A few words about disowning unworthy people in favour of books

This post was inspired by a striking passage in Jonathan Stroud's fantasy novel The Amulet of Samarkand, the first in the series that features magic, alternative history and the amusing djinni or demon Bartimaeus.

Here, the young apprentice magician Nathaniel mentally disowns his master, opts out of his position and transfers his allegiance elsewhere:

“...Nathaniel did not regard Arthur Underwood as his true master any longer. His masters were the magicians of old, who spoke to him through their books, allowing him to learn at his own pace and offering ever-multiplying marvels for his mind. They did not patronize or betray him. 

Arthur Underwood had forfeited his right to Nathaniel's obedience and respect the moment he failed to shield him from Simon Lovelace's jibes and physical assaults. This, Nathaniel knew, simply was not done. Every apprentice was taught that their master was effectively their parent. He or she protected them until they were old enough to stand up for themselves. Arthur Underwood had failed to do this.”

This is a very good description of what can happen internally when someone permanently loses respect for and faith in the authority figure – or parent – they are dependent on. They may indeed mentally reject and disown the person who has let them down so badly.

A disillusioned victim of betrayal who has no other options in the real world may try to fill some gaps by reading. If they can't get what they need, want and expect from the people around them, they will turn away from them and get it from the world of books instead.

Two quotations about the benefits of financial independence

Some people think of money mainly in terms of buying the basics and paying the bills; others are self-indulgent consumers who think in terms of wants rather than needs and go in for 'success hardware', designer clothes, expensive holidays, huge show-place homes and other luxuries.

I have always seen money primarily as a provider of peace, privacy and protection; I used it to obtain a much-needed sanctuary in the form of a little place of my own. 

I have also found it very useful for buying books!

One of the articles inspired by Dion Fortune's occult novels contains some thoughts about how financial independence enables people to maintain their personal integrity and freedom of mind.

Great minds think alike. I recently came across two more quotations that support such ideas.

C. S. Lewis and freedom from 'the system'
I found this reference to financial independence in an article that C. S. Lewis wrote for The Observer in 1958:

“I believe a man is happier, and happy in a richer way, if he has 'the freeborn mind'. But I doubt whether he can have this without economic independence, which the new society is abolishing. For economic independence allows an education not controlled by Government; and in adult life it is the man who needs, and asks, nothing of Government who can criticise its acts and snap his fingers at its ideology.”

Financial independence certainly does give people the opportunity to educate themselves, follow up their ideas and learn to think for themselves. It also seems true that the increasing reliance on the welfare state is reducing these opportunities. 

Taylor Caldwell and freedom from other people
Taylor Caldwell wrote this in her 1949 novel Let Love Come Last:

“A sensible man makes it a point to gather together as much money as possible, as soon as possible, so that he can henceforth be safe from his own kind, and can live in peace. A lion has his claws and teeth, an elephant has his strength, a fox has his cunning — to defend himself. And man must have money.”

Money certainly does help when it comes to defending ourselves against and escaping from people we don't want in our lives.

These are thought-provoking issues. There may be more to say about them later.

This is a good illustration, although only two of the benefits of financial independence are relevant here:

Robert Louis Stevenson and the colour green

This article is yet another in the series that lists interesting references to and occurrences of the colour green in the lives and works of selected writers. 

Although Robert Louis Stevenson's stories don't inspire commentary the way that, for example, John Buchan's do, he has been mentioned previously in a couple of articles about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's essay collection Through the Magic Door. 

It was the many references to Robert Louis Stevenson in this book of Conan Doyle's that gave me the idea of looking for significant green connections in Stevenson's life and works. 

The results of the investigation were a little disappointing when compared with what I had collected for other writers, but I found enough material for an article.

While most of the occurrences of the colour green in Stevenson's writings are just routine descriptions of natural features such as vegetation and the sea, he has some green connections that have been mentioned in articles about other writers. For example, Longmans, Green & Co. published many of Stevenson's works in addition to those of Conan Doyle, and Roger Lancelyn Green, who wrote books about Rudyard Kipling, praised Stevenson's 'consistently high level of literary skill or sheer imaginative power'.

Green family connections
The novelist Graham Greene is mentioned in the second article about John Buchan and the colour green; Graham Greene's maternal grandmother was a first cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson on his mother’s side. 

The father of Dora E. Stevenson, who wrote a novel called Green Money about a Mr. Green, was a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Green coats and Sir Walter Scott
Green clothing of various kinds has been mentioned in several articles, the one about kirtles and shirts for example.

Conan Doyle's Through the Magic Door contains many references to Sir Walter Scott and his Waverley novels.

Robert Louis Stevenson's unfinished novel St. Ives: Being The Adventures of a French Prisoner in England (1897) contains a description of the French prisoner's encounter with Scott.

Scott's green coat is mentioned several times:

”I…have actually met and spoken with that inimitable author. Our encounter was of a tall, stoutish, elderly gentleman...He sat on a hill pony, wrapped in a plaid over his green coat...Years after it chanced that I was one day diverting myself with a Waverley Novel, when what should I come upon but the identical narrative of my green-coated gentleman upon the moors! In a moment the scene, the tones of his voice, his northern accent...flashed back into my mind with the reality of dreams. The unknown in the green-coat had been the Great Unknown!”

Stella Gibbons's My American and the gingham coincidence

Stella Gibbons's novel My American has inspired a whole series of articles. 

Examples of amazing 'coincidences' and synchronicity where something I was thinking about manifested in my life also appear in several articles.

I have a a little tale to tell about how a passage in My American that caught my attention was followed by a related 'coincidence'.

The My American extract and the memories it brought back

“All this time Amy had sat in silence, wearing a red and white checked cotton frock from a shop in the Holloway Road where dozens more hung outside on a rail...”

These words immediately reminded me of a shop in the Holloway Road that I frequently walked past when I lived in the area many years ago. It had a lot of very cheap gingham garments in a variety of colours strung up outside. Shops didn't change hands and purpose in the past anything like as frequently as they do now, so it could well have been the same shop.

This is not the amazing coincidence: Stella Gibbons was just describing a shop that she had seen on her travels in the area, a shop where some of her characters might buy casual clothes. 

Anyway, I remember noticing at the time that the clothes looked crudely sewn and as if they had been run up in a hurry.  Although I quite liked the mauve gingham frocks and blouses, they had very wide necklines so I wasn't tempted to get one.

After going over my memories of this shop, I started to think about gingham in general. Schoolgirls often have dark green gingham dresses for example, and I remembered reading that pink gingham sold out everywhere after the film star Brigitte Bardot wore it!

The gingham coincidence 

A day or so later, with gingham still on my mind, I went to dispose of some rubbish. There is a nearby shelf where people leave things that they have no use for but others might like. 

I found a cardboard mug carrier there; it was intended for a set of four but had only three inside. The mugs and their carrier had a gingham design on them! Four different colours were involved.

I took the three mugs, but as I didn't really need them I passed them on to someone who said that she could use them as her little boy sometimes breaks things when 'helping' with the washing up!

The mugs I found were similar to these ones: