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 Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:08 am
I thought this was worthy of it's own topic. It seems that the names of all the colonists on the island in THE END is somehow a reference to another literary castaway of sorts.
As a fellow volunteer (RS) has already mentioned:
Friday & Robinson - Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Dafoe)
Ishmael - Moby d**k (Herman Melville)
Alonso, Miranda, Ariel & Caliban - The Tempest (William Shakespeare)
Calypso - The Odyssey (Homer)
My contribution to this list is Mr. Pitcairn, which will take some explaining: Pitcairn Island is a super isolated island in the Pacific (and a prime example of the Founders' Effect, for those of you who may study Anthropology comme moi). What essentially happened is a bunch of mutineers from The Bounty stranded themselves on the island with a bunch of Tahitian women and started a population which went undiscovered for a couple hundered years or so. What happened is you've got this weird, genetically isolated, Tahitian/British cultured society that speak a pre-Victorian accented version of English that you can only visit once a year by sailboat or something.
Anyone else care to add to the list?
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Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:03 pm
Yay, you found another one! ^_^ That Madame one stuck in my head but I couldn't place it....let me do some quick research. No luck on Mme. Nordoff, BUT look what else I found! Ms. Marlow- could refer to Charlie Marlow from Heart of DarknessOmeros - could refer to a work by Derek Walcott, it's also the Greek for Homer. ( http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3088) The Bellamy siblings (Jonah and Sadie)- could refer to a band called "The Bellamy Brothers" or it could refer to Samuel Bellamy (a 18th century pirate), or to the works of Edward Bellmay (known for his 1888 book Looking Backward) or Charles Bellamy (another 18th centry pirate, often confused with Samuel Bellamy). Jonah would most likey refer to the Biblical story involving a certain whale, and I'm not sure on Sadie... Finn- might refer to Huckleberry Finn or a Olympic class of sailing dingy. Erewhon- a novel by Samuel Butler, also is almost "nowhere" backwards ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erewhon)
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Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:20 pm
Yeah, we learned about Pitcairn Island literally two days before the book came out, in my Physical Anthropology class. Talk about luck...
I'd bank on Omeros being a reference to Homer seeing as one of the other castaways is from The Odyssey. I don't know why this makes sense, but it does to me. Also, since Ishmael is from a Herman Melville book, does that put him on the 'bad' side of the schism? I mean, that's the author that were on the diving suits of Olaf's crew, wasn't he?
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Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:42 pm
Im sitting here reading it right now and I thought some of those names sounded familiar 0_0
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Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:29 pm
Mara Mylenne Yeah, we learned about Pitcairn Island literally two days before the book came out, in my Physical Anthropology class. Talk about luck... I'd bank on Omeros being a reference to Homer seeing as one of the other castaways is from The Odyssey. I don't know why this makes sense, but it does to me. Also, since Ishmael is from a Herman Melville book, does that put him on the 'bad' side of the schism? I mean, that's the author that were on the diving suits of Olaf's crew, wasn't he? Actually Melville was on Widdershins' uniform (TGG p. 65). It makes sense though that it's Widdershins' since Queequeg is also the name of the native from Moby d**k as well as his sub. Ah, here on pg. 224 Olaf's crew wears Edgar Guest. Hrmm...so that would put Ish on the good side, if we go by that. Interesting.... confused
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Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:01 pm
Found some more: Brewster, Weyden, and Larsen all are references to The Sea Wolf by Jack London ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea-Wolf) (credit to thequietworld.com forums for pointing that out) I think Dr. Kurtz is another reference to Heart of Darkness. (And found on complete conicidence eek ) Byam and Rabbi Bligh are most likely references to Mutiny on the Bounty which interesting is the first in a trilogy of books that ends with a novel called Pitcairn Island! surprised ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty_(novel))
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Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:51 am
I just saw The Tempest today and Ferdinand is also from it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:04 pm
Sherman was a mutineer in Treasure Island.
I also agree with Mara that Omeros is referencing The Odyssey but I'm not sure..
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:12 pm
Well, there actually was a voyage of the Bounty, so it stands to reason that it would end with 'Pitcairn Island' as that's where the survivors basically wound up. Thanks for the correction on Melville/Guest. Clearly Snicket and I differ in respect to who is a good author (I find Moby d**k tedious...).
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:54 pm
maybe this is kind of telling us how the people came to the island.... what was each character like in the books.... or name some things that happened to them... I havent read any of those books except for treasure island so I dont know....... maybe this isnt helping at all but it was a thought
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:58 pm
I think one of the names was also from Dante's Inferno, has anyone else read that book and remembers it?
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:16 pm
gakihime maybe this is kind of telling us how the people came to the island.... what was each character like in the books.... or name some things that happened to them... I havent read any of those books except for treasure island so I dont know....... maybe this isnt helping at all but it was a thought It's actually a good thought there, since many of the stories have to do with the sea and shipwrecks in paticular. Islands and mutinies too. @ Paradoxical: O_O Listen to this: Quote: The ascent of the mountain culminates at the summit, which is the Garden of Eden (Cantos XXVIII through XXXIII). This place is meant to return one to a state of innocence that existed before the sin of Adam and Eve caused the fall from grace. Here Dante meets Matelda, a woman of grace and beauty who prepares souls for their ascent to heaven. With her Dante witnesses a highly symbolic procession that may be read as an allegory of the Church. One participant in the procession is Beatrice, whom Dante loved in childhood, and at whose request Virgil was commissioned to bring Dante on his journey. Virgil, as a pagan, is a permanent denizen of Limbo, the first circle of Hell, and may not enter Paradise: he vanishes. Beatrice then becomes the second guide (accompanied by an extravagant procession), and will accompany Dante through the Paradise. That's eerie. I just looked it up on Wikipedia. But none of the names besides that really struck a bell unless there was Greek/Roman or very Italian ones that I've missed. @ Mara: No prob! I'll have to look into some of these older seafaring books. ^^;
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:58 pm
rurouni_starchild @ Paradoxical: O_O Listen to this: Quote: The ascent of the mountain culminates at the summit, which is the Garden of Eden (Cantos XXVIII through XXXIII). This place is meant to return one to a state of innocence that existed before the sin of Adam and Eve caused the fall from grace. Here Dante meets Matelda, a woman of grace and beauty who prepares souls for their ascent to heaven. With her Dante witnesses a highly symbolic procession that may be read as an allegory of the Church. One participant in the procession is Beatrice, whom Dante loved in childhood, and at whose request Virgil was commissioned to bring Dante on his journey. Virgil, as a pagan, is a permanent denizen of Limbo, the first circle of Hell, and may not enter Paradise: he vanishes. Beatrice then becomes the second guide (accompanied by an extravagant procession), and will accompany Dante through the Paradise. That's eerie. I just looked it up on Wikipedia. But none of the names besides that really struck a bell unless there was Greek/Roman or very Italian ones that I've missed. Thanks so much for finding that, I read Dante's Inferno last year, I can't believe I forgot about that! Anyways, I think there might have been one of the islanders in Dante's Inferno when he goes to the deepest circle of hell when he meets mutineers. But knowing me, I could be completely off about this. sweatdrop
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:19 pm
paradoxical rurouni_starchild @ Paradoxical: O_O Listen to this: Quote: The ascent of the mountain culminates at the summit, which is the Garden of Eden (Cantos XXVIII through XXXIII). This place is meant to return one to a state of innocence that existed before the sin of Adam and Eve caused the fall from grace. Here Dante meets Matelda, a woman of grace and beauty who prepares souls for their ascent to heaven. With her Dante witnesses a highly symbolic procession that may be read as an allegory of the Church. One participant in the procession is Beatrice, whom Dante loved in childhood, and at whose request Virgil was commissioned to bring Dante on his journey. Virgil, as a pagan, is a permanent denizen of Limbo, the first circle of Hell, and may not enter Paradise: he vanishes. Beatrice then becomes the second guide (accompanied by an extravagant procession), and will accompany Dante through the Paradise. That's eerie. I just looked it up on Wikipedia. But none of the names besides that really struck a bell unless there was Greek/Roman or very Italian ones that I've missed. Thanks so much for finding that, I read Dante's Inferno last year, I can't believe I forgot about that! Anyways, I think there might have been one of the islanders in Dante's Inferno when he goes to the deepest circle of hell when he meets mutineers. But knowing me, I could be completely off about this. sweatdrop I should read Inferno. Maybe my housemate still has his copy. ^^(Searches Wiki) Oh! Wasn't there someone called Lethe? That has to do with Greek Mythology (and is visited in Inferno after the circles of Hell). It's a river in Hades and is associated with forgetfulness. 3nodding
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 5:53 pm
Aha! From the inside back cover of the edition of The Mutiny of the 'Bounty' by John Barrow that I borrowed from my school library:
The first eight books in this series are:
1. The Rose and the Ring
W.M. Thackeray
2. Men Against the Sea
Nordhoff & Hall
3. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Jules Verne
4. The Princess and the Goblin
George Macdonald
5. Treasure Island
R.L. Stevenson
6. The Coral Island
R.M. Ballantyne
7. Little Women
Louisa M. Alcott
No. 8 has been obscured by some random piece of paper. But I can make out an"an Coolidge".
Perhaps this is the Nordhoff of Madame Nordoff (different sp)? What do you think?
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