Re: School stories

On Sat, 04 Apr 2026 03:22:38 +0200, Steve Hayes
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Fri, 3 Apr 2026 18:00:06 +0100, Janet <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>In article <[email protected]>, 
>>[email protected] says...
>>> 
>>> On 2 Apr 2026 19:33:18 GMT, rbowman <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> >On Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:33:56 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> Both Kipling and Lewis wrote about Edwardian English public schools.
>>> >> 
>>> >> Lewis also mentioned schools in his fiction, most notably in "The Silver
>>> >> Chair", where he describes authoritarianism in what was ostensibly a
>>> >> libertarian school.
>>> >
>>> >Kipling wrote about the hazing of the younger students by the older ones. 
>>> >In 'Surprised by Joy' Lewis strongly hints there was a sexual element.
>>> 
>>> Lewis doesn't merely hint. He says quite clearly that there was sexual
>>> exploitation at the school he attended. There were not merely
>>> adolescent crushes, but there was systemic exploitation as well. 
>>
>>
>>   I'd be surprised if Kilpling used the term hazing,  or was referring 
>>to that American activity.  He was probably talking about  the  
>>different British custom fagging 
>>
>>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagging 
>
>I have only a vague idea of what "hazing" is, and assumed it meant
>something like what was euphemistically called "fresher orientation"
>at one of the universities I attended, in which new students were
>humiliated in various ways to make them understand that they were
>lower than shark shit. 


Happy to add to your knowledge of Americanisms:  the phrase here is
"lower than whale shit on the bottom of the ocean".