What Would King Lune Have Done?

New blog on the kid : Boarding Schools are Close to Hell, Harry · What Would King Lune Have Done? · Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere : Some Comment on Harry in Less Congenial Ways · Therapy - No Thanks

I somehow can very well imagine king Lune feeding his sons Cor and Corin sausages.

I cannot imagine him feeding Corin one sausage less when Cor was retreived as the heir.

And Corin being the stronger boxer somehow doesn't seem to have been a threat to Cor peacefully ruling Archenland ... somehow or other.

It seems a certain Will in a setting of the Hogwart type was pushed into a certain Slytherin behaviour. I will not pretend he came to it naturally on his own. After SSHL, I have not been able to read boarding school stories.

The genre fantasy has not gone away, but the boarding school stories of Burg Finstergrün have seemed since SSHL as ... wishfulfilling fantasies it would be silly and unrealistic in the worst sense to indulge in.

It seems Rowling's boarding school story is a bit better at actually pointing out that bullying exists. Draco Malfoy ... but I am probably not going to read the books full on.

As to the behaviour, I am afraid it is more like Edmund than like Peter in a certain book by the same author I just alluded to.

May I suggest re-reading the Narnian chronicles, if you wish for your children and without telling them this advice of mine, but keeping in mind to yourself read it as a speculum regum ... I'd suggest you start with The Magician's Nephew ... first half involves some scary examples of where a race of giants degenerated as kings in royal Charn ... second half involves a London cabby understanding perfectly what being King actually involves.

And if a certain other prince is having all the fun, don't grudge him./HGL

PS - As for SSHL, it was an intellectual triumph, but twice over an emotional disaster. I had bullies the first two years, and friends undercutting my integrity the second two. I also had real friends, for whom I am thankful. But they were not enough to make my life there a healthy preparation for adult life. And some homeparents and teachers were not total strangers to either of the bad companies. But taking a break from boys I feared in company of a knitting housemother (excuse me, her title was housefather) allowed me a certain advancement in the art of knitting./HGL

PPS - All of above categories, including bullies in more peaceful moments, were involved in sparring me in a somewhat more recognised masculine art, namely debates. I very much hate the guts of people right now who are trying to take that art or my public display of it from me./HGL