OT Reality trumps fiction

not2sharp

not2sharp

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Joined
Jun 29, 1999
Messages
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I know alot of us enjoy history, and part of the fun is coming across real world events and characters that have here-to-fore been introduced to us as the inventive larger-then-life fiction of novelist. How interesting to learn that the giant white whale in Melville's novel was very real threat to whalers of the early 19th century; That Clavell's Blackthorne has an even more accomplished real world existence as Will Adams; or, that there really was a real Robinson Crusoe.

Moby Dick (the white whale)
White whale based on the experience of whaleship Essex (1819)

Robinson Crusoe:
Robinson Crusoe based on Alexander Selkirk

Shogun:
Richard Blackthorne based on Will Adams

What other characterizations have you come across that fall into this group; fictional characters that borrow heavily from uncredited real world personages?

n2s
 
No, but I do occasionally call myself "Walker, Iowa Ranger." If only Chuck had had hisself a Gelbu Special...

He would have been even more invincible!!
 
when you kick people do they fall down in slow mo? Do cowboy boots make it easier or tougher to deliver a round-house? Were you ever dropped behind enemy lines on a solo mission like a bearded, less-muscular (although much more enunciated) Rambo? Which do you hate more: ninjas (sorry DIJ) or bad guys that are threatening a bright but down-and-out kid/helpless hard-working single mother/the environment?

Just having a little fun and Chuck's expense;)

Jake
 
Being a hopeless environmental liberal, I must go for letter B. Also, those guys running around firing AK's on auto from the hip are annoying. I'd rather just show them how to shoot, but I'm supposed to give them a flying side-kick to the chest, which will knock them 300 feet off a cliff. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. :)

BTW, The cowboy boots are OK just as long as they're steel-toed and made of Buffalo leather. :)

God bless you Chuck, wherever you are.
 
Chuck needs to run for governor of something. (Sorry N2S, hopefully someone will post a relevant reply soon)
 
Heah, we digress. But w/ your number of posts, you knew this would happen, at least to some extent.

Hope you don't mind. :)
 
Hope you don't mind. :)

Mind?!?....it's all part of the bigger plan; just launch a topic and kick back and watch it drift. :D

I am still waiting for Danny to come on here and give us some real world evidence of a historic Ninja. Perhaps not a Hollywood-style one; but, you got to figure that somebody must have thrown on some dark pajamas, to sneek around fudal Japan on a fools errand. :rolleyes:

n2s
 
You mean Ninjas weren't real? Wow...first the Great Pumpkin and now this...


Hey, wait a minute...Ninjas were supposed to be secret!
 
I know Sherlock Holmes was based on a scottich university proffessor, whos name I can't recall. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were based upon an aristocrat known as Deacon Brodie who was from the town Robert Louis Stevenson grew up in. The character of Norman Bates in Psycho was based upon Ed Gein, as was buffaloe Bill in The Silence Of The Lambs, and Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That's all I can think of right now, but if I think of more I'll add them.
 
The 1972 movie "Brother Sun Sister Moon" by Franco Zeffirelli, was based on my life. Or was it the life of St. Francis? I forget. I know it was one of us.
 
Ben Arown-Awile said:
The 1972 movie "Brother Sun Sister Moon" by Franco Zeffirelli, was based on my life. Or was it the life of St. Francis? I forget. I know it was one of us.
Click to expand...


I thought you were Saint Francis...
 
That new book by Bill Clinton was very loosely based on history.
 
Nasty said:
That new book by Bill Clinton was very loosely based on history.
Click to expand...

Bill Clinton is loosely based. How did he think he could get a BJ from a Jewish woman with no consequences.

Dropping another pebble into the pond. Watching the ripples....
 
Bill Marsh said:
Bill Clinton is loosely based. How did he think he could get a BJ from a Jewish woman with no consequences.
Click to expand...
Methinks you could replace "Jewish woman" with "Any woman." :rolleyes: :D ;)
 
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