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[dreamer_easy]

Watched Cast Away (2000). I enjoyed its cleverness very much -- I even picked the director, although I couldn't think of Robert Zemeckis's name for quids -- until the interminable series of endings. Anyway, what struck me was that Chuck is obliged to recreate civilisation piece by piece to fulfil his basic needs: blades, fire, art, religion. What made me think of this is an article which I can't find, which compares Shamhat's seduction of Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is intended to civilise him, with a mother bringing up a child -- got it! It's Rivkah Harris's chapter "Images of Women in the Gilgamesh Epic". What does Chuck drink first? Milk, of course.

Someone could probably get a thesis -- probably has got a thesis -- out of this tale of a lone, heroic white man creating the civilised world anew. (He looks like a caveman, then a "native".) This brings me to another thing: the reality show Alone (2015-), of which I have watched a few episodes on demand from SBS. Ten white men are plonked down in the chilly Canadian wilderness to do or die. At some point I thought to myself, "This is how people used to live." But of course, that's nonsense! People live in groups, sharing and passing on skills and equipment. (Would Chuck have survived without the packages?) This is not to say that hermits never happen, but this man-on-his-own narrative doesn't reflect any human social arrangement. Another thesis there, perhaps on the horribly destructive idea of "independence".

Comments

[hnpcc]

Alone's later seasons got more diverse- it was fascinating watching how people cope given that we are in fact a social species who mostly live in groups (and even those who live in remote areas tend to have at least some contact with other humans). It was also interesting seeing how quickly things could go badly wrong - a slip on a slope and you are effectively disabled and at risk of sepsis and starvation.

Have you watched/read Into the Wild and the associated commentary at all? One of the most apt things I've read is that successfully surviving in any environment is a learned skill (and involves a degree of luck) - you're either taught it by your parents/older people or you learn it as you go, but it's certainly not innate, and it's a lot easier to learn by being taught.

[hnpcc]

And I got distracted and forgot to finish that thought - Chris McCandless, along with a lot of other people, seemed to forget that and to essentially discount the knowledge that the people who do live in those environments have. The whole libertarian independence thing is mythological but also relies on "innate wisdom" as a means of survival - and there is none.

[dreamer_easy]

I read an amazing book about two different boats that crashed on the same island near New Zealand. One lot had good leadership and determination and worked together, and survived. They used every skill they had to make shelter and etc. The other shipwrecked crew just wandered around in despair and died one by one. Here it is: Joan Druett, Island of the Lost.

[hnpcc]

Ooh, thank you, that sounds very interesting - I'll have to look it up.