I've been researching Harrow authors for a book on local authors and speakers. We have lots of plaques on walls in Harrow-on-the-Hill, where poet and story teller Byron and speaker and writer Churchill went to Harrow school.
Frances Hodgson-Burnett was born in Pinner below the hill and her books sound really good. Mostly in dialogue.
I looked up some quotes and they are hilarious.
'Daughter: It is too cold to sit.
Father.
Why must you sit. Why don't you stand. '
I sent this to a local book group and got the reply:
I don’t see what’s funny about that Angela. Am I missing something?
G
I replied
What's funny?
Typical man/person of his type. He is totally unsympathetic to her feeling cold. Probably unsympathetic to everything.
Clearly not going to do anything about heating.
She is not actually debating how to keep warm in a cold room, but saying that the room should be kept warm and usable so that one has a choice of activities.
He tells her to stand. Presumably she wants to sit and read, not stand nor run on the spot.
He is a control freak. Directing whether she sits down or stands up.
He is evading the important subject of the sentence - cold - and diverting to the irrelevant part - sitting, attempting to confuse and outwit her.
He is taking her literally, it is too cold to SIT, when she means it is too cold to do anything.
One should be able to sit down in a reasonable temperature. She is not going to win this argument.
You can tell his character from half a dozen words, short and sharp, aggressive and negative - why must you ..., why don't you ....
Four word sentences. Two of them. (She says one six word sentence.)
He sounds logical and reasonable. But really he is being totally absurd.
He is blaming her, making out that she is being awkward. But he is being awkward.
Now she doesn't know what to do.
She is scared to continue because her perfectly reasonable request for a warmer room is likely to lead to a worse confrontation about why she should not be sitting.
She still has a cold room - AND now she also has a cold father.
Love
Angela
Blimey – you are far too clever for me!
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