vilakins: (danger)
Nico ([personal profile] vilakins) wrote2005-04-16 05:49 pm
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Toff Tarrant

Further to my post on tufthunters and the tuftiness of Tarrant, I have a little more on the term from this week's World Wide Words newsletter:

TUFTHUNTER Following my note last week about spotting a usage of this obsolete term of rebuke, several people queried the similarity in sense and form between "tuft" and "toff". I might have said that it is commonly believed that the latter term, for a rich or upper-class person, does indeed derive from "tuft".
I thought it was relevant to the discussion on one of the B7 lists about whether Tarrant was an Alpha (I think he was).

FWIW I think most of them were Alphas except for Vila (Delta), Gan (Beta or Gamma), and Cally and Soolin who were outside the system. I think Avon may have started as a Beta technician and been promoted to Alpha as he's got the practical skills--unlike Blake--and seems to care a lot more about relative status than the others. [ducks and covers] Don't shoot!

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[identity profile] reapermum.livejournal.com 2005-04-17 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
And there's my essay, http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Essays/Gradings.html, with flexible grades and a delta Avon.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-04-17 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd read that before and I enjoyed it all over again; thank you! It makes a lot of sense! I suppose the main difference between our two theories is that I have only the top and bottom few percent being moved, and people being able to choose a lower grade. The only things I'm not sure about are the disruption to family life and the destabilising of society, and Avon wanting to find Delta parents. I think he'd prefer to think of himself as always superior.
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