h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Interestingly strange and bold. It sounds as if it all relates to historical events, though I'm not sure what the artist/Savigny connection was, or why it was such a driving force for him. (Or why the Salon was so concerned.

I'd also like to understand better about the sail, and why (after all that had happened) it, or the butterfly, had significance. Some of us are dumb enough that you have to sorta spell things out, ... eventually.

One minor point, with all the names being French and the location being France, one assumes that we are reading a translation. I don't know why they would be speaking english. So, it makes it kind of weird that you'd include a French phrase like 'pas qu'un naufrage', which duplicates the phrase preceeding it only untranslated?? Perhaps he would mutter a foreign phrase, but it would not be French, would it?

Perhaps Spanish: 'solamente un naufragio'; German: 'ist nur ein Schiffswrack'; or, Italian: 'soltanto un naufragio'?

Engaging bit of work, in any case.

Thanks! I get a glow when people praise this piece, because it's just about my own favourite.

It does describe a real incident (the wreck) and a real painting.
The account is fictionalised, though, and then some.
I originally wrote Gorgon to try make a point to the Towers about broadening the Edited Guide. It came from memory rather than any fresh research (including a dimly-recalled TV documentary that turned out to be about Delacroix rather than Gericault!)
In writing it, I tried to systematically break every EG-guideline (eg, the rude word wasn't originally st*rred out) but nonetheless leave a piece that would grace the Edited Guide.
I still think it would have done, but the Powers didn't agree...

The non-mention of the painting/ship's name was part of the deliberate doing-it-all-wrong. I reasoned that readers would find a bit of detective work entertaining.

There's a lot on the net about this story (and reading it will quickly show up Gorgon's many mistakes). The link below is a start, if you want one. Don't miss the canvas itself if you visit the Louvre. If you get a chance to read Julian Barnes' 'History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters', you'll also find an uncanny parallel to my telling, which some Researchers guessed to be a partial source - in fact I was only made aware of it after Posting this to hootoo.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1373/2_53/97253215/p1/article.jhtml

Thanks for your interest again
Pin

Oh yeah, the 'naufrage'. Simple! Using a language other than English breaks another Guideline...

Hi ag, Pin.

You're very welcome. And, I wish I had thought of crafting such a deliberately designed piece.

Still, could you explain whey eating the butterfly was a problem?
I'll sleep better.

Now you've gone and made me read up on what I wrote about!

I could remember when I wrote it that the survivors on the raft saw a butterfly shortly before they were rescued. The significance, of course, is that this proved they were close to land.

In the last couple of hours, I've learned (or re-learned) that :
- Savigny certainly wasn't as damaged by the experience as I suggested. The testimony of two men, Savigny and another survivor called Correard, is the basis for the accepted version of events.
- one of the other of them mentioned the butterfly, and that those on board who were still rational by that time regained hope when it appeared, realising that land must be near. It still took another two days at least for the Argus to come to their aid, though.
- there isn't any mention of anyone eating the butterfly, or even of it settling within reach. I suppose that someone eating it would have been plausible, if they'd caught it. They were eating each other, after all.

It's hard to explain why I put that idea in, because I wasn't really making the story up. I was mis-remembering it.

Hope you can sleep now, anyway. At the risk of putting you off again, do you know the story of the Essex? There's a very good EG Entry on it here, by BluesShark. Just search on 'whaleship Essex'.

Pin

Ahhh Thanks, Pin.

All has become obfuscated, but I'll be able to sleep better now.

I'm glad that I had the significance of the butterfly's appearance right, much like Noah's biblical dove.

Perhaps his eating of the buttefly signified the realization that possibility of survival had become a moral dilemma; that. if rescued, there bodies would be saved, but their rescuers would deem them souless cannibals, hardly worth saving.

Perhaps the others felt that, if the butterfly were to again take flight, it would invariably lead them to land; and his eating of the butterfly meant that they were being re-damned for their actions.

I'll look in on Whaleship Essex. Thanks for the update!