Oh that's such an interesting parallel, especially given the way Christie's career spanned the colonial period, Partition/Independence, and beyond. Yes, the British were/are so in love with this image of themselves as staunch/hearty/able to withstand abuse: a particularly challenging mental stance for a group of people who instantly started dropping dead of cholera and dysentery as soon as they ventured below the 40th parallel. Which I guess goes some way toward explaining why they'd want to designate those climates as inherently unhealthy and immoral.
When greywash and I were talking about this last night, she also linked this passage to the wide acceptance of extremely harsh verging on (and sometimes well surpassing) masochistic and abusive boarding schools, where even very wealthy/privileged Brits, including the royal family, view freezing, starvation, beatings, etc., to be part of a boy's necessary rite of passage into manhood. Of course, if they encountered other cultures doing similar things, they would be immediate proof positive of moral corruption. Like, if it happened at a Catholic boarding school? PERVERTS AND HERETICS. If it happened at Eton? BOYS BEING MEN.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2019-01-14 09:41 pm (UTC)When