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Chapter 74:- Thoughts on Robinson Crusoe
The greater the work, the more it lends itself to multiple interpretations, and Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is a masterpiece. Where Defoe transformed the raw material that he used for the narrative, rather than simply copying it, it seemed to me that Robison Crusoe was ripe for transformation as well.
In the original, Crusoe encounters cannibals. In my version, converting cannibals to zombies yields an instinctive and brutal enemy, who provide high-contrast with Crusoe’s retrospection and humanity.
The Captain Nemo stories supply an Indian connection to the cult of Kali, and they also take the adventure from isolation by the waves to isolation beneath the waves.
In Atlantis, we have a nod towards the Shangri-Las, named after another mythical city, along with the stop-motion skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts.
My local library used to display Daniel Defoe’s gravestone in the foyer, while a local road bears his name. Finding a way, through Textnovel, to revisit a favorite book since childhood has been very exciting for me. Another connection from childhood was the black and white Dutch TV series, seemingly shown during every school summer holiday, which had a fabulously evocative theme tune.
TP Keating
London
