Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Adventure & Romance – Romancing the Stone

I mentioned there’s two pulp adventure movies, released in the aftermath of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I’ll just sit and watch every time they pop up on the telly*.
One is High Road to China.
Now let’s talk about the other.

Jack Colton: [picking up a magazine] Dammit man, the Doobie Brothers broke up! Shit! When did that happen?
Joan Wilder: How long have you been down here?
Jack Colton: Forever.

Let’s get personal: in 1984 I was in the cinema with my date, having the time of my life, when the joke about the Doobie Brothers came up.
I was the only one laughing in the whole room – and my date looked at me in a funny way**.

Romancing the Stone was released in 1984, and it was telling me I was already an outsider.
But who cares?

Romancing the Stone

The set up: when her sister is kidnapped by shady characters, romance writer Joan Wilder has to travel to Colombia to deliver a mysterious map as ramson. Lost in the Colombian jungle, she finds help in the absolutely mercenary rare birds smuggler Jack Colton. American expat gangsters, secret police thugs, drug smugglers and the cheerfully hostile nature complicate things.
And there’s a hidden treasure.
And a pit full of hungry alligators.

To me, Romancing the Stone is almost perfect.
There’s action, adventure, exotic locales, a beautiful woman in danger (Kathleen Turner is gorgeous in this movie), there’s a suitably knavish leading man (Michael Douglas has what is probably his best role). The dialogue is fun, there’s lots of in-jokes and yet the movie never winks at the viewer, never falters in its total dedication to the spirit of adventure narrative.
And it’s set in the ’80s – and therefore updates some classic pulp tropes, and shows that yes, it can be done.

There’s a sequel, called Jewel of the Nile, which sucks pretty badly.
And there’s been talk about something called Racing the Monsoon, which should be an Episode Three, but (thankfully?) was never shot.
And one wonders what would have come out of it had Sly Stallone or Christopher Reeve accepted the role of Colton, or Debra Winger as Joan.

To me, as an occasional author of adventure stories, being able to write something as tight, snappy, seriously tongue-in-cheek as Romancing the Stone would be enough.
Yes, I set myself impossibly high standards.

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* It’s actually three, now that I think about it.
** In case you’re wondering, the Doobies disbanded in 1982.

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Dragons of the ancient world

It was in 2005, if I remember correctly, and I was on my third congress of the Italian Palaeontological Society.
In the 2005 congress two works were presented – a colleague’s paper on the connection between fossils and mythology, and a poster of mine on the cultural relevance of dinosaurs.
My colleague’s work featured griffins and cyclops, my poster featured Godzilla and Bruce Willis.
We were both severely thrashed, the standard question being “You call this paleontology?”
To which the reply was of course, yes – we were after all discussing ancient remains, deep time, and the perception and interpretation of those remains – but our position was not shared by a large portion of the audience*.

And yet, the idea of Geomythology was emerging in the early 21st century – and the book I’m reading these nights, part for research duties and part for the sheer pleasure of it, was one of the first works on the subject.
It was published in 2000, by Princeton University Press.

k9435Adrienne Mayor‘s The First Fossil Hunters – Dinosaur, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (new edition, 2011) is a delightful and higly stimulating read.
The idea that a culture of fossil observation existed in ancient times – not limited to a few philosophers chancing on an old bone – is intriguing, as is the idea of a strong, direct connection between fossils and certain beasts of myth.
The book is filled with illustrations, and offers ample material in support of its central thesis.
And there’s much food for thought (and for fiction!) between its covers.

So I’m reading it both because of my job as a paleontologist (as long as I have one) and as documentation for my writing.
And anything providing a different angle on the perception we have of ancient times, is sure to slip straight on top of my reading list.
This one is highly recommended.

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* one year later the situation had changed enough for two members of our hostile audience to publish in the Society’s magazine an article that followed closely my poster (curiously enough forgetting to credit my work in its very short bibliography)

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The West through Eastern Eyes, AD 300

A quick, unscheduled post to point out the online translation of the Weilue – “The Peoples of the West”, an overview of the Roman Empire by Chinese scholar, compiled in the third century.
This text was transalted by John E. Hill, and is available through the servers of the university of Washington.
This is the West through Eastern eyes, in the third century.

“The ruler of this country [Rome] is not permanent. When disasters result from unusual phenomena, they unceremoniously replace him, installing a virtuous man as king, and release the old king, who does not dare show resentment.”

… well, sorta.
Considering the title and the topics covered in Karavansara, this link will appear obvious.
This is also part of the documentation for the sword & sorcery stories I’m writing – as I’m planning to move my heroes Eastwards.
Great find, thanks to a link on the Io9 website.

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