Re: Oldest SF not necessarily most dated?

"Michael Urban" <urban@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:g0euh3$f3a$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <68vh32F2uf8boU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Mike stone <mwstone@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> >One other possibly (I'm not certain) "dated" bit. The Hunter's first
> >attempts to communicate make Bob fear that he is suffering from a
nervous
> >complaint of some kind. School rules require him to report all
illnesses,
> >but he is reluctant to do so because "somehow the idea of owning to a
> >nervous disorder seemed rather shameful, and the thought of reporting
his
> >trouble was repugnant." Would that be as true today as 60 years ago?
I'm
> >pretty sure it wouldn't in England, but don't like to be too dogmatic
about
> >attitudes in the US.
>
> I haven't read the story, but all this discussion makes me wish I had.
> Anyway, I think that today, there would still be a stigma (for some),
> not because of a 'nervous disorder', but because of the likelihood
> of someone jumping to the conclusion that drugs were involved.  Or
> conversely, someone might be unwilling to report a nervous disorder
> because they would fear being required to take medication for it.


There's also the personal factor.

Bob was quite a bright kid, but not an intellectual. He could get
respectable grades when he made the effort, but was basically more into
sports and physical stuff than the academic side of things. It might be
fair
to call him an intelligent Jock, if that's not a contradiction in terms.

He is described as being "hardened to the possibility of physical injury"
at
hockey or fotball, and is unhappy at needing to find or fake "something
that
calls for a rest cure" in order to get sent home. He also rather looks
down
on those who have been removed from the school due to homesickness, and is
even more reluctant to use that excuse. I suspect that a personality like
that might indeed be unhappy about admitting to a nervous complaint,
simply
from a gut feeling that only "wimps" contracted such ailments.


--

Mike Stone - Peterborough, England

You can tell what God thinks of money by looking at the people He gives it
to.