I have two instincts at war with each other.
A fixed philosophy for me is that the book is the book and outside information is irrelevant. On the other hand, especially with non-fiction, extraneous matter adds to the interest and certainly to the discussion!
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Wanting to be a vet when starting secondary school is cute, wanting to be a vet when finishing secondary school is serious (especially given the marks required - I assume that is still the case).
Yep, I had farm toys too, but I didn't end up farming, nor (as the examples may be) driving trucks or flying planes. I had a toy kangaroo and now live on a bush block I share with many 'roos - maybe that counts. 
And unless these expensive sheep are embryos on ice, waiting to be raised when the children are grown, then I see this sort of as a convenient fiction: a way to help the children feel involved in the farm. (Let's face it, his 3yo son is not ready to make life and death decisions regarding his own flock.) It's a good thing for the kids, but it's even better for the father: he gets happier kids and he gets to justify his own pick of expensive sheep that he wants in his flock.
All I really mean is that these are nice family-life images (albeit not from the book), but they don't actually offer much in the way of predictive value. The daughter that likes to cook might end up a chemist. In my experience the fact that the author tells us he knew exactly what he wanted at 13yo, and that wish remained static throughout his life, is more the exception than the rule these days, a late hang-over, perhaps, from the relative isolation of the district and the long standing male hegemony - especially of his own family. |
This is my take on the situation, but I couldn't have expressed it as well.
I'm not saying that Rebanks doesn't love and cherish all his children equally and want each to reach his or her full potential. He's a modern father. But based on the evidence of the book, which for me slants terribly in the direction of the male tradition and lineage especially given his unalloyed worship of his grandfather, I can help wondering to what extent a thousand mild influences and prejudices, even unwitting, have led his kids to express their preferences which just happen to be in line with the Salic law.
I don't have an issue with someone's choosing to be a traditional farmwife (or a much less traditional farmhusband
) and if that's the basis for Rebanks's marriage and homelife, more power to them. It's his attitude toward the women of an earlier generation who had few if any options, his grandmother and mother who were clearly under their husbands' dominion, the farmwives who, according to him, stuff the men to the detriment of their work (this really bothered me), the teachers who were in a difficult situation and probably not out of full agency - well, I just don't see him as a poster boy for equal opportunity. I also doubt he's aware of this undercurrent, but to be fair, it seems most readers don't sense it either - I can't judge to what extent I'm reading things into this or projecting, but I don't think I'm entirely wrong, either.
Still, this doesn't matter much. I don't have to like an author to find his memoir compelling. This one didn't reach that level for me; it was full of interest but it was pedestrian in the telling, to me, and lacked the level of self-awareness I like to find.