Long John Silver

There are many things I really enjoyed in Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight, the oldest theme park in the UK. Among them, the pirates section (I cannot remember the real name it had right now). A lot of what I saw there seemed to have been taken directly from my childhood's imagination, but there was at least one classical character. You probably have recognised Long John Silver from Treasure Island. Although I always imagined Silver to look far more cunning. This one looks a tad dumb. I showed himto Wolfie, who did not seem impressed. All the same, it was pretty cool to meet him there so to speak and I wished I could have been a child again just for that afternoon.

Revisiting Treasure Island

I first read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson ten years ago. It was one of these books I kept wishing to read, but always waited for the right moment to read to fully appreciate. You need a lot of free time, ideally during a holiday. If I discovered the novel itself as an adult, I was familiar with the story since my childhood: I first read a pop-up book adaptation (this one) bought in Montreal when I must have been six or seven. The plot had been reduced to a skeleton of itself, but the main characters were there and it got me into pirates, treasures and it influenced a lot of our make belief games, especially during summertime. Then there was a Japanese animated series back in the 80s which my brothers and I really loved, even though the pirates, even Long John Silver, had turned into physics defying ninjas. I was eagerly waiting for every new episod. Then, years later, I bought this edition of the original novel when I first came to England.

It actually took me ten years to read it, which is pretty shameful. What struck me about the novel is that it can be read as proto crime fiction of the hardboiled kind, espcially at the beginning. All the pirates showing up at the Admiral Benbow, looking for the map that will lead them to the MacGuffin, it's all very common to modern crime fiction, if you think about it. Just like is the search for the treasure, where the investigation and the interaction between the characters more important than the resolution. Now I will not reread the novel any time soon as I have so many new books to read, but I have rediscovered the old animated series and I intend to binge watch it soon. I have seen the first two episodes and with all its flaws, it is still very solid entertainment.

Marooned

This painting is titled Marooned, it is the work of Howard Pyle, whom I blogged about here. He popularized the rather romanticized image we have of pirates. A character being marooned in a desert island was a common trope in adventure fiction, especially pirate fiction. I am uploading this image here because even though such dramatic event does not happen to common people in our day and age, the state and the painting does echo strongly in our psyche. Once does feel marooned when he longs for holidays, for instance. Which I will have this summer, but not just yet, so sometimes I feel very much like this pirate.

I uploaded it for another reason: my interest for piracy is rekindled every summer. I used to have pirates make belief games as a child, great fun. This year I am going on holiday in Devon, so very close to the sea. I already chose what I would read for my stay, but I might bring another book in case I finish this one and I was pondering about bringing something set by the sea, or in the sea and featuring some sort of pirates. Treasure Island starts not too far from Devon, but I already read it. Which makes me think: I have no idea what book I would bring with me on a desert island. Too many to choose.

Inland Odyssey

I might be milking the Odyssey's analogies a bit too often on this blog, but there you go. My recent trip felt like an odyssey, even though my wife and I travelled by train most of the time, with a few bus and boat trips here and there. It certainly felt like we were entering another world when we got into the Lake District.

The weather, for one, was radically different than what we have had so far here in the South. July in the Lake District often felt like a mild September day. Not that I complain about this: I was getting tired of the heat and was glad to be in cooler temperature. I am a Northerner everywhere I go: I feel comfortable in Northern weathers and felt that Cumbria was oddly familiar. The mountains, the large lakes, the forest, it is in a way quite similar to the Saguenay region in which I grew up. In another way, it is not so similar, as no town we visited was positively horrid. Civilisation espoused nature instead of spoiling it. Place for place, I would rather live up there than here, if my wife and I could both have similar jobs. It is not exactly my Ithaca, but it could be just as good.

My travel book was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I wish I had discovered this book earlier, when I was Jim Hawkins's age. Still, Stevenson is always enjoyable to read. I am still reading it, will probably finish it soon. People might think it was odd to read a sea adventure book for a journey that was done inland. Still, I thought it was appropriate for the trip, as it is the story of a sort of odyssey. Travelling novels (road novels?) are about the return as much as the journey, and the changes lived by the character through the process. I don't know if I changed much these last holidays, I still think I rediscovered things about myself.

Romans de voyage

Je ne sais pas si c'est parce que je serai en vacances bientôt, mais je lis des romans de voyage ces temps-ci. Je viens de terminer L'Énigme du retour de Dany Laferrière (cadeau de Noël de ma mère) et j'ai commencé à lire Treasure Island, le classique de Robert Louis Stevenson. deux grands livres, de manières bien différentes. J'espère parler des deux bouquins prochainement, au moins par citations.

Il y a deux romans de voyage: celui qu'on lit en voyage et celui qui parle de voyage (ce que les Anglais appellent parfois un road novel, comme il y a des road movies). Le déplacement géographique illustre le voyage intérieur des héros, leur cheminement. En littérature, les exemples sont légions.

Je ne lis pas assez Stevenson, on oublie parfois que même s'il faisait dans la littérature à genre, il était un écrivain remarquable, avec non seulement du style, mais un style, capable de rendre une époque révolue avec authenticité. J'ai découvert Treasure Island d'abord dans une courte adaptation en livre 3-D, ce genre de bouquins avec les personnages et le décor en papier qui sortent des pages. Le roman était résumé en une dizaines de pages avec peu de texte. Puis il y a eu la série animée japonaise, qui m'a vraiment fait aimer accrocher. J'ai retrouvé le générique sur youtube et ça me donne toujours les mêmes frissons. Étrange que je lise l'original aussi tard dans ma vie.