I find it strange and rather creepy that the teachers had an infatuation with Miranda, who was about 12. One of them even described her as "a Botticelli angel." I can understand Miranda's peers having a girl crush, but adult women? Imagine if it were grown men describing a 12-year-old boy as an adonis.
shareIf Miranda is 12, then that it is one hot 12 year old; she didn't look a day under 17. She probably player younger, maybe 14/15, but it's hinted at they're all lesbians anyway. Look at all the sex abuse that goes on in children's homes, it isn't a stretch of the imagination that Miranda was the prime target for the lezzers in that place.
shareI'd say that that girls are meant to be about 15/16, not 12 years old. I also was weirded out by their infatuation with Miranda.
shareAlthough I have not read the book, I believe that the infatuation with Miranda is a key element of the story. Remember, the young Michael also has a sort of inexplicable infatuation upon seeing her. She seems to have a "function unknown to her" that others may be able to sense but not quite articulate.
shareFascination with the beauty of young women was not at all out of the ordinary in the Victorian era, at the tail end of which "Picnic" is set. It was a very much different time in both aesthetics and culture; romanticized depictions of death were similarly valued, which some sociologists have credited with the era's fixation on women with extremely thin waists and narrow faces. As warped as it sounds today, photographs of nude, prepubescent children were also commonplace and valued for their preservation of images of innocence and purity.
shareShe was "otherworldly". Both figuratively and literally. In a way that gave her a charisma beyond belief. They just couldn't help noticing that even if they didn't understand it.
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I could care less, but I don’t care enough to bother.
Hardly necessary to note that the name 'Miranda' means 'she who should be admired'.
shareIn all groups of girls and women, one girl will be the "princess" or queen bee. All the other girls follow her lead in everything and will tolerate any kind of treatment from her in order to belong. Miranda is a particularly nice, caring queen bee who seems to have a heart for misfits. She is very kind to Sarah and Edith, whom very few others seem to like.
shareMiranda is indeed a very benevolent, angelical person; no wonder the place falls apart after she is gone.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)
I don't think a woman's admiration of younger girl's beauty is nearly as controversial as would be mans with a boy.
shareIt's creepier you think admiring a lovely girl means you have a "crush" on her. It really is possible to admire beauty without wanting to boink it.
share"It's creepier you think admiring a lovely girl means you have a "crush" on her. It really is possible to admire beauty without wanting to boink it."
Agree.
It is de rigueur these days to look for evil intent and base motivations. That sort of thinking suggests a we live in a world that has completely lost its innocence.
You fill me with inertia - George Spiggott
Well said. I know someone has said there is an element of sexual attraction in all friendships, which is completely wrong.
The girls were extremely pure and sheltered. Even the one apparent lesbian crush is very innocent.
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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!
I don't think they had a crush, the one teacher noticed the resemblance between Miranda and Boticell's "Venus" but that doesn't indicate a crush.
I thought it was interesting that all the searchers were only calling out for Miranda. There were no calls of "Miss McCraw!" or "Marion!" And the girls only screamed "What happened to Miranda?" in the scene with Irma.
In the book she was described as a senior girl in the school. I don't know if that corresponds to American grades, but regardless, I'd say she was supposed to be about seventeen.
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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.