Class Assignments

Short Papers 1) Captain Kidd paper

a) TA has graded them b) Will be handed back today

2) Long Paper proposal a) Due Wednesday

2) Treasure Island Paper 800- 1000 word paper based on the

Robert Louis Steven’s Treasure Island and the movie Treasure Island

Due Wednesday 7th April Can turn it in before

Compare book to movie (as before) But ask how and why Stevenson and

the Muppets have adapted history to suit their intended audiences

Consider how they have helped shaped our understanding of pirates

Long Paper 2800 – 3200 word paper

Based, of course, upon your proposal

Due April 21st I will be happy to talk with you as you progress or chat with you about draft papers

Piracy and Literature Edgar Allan Poe

The Gold Bug J.M. Barrie

Peter Pan Gives us another of the great

childhood pirate icons Captain Hook Action takes place in Kidd bay

Barrie student a Edinburgh University friends with another well known write of the era

Arthur Conan Doyle Best known for Sherlock Holmes

But, also wrote tales of the sea and piracy Captain Sharkey

Another Edinburgh Student and friend of both Doyle and Barrie was

Robert Louis Stevenson He and Barrie worked together on the school newspaper

And of course Stevenson was the author of Treasure Island Which we will be watching on Wednesday

Treasure Island &

Robert Louis Stevenson

Muppet Treasure Island Cast list: Captain Smollett – Kermit Benjamin / Benjamina Gunn – Miss Piggy Billy Bones – Billy Connolly Blind Pew – Blind Pew Muppet Black Dog – Black Dog Muppet Dr Livesly – Dr. Bunsen Honeydew Jim Hawkins – Kevin Bishop Long John Silver – Tim Curry Mr. Bimbo – A man who lives in the index finger of

the Squire Trelawney Jr’s left hand Squire Trelawney Jr. – Fozzie Bear Big-Fat-Ugly-Bug-Face-Baby-Eating O'Brien

“Explodes with Wit, Weirdness and Wildly

Inventive Fun” New York Post

Not however, the first film representation of the book

Over 50 movies and numerous TV adaptations have been made

Suggest the depth of influence that the story has

Treasure Island movies First I have been able

to find is a 1912 version – very early First ‘narrative’ movie

Great Train Robbery in 1903

Production Company – Edison

1934 first ‘Hollywood’ version

1971 Orson Welles as Long John Silver

Also co-scripted

1990 Made for TV

version Charlton Heston as

Long John Silver Christian Bale as

Jim Hawkins Oliver Reed as

Capt. Billy Bones Christopher Lee as

Blind Pew

International

Zhi yao wei ni huo yi tian (1993)

"Schatzinsel, Die" (1966) TV mini-series

Ostrov sokrovishch (1971) "Takarajima" (1978) TV series

Celebrity Treasure Island

And of course the list would not be complete without

But lets return briefly to the Muppets

Over 400 Muppet characters appeared in the film

Shot at Shepperton Studios in England All the shots were indoors

Had a complete seaport with and 18 ton boat

Forty foot beach with palm trees and 200,000 gallons of water

From the movies Press Packet: Q. This is such a physical role. How do you

feel you compare to other big screen action heroes?

Kermit: Hmmm. I would have to say that I’m shorter

than Arnold, greener than Sly, and I have less hair than Mel

Q. Were you aware that traditionally Polly is played by a parrot?

Polly: Yeah, I’ve heard. But that’s just a

stereotype. I like to think we live in a forward thinking society

Q. Is this the first time you have had to sing while bound upside down over a cliff?

Miss Piggy: Professionally, yes. But, frankly, it is

none of your business what Kermit and moi do in our personal relationship

And finally the green man himself “I do believe that Robert Louis

Stevenson originally wrote the part of the captain as a frog” Kermit the Frog

Who was Stevenson?

Born November 1850 Edinburgh, Scotland

Father an Engineer strict and powerful

man Believed to be the

cause of the lack of strong father son relationships in Stevenson’s novels

Treasure Island: Father dies early in novel Rebellious Jim Hawkins Potential father figures in both Doctor

Livesly and Squire Trelawney Tends to gravitate more to Long John Silver Kidnapped: An orphan sold into indenture Take up eventually with a Scottish Patriot

against the British Both cases unattached boy searching for

an identity with a rebellious figure

Also see conflict in his novels Between the upright ideals of

Victorian middle class life and reckless abandon

Obvious in Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde But also in Hawkins Frequently turns away from the

“right thing” Leaving the ship Running from the fort

The idea of turning from the straight and narrow is also evident in Stevenson’s own life

While on a visit to France met and fell in love with

Fanny Van De Grift Osbourne A divorced women, with two small

children, ten years his senior He married her – a very risqué

and rebellious thing to do in Victorian British Society

Stevenson’s tomb Mount Vaea

Stevenson would return to California with his new wife

Before eventually moving to the “South Seas”

Samoa in 1889 Where he died in

1894

The Map Plays a

significant part in the story

For the characters It is a treasure map!

And for the understanding of the book

In a review of the book W.E. Henley wrote

“Primarily it is a book for boys….But it is a book for boys which will be delightful to all grown men who have the sentiment of treasure-hunting and are touched with the true spirit of the Spanish Main”

It has been argued that it is the ‘map’ which

A) allows the involvement of adults into the novel

B) drives the novel

Henley wrote of another moment when one Professor Beesley was discovered by his family in his study

“his history books thrown by . . . His Herbert Spencer all forgotten, sunk to the throat in ‘Treasure Island.’ He had a magnifier at his eye, and through that magnifier he was (historian like) a-studying the map of Captain Flint”

The map links Stevenson - the man

through Hawkins - the boy

to Beesley - the man

In addition the map is a manly not a boyish item

When the map is unfurled at Squire Trelawny’s house

Hawkins states that though the map was to him

“incomprehensible, it filled the squire and Dr Livesey with delight. ‘Livesey’ said the squire ‘ you will give up this wretched practice at once. Tomorrow I start for Bristol”

The boy unable to understand the map and is excluded from the beginning of the adventure

And of the story

But what of the map’s creation The initial idea for the book came as

Stevenson sat with his stepson, Lloyd, in California and they drew the map

“the future characters began to appear there among imaginary woods”

Creation of the map involved a boy But the creation of the story was from the

mind of a man Original map was lost (stolen?) and the final

map was created from points in the completed story Not from the imagination of a boy

The map also leads Hawkins out of boyhood and into manhood As the story, and hunt, progresses

Hawkins matures at the end of the story Hawkins the

man has ironically (?) lost the desire for additional treasure

His nights are filled not with dreams of treasure

but nightmares of gold coins and the sound of Silver’s parrot crying Pieces of eight, Pieces of eight

WEDNESDAY MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND