The Rose-Tree Dryad wrote:Ooh, that's an interesting idea. If the filmmakers wanted to include a montage of bullying, I can definitely see them doing something like that. I suppose the bullies could hide his school books up on the diving board to lure him up. I can also imagine, later on at the cliff, Jill scornfully saying, "I suppose it's the diving board all over again, isn't it?" when Eustace turns white upon looking over.
Just blame the Olympics.
Or even the Commonwealth Games. I deliberately don't contribute to the Olympic thread since my whole instinct is to cheer for Australia, no matter what, but congratulations to the rest of you, anyway.
However, I can appreciate other countries' achievements, especially those of small countries that nobody hears of very much as world champions. It doesn't do for even big countries, able to be so splendidly represented by undoubted champions like Ian Thorpe or Michael Phelps, to take sporting success for granted for ever after.
Besides, especially in swimming events, our news coverage is very partisan, and it spills over into everyday life as well. There was a time when the Council swimming pools we had access to were all set up to nurture our future Olympians, including the high divers. And most local schools would have at least access to the Council baths even if such schools weren't wealthy enough to have their own swimming pools. London staged the Olympics in 1948, not for the first time, Helsinki came next, then Melbourne proudly staged them in 1956. So until 2000, when jealous Sydney finally got its chance, provision of suitable sporting facilities was a good vote-winner for those in government at whichever level. Olympic glory often appears more impressive than book learning, and school bullies often tend to capitalise on that sort of thing to intimidate people who seem physically weaker and slower than themselves.
The high-dive really is a bit scary and yes, I agree that taking books up there would be one idea to lure Eustace. Just goading or threatening him would be another. Our minders used to prohibit younger children from going up there, and I've known people to get stuck on the ladders, or on the platforms. It wouldn't take much for some "smart-aleck" of a schoolboy to push someone if they took too long to jump. I went up to the highest diving platform to give it a go, years ago, trying to overcome my own fear of heights. But I never saw myself as even a barely competent diver either then or afterwards.
Fear of heights plays into other scary situations, including the over-the-top special effects in many adventure films. Those rickety suspension bridges, without even a rope for a guard rail, let alone a solid walkway, and with wide gaps between the slats, which give viewers the creeps, are fine and good in films. But in real life, even a well-constructed suspension bridge, with a solidly enclosed walkway, and some form of netting at the side, will sway in a high wind, especially if there are naughty teenagers jumping around, specifically to make everyone else more nervous than need be of the chasm beneath that makes the bridge necessary.
No, I don't think Jill could say anything "scornfully", since even she realises that the height of the mountain is so "over the top" that Eustace already has ample and just reason for his fearful attitude. But if she, herself, had no fear of the high-dive I can well see her showing off to Eustace in such a situation, as in the book.
I don't see Puddleglum as being particularly fearful, in fact he is exceptionally brave to venture on that trip with them. Notice how the owls won't go with the children, themselves, and refer them onto Puddleglum, the one marshwiggle they think might be helpful. Remembering how he is portrayed in the book, I get the impression his fellow marshwiggles are rather timorous people, afraid of venturing out of their own everyday comfort zones to go off into an unknown where they could end up losing their lives.
Yes, Puddleglum is a perpetual pessimist, but in a way that is a good thing if it helps people face their fears head on to overcome them. Maybe this is something that needs to be brought out in the film.