won life's lottery from the get go.
My favourite 'Biggles' book is the lost one 'narrated' by Micheal Palin called "Biggles goes to see Bruce Spingsteen" during which reference is made to Biggles "We rule it Map of the World"That's fascinating, and about as good a definition of racism as I can remember coming across. Ie, not the widely held misconception that racism is about not liking certain kinds of 'other', the conviction that people's nature are set in stone by their racial origins. And in that - true - sense, I don't think racism is anything like as redundant as we often (like to) imagine.
I tend to think of myself as relatively enlightened and 'nice' - a lifelong Guardian reader, with all that that entails. But if I'm honest, I do also tend to think that, for just a couple of examples, if you were after a passionate lover and a guy to make you a reliable piece of machinery and you had to choose between a German and an Italian for each, it would be a bit perverse to go for anything other than the 'obvious' divide. And, moreover, that this genuinely does reflect some kind of inherent national/racial characteristics.
The interesting rider to this, (arguably) is that the one big difference since the days of Biggles is that the English, I suspect, no longer take it as read that they are at the top of any 'natural pecking order'. In Johns' day, it was a given that to have been born English was to have won life's lottery from the get go. I suspect that's no longer the case, and that the English now feel they're 'all right, and generally quite good at stuff - and decent, on the whole', we're generally speaking a pretty second-rate lot. We don't actually make things as well as the Germans, we're not as passionate as the French, we're not as good at maths as Asians. And so on...
So we're no longer 'superior'; but we're probably just as racist as we ever were. Terrible really. But we can't help ourselves - it's the way we're made.