Attached Link: http://www.fotoonz.com

The Saturday 'toon is up at my site! (for those who're interested) I like this one a lot. Hope you do too. :laugh:

Gordon

lol.. You do know Avast! is a trademarked name for a virus scanner right?
http://www.avast.com/

Very funny, but If I were those pirates, I'd be much more worried about the approaching tsunami wave in the background.

:bored:

Oh, and "avast" is a nautical term meaning "stop" or "desist". 

Fotoonz is well within his rights to use it any way he wants to.

-jjsemp

LOL, no worries :) It's just that I use Avast anti-virus and thought it was funny because I thought someone was having a problem with the virus scanner.
Nice images BTW.

If 'Avast!' is trademarked, then that means that 'Treasure Island' by Robert Louis Stevenson can no longer be read by schoolchildren.  What next is going to be trademarked- 'Pieces of Eight, Pieces of Eight'?

BTW, whatever was the final take on momodot's 'Superhero' thread?

Hoadley

Thanks!

"Avast, mateys! More work for the already overworked lawyers ahead.  Arrrrhhhh!!!"

Hmmm... I wonder what the root word is?  Some of those nautical terms are a little obscure.

Gordon

Avast; pronounced a·vast

interjection
Definitions:
 stop: used by sailors as a command to stop doing something or to ignore a previous order

[Early 17th century. Alteration of Dutch hou'vast, shortening of houd vast "hold fast"]

Further Stuff

Treasure Island

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For other uses, see Treasure Island (disambiguation).

Treasure Island. Cover illustration by Frank Godwin 1925.

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". First published as a book in 1883, it was originally serialised in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881-82 under the title The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island.

Traditionally considered a coming of age story, it is an adventure tale of superb atmosphere, character and action, and also a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver—unusual for children's literature then and now. It is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels, and its influence on popular lore about pirates can not be overestimated.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 History
• 2 Notable derivative works
• 3 Summary of Treasure Island
• 4 Notes
• 5 References
• 6 External links

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[edit]

History

Stevenson was 30 years old when he started to write Treasure Island, and it would be his first success as a novelist. The first fifteen chapters were written at Braemar in the Scottish Highlands in 1881. It was a cold and rainy August-September and Stevenson was with five family members on holiday in a cottage. Young Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's step-son, would pass the rainy days painting with water colors. Remembering the time, Lloyd wrote:

..busy with a box of paints I happened to be tinting a map of an island I had drawn. Stevenson came in as I was finishing it, and with his affectionate interest in everything I was doing, leaned over my shoulder, and was soon elaborating the map and naming it. I shall never forget the thrill of Skeleton Island, Spyglass Hill, nor the heart-stirring climax of the three red crosses! And the greater climax still when he wrote down the words "Treasure Island" at the top right-hand corner! And he seemed to know so much about it too—the pirates, the buried treasure, the man who had been marooned on the island". "Oh, for a story about it", I exclaimed, in a heaven of enchantment, and somehow conscious of his own enthusiasm in the idea.[1]Within three days of drawing the map for Lloyd, Stevenson had written the first three chapters, reading each aloud to his family who added suggestions: Lloyd insisted there be no women in the story; Stevenson's father came up with the contents of Billy Bones' sea-chest, and suggested the scene where Jim Hawkins hides in the apple barrel. Two weeks later a friend, Dr. Alexander Japp, brought the early chapters to the editor of Young Folks magazine who agreed to publish each chapter weekly.

As fall came to Scotland, the Stevensons left their summer holiday retreat for London, but Stevenson was troubled with a life-long chronic bronchial condition that put an end to his work on the novel at about chapter fifteen. Concerned about a deadline they traveled in October to Davos, Switzerland where the clean mountain air did him wonders and he was able to continue, and, at a chapter a day, soon finished the story.

Map created by Robert Lewis Stevenson.

During its first initial run in Young Folks from October 1881 to January 1882 it failed to attract any attention or even increase the sales of the magazine. But when sold as a book in 1883 it soon became very popular. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom William Ewart Gladstone was reported to have stayed up until two in the morning to finish it. Critics widely praised it. Henry James praised it as "..perfect as a well-played boys game". Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote "I think Stevenson shows more genius in a page than Sir Walter Scott in a volume".

The impact of the book on perceptions of pirates can not be overestimated. Stevenson linked pirates forever with maps, black schooners, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders. The treasure map with an X marking the location of the buried treasure is one of the most familiar pirate props, yet it is entirely a fictional invention which owes its origin to Stevenson's original map. The term "Treasure Island" has passed into the language as a common phrase, and is often used as a title for games, rides, places, etc.

Thanks to Stevenson's letters and essays, we know a lot about his sources and inspirations. The initial catalyst was the treasure map, but he also drew from memories of works by Daniel Defoe, Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving. Stevenson says that the novel At Last by Charles Kingsley was a key inspiration. The idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by his real-life friend William Henley, a writer and editor. Lloyd Osbourne described him as "..a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet". In a letter to Henley after the publication of Treasure Island Stevenson wrote "I will now make a confession. It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver...the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound [speech], was entirely taken from you". Other books which resemble Treasure Island include Robert Michael Ballantyne's Coral Island (1871), Captain Marryat's The Pirate (1836). Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885), the first of the "Lost World" literary genre, was the product of a bet between Rider Haggard and his brother that he could write a better novel than Treasure Island.

Stevenson had never encountered any real pirates in his life. However his descriptions of sailing and seamen and sea life are very convincing. His father and grandfather were both lighthouse keepers and frequently voyaged around Scotland inspecting lighthouses, taking the young Robert along. Two years before writing Treasure Island he had crossed the Atlantic Ocean. So authentic were his descriptions that in 1890 William Butler Yeats told Stevenson that Treasure Island was the only book from which his seafaring grandfather had ever taken any pleasure.

Critically, the novel can be seen as a bildungsroman, dealing, as it does, with the development and coming of age of its narrator, Jim Hawkins.

Stevenson was paid 34.7.6p for the serialization and 100 pounds for the book.

[edit]

Notable derivative works

Treasure Island has hundreds of cultural derivatives from movies, plays, comic books, radio shows to even whole islands. This section describes some of the most notable.

There are a number of islands which claim to have been the real-life inspiration for Skeleton Island. One story goes that a mariner uncle had told the young Stevenson tales of his travels to Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, thus this could mean Norman Island was an indirect inspiration for the book.[2] Other contenders are the small islands in Queen Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite from where Stevenson was brought up.[3] However, Stevenson (and his family) left a clear record that the inspiration for Treasure Island was entirely of his own imagination and there is no factual evidence that says otherwise.

In 1883 Stevenson had also published The Silverado Squatters, a travel narrative of his honeymoon in 1880 in Napa Valley, California. His experiences at Silverado were kept in a journal called "Silverado Sketches", and many of his notes of the scenery around him in Napa Valley provided much of the descriptive detail for Treasure Island.

The novel Peter Pan (1911) pays homage to Treasure Island, when Captain Hook says he is the only man the old Sea Cook, Captain Flint, ever feared. Author J. M. Barrie was a boyhood school friend of Stevenson's.

There have been over 50 movie versions made. Some of the notable ones include a 1920 silent version starring Shirley Mason; a 1934 version starring Jackie Cooper; a lavish 1950 Walt Disney version starring Robert Newton; a 1971 version starring Orson Welles; a 1990 version starring Charlton Heston; a 2002 Walt Disney animated version called Treasure Planet.

The BBC alone has produced at least three television adaptations.

There are also two anime TV adaptations. One, directed by famous Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki replaced the human characters with animal counterparts. The other adaptation was directed by Osamu Dezaki and was quite dark for a children's TV series.

The story has been adapted to the stage many times. For a time, in London there was an annual production at the Mermaid Theatre, originally under the direction of the late Bernard Miles, who played Long John Silver, a part he also played in a television version. The late comedian Spike Milligan would often play Ben Gunn in these productions.

Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaption via Mercury Theater on July 1938; half in England, half on the Island; omits "My Sea Adventure"; music by Bernard Herrmann; Available online.

German metal band Running Wild, who are known for their lyrics on piracy, wrote an 11 minute epic on the story on their 1992 album Pile of Skulls.

[edit]

Summary of Treasure Island

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jim Hawkins is a young boy who lives at his parents’ sleepy sea-side inn, the Admiral Benbow, near Bristol, England, in the 18th century. In 1761, An old and menacing sea captain named Billy Bones appears one day, but dies of a stroke in the inn after being presented with "The Black Spot", a secret pirate message which officially pronounced a verdict of guilt. Hastily, Jim and his mother unlock Billy’s sea chest (under pretense of payment for his inn tab), finding a logbook and map inside. Hearing steps outside, they quickly leave with the documents before Billy’s pursuers ransack the inn looking for the same.

Jim realizes that the contents he has snatched from the sea chest must be valuable, so he takes the documents he has found to some local aristocratic acquaintances, Dr. Livesey and Squire John Trelawney. Excited, they recognize it as a map leading to the fabled treasure of the infamous pirate Captain Flint buried on Skeleton Island in the West Indies. Trelawney immediately starts planning an expedition. Naïve in his negotiations to outfit his ship, the Hispaniola, Trelawney is tricked into hiring one of Flint’s former mates, Long John Silver as a cook, as well as many of Flint’s old crew. Only the captain, Smollett, is trustworthy, but Trelawney has fallen under the charismatic spell of Silver and believes him to be the better man. The ship sets sail for Skeleton Island with nothing amiss, until Jim overhears Silver’s plans for mutiny. Jim tells the captain about Silver and the rest of the rebellious crew. Captain Smollett is vindicated in the eyes of the others and becomes the leader of the "faithful crew".

Landing at the island, Captain Smollett devises a plan to get most of the mutineers off the ship, allowing them leisure time on shore. Without telling his companions, Jim sneaks into the pirates’ boat and goes ashore with them. Frightened of the pirates, Jim runs off alone into the forest. From a hiding place, he witnesses Silver’s murder of a sailor who refuses to join the mutiny. Jim flees deeper into the heart of the island, where he encounters a half-crazed man named Ben Gunn. Ben had once served in Flint’s crew but was marooned alone on the island three years earlier.

Meanwhile, Smollett and his men have gone ashore and taken shelter in a stockade they found which Flint had built years earlier. Jim returns to the stockade and tells of his encounter with Ben. Silver visits under a white flag of truce and attempts a negotiation with the captain, but this merely leads to a shouting match. The pirates attack the stockade the next day, and the captain is wounded. Eager to take action, Jim follows another whim and deserts his companions, sneaking off to hunt for Ben’s handmade coracle hidden in the woods.

After finding Ben’s boat, Jim sails out to the anchored ship with the intention of cutting it adrift, thereby depriving the pirates of a means of escape. He cuts the rope, but he realizes his small boat has drifted near the pirates’ camp and fears he will be discovered. By chance, the pirates do not spot Jim, and he floats around the island until he catches sight of the ship drifting wildly. Struggling aboard, he discovers that one of the two watchmen left aboard, Israel Hands, has killed the other watchman in a drunken fit and is seriously injured himself. Jim takes control of the ship, but Israel turns against him in a fight in the rigging. Jim is wounded but kills Israel.

Jim returns to the stockade at night not realizing it has since been occupied by the pirates. Silver takes Jim hostage, telling the boy that the captain has given the pirates the treasure map, provisions, and the use of the stockade in exchange for their lives. Silver is having trouble managing his men, who accuse him of treachery. Silver proposes to Jim that they help each other survive by pretending Jim is a hostage. However, the men present Silver with a black spot and inform him that he has been deposed as their commander. In a skilled attempt to gain control of his crew, Silver slyly shows them the treasure map to appease them, narrowly saving Jim's life (and Silver's) from the fickle pirates. Silver is unanimously re-elected as captain to cries of, "Silver for captain!" and "Barbecue forever!"

The next day Silver leads Jim and the men to the treasure site, but they are shocked to find it already excavated and the treasure removed except for a few stray coins. The pirates are angered and ready to kill Silver and Jim once and for all. At that moment Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney, Ben Gunn, and the others appear from the bushes and fire on the pirate band, killing some and scattering three others throughout the island. Silver at this point has switched sides yet again, and because he saved Jim's life earlier, is accepted warily back into the group.

After spending three days carrying the loot from Ben's cave to the ship, the men prepare to set sail for home. There is a debate about the fate of the remaining mutineers. Despite the three pirates’ pleas, they are left marooned on the island, perhaps a kinder fate then returning them home to the gallows, and much to the glee of Ben Gunn. Silver is allowed to join the voyage to a nearby Spanish American port, where he sneaks off the ship one night with the help of Ben Gunn carrying a small portion of the treasure and is never heard of again. The voyage home is uneventful.

Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesley resume their business as usual despite being thousands of pounds richer. Captain Smollett retires from the sea on his share and lives peacefully in the country. Ben Gunn spends all of his money within a fortnight and soon falls back upon begging. However, he is given a small pension by the Squire and quieted down, "...despite being quite a butt among the village boys, he is now a regular attendant and a notable singer at church on Sundays."

Jim Hawkins is able to run the Admiral Benbow on his own, but suffers in a deeper way from his time on the island. "The bar silver and arms are still where Flint buried them...but oxen and wain ropes would not be able to drag me back to that accursed island...and sometimes I still awaken at night in a cold sweat, with the shill voice of Captain Flint (Silver's talking parrot) ringing in my ears, "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!""

[edit]

Notes

1. ↑ Letley, pp.vii - viii (Stevenson, however, claims it was his map, not Lloyd's, that prompted the book).
2. ↑ *'Where's Where' (1974) (Eyre Methuen, London} ISBN 0413322904 - Norman Island.
3. ↑ "Brilliance of 'World's Child' will come alive at storytelling event" - "He lived in Heriot Row and it is thought that the wee pond he could see from his bedroom window in Queen Street Gardens provided the inspiration for Treasure Island," (Scotsman, 20th October 2005).

[edit]

References

• Cordingly, David (1995). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. ISBN 0679425608
• Letley, Emma, ed. (1998). Treasure Island (Oxford World's Classics). ISBN 0192833804 - contains notes and introduction material.
• Watson, Harold (1969). Coasts of Treasure Island;: A study of the backgrounds and sources for Robert Louis Stevenson's romance of the sea. ISBN 0811102823

[edit]

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Treasure Island

• Treasure Island, available for free via Project Gutenberg
• Treasure Island, with an Introduction and notes by Franklin T Baker (Columbia University, 1909). Fully annotated online.
• Treasure Island, HTML version, includes illustrations by N. C. Wyeth
• Treasure Island in HTML format
• A study guide for "Treasure Island" from TheBestNotes.com
• * Treasure Island*, audiobook from Librivox

Hoadley;
Just so that you'll all now know.

Great! I like knowing that sort of thing. Like, on my "Caramel_Knowledge" 'toon?? "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" is NOT the origin of the "F" word. That's a pure myth.  It seems that it isn't certain what IS the origin, though, because it was considered so dirty nobody would write it down. I saw some suggestion that is was derived from old Dutch, or Windish, or some such.

Holy Crap dphoadley!
Info overload ;)

Attached Link: Etymology and Ramifications of the F Word

dphoadley, remind me to never ask you to explain e=mc2 or quantum physics ;)

Attached Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War

I'm afraid that the minutiae of Atomic energy, or the anomaly of sub-atomic particles changing their behavior in response to being observed is beyond me.  But if you're looking for obscure and arcane knowledge, then click on the link above.
Hoadley

Quantum Mechanics? I think they fixed my car once!

:D

Ha Ha.. Loved this one!! Thanks Much for another smile..

It's not bad,...no, not bad at all...BUT, comming from that part of the world, surrounded by antiquities, I think I like the Egyptian Cat Scan better.
Hoadley

Well, I'm very glad that you all like them!  And thank you for your nice comments. There will be many, many more.  I like all the 'toons I post pretty well. Some more than others, granted, but I'd have a hard time picking a favorite.

(Heh. I've got four of E.A. Wallis Budge's books on ancient Egypt sitting five feet from my right elbow as I type this. Always an interest of mine. )  

Comming from Israel, I'd like to see one with an Israeli Jewish theme, ie say a Russian Rabbi with a Strimel and Side Curles, sitting nest to a Yemenite Rabbi with a turban and side curles, sitting next to an Arab in Keffiya and Galabia- and the passing tourist thinking that some kind of 'Star Trek' like metamorphoses is taking place (which perhaps there is).

Hoadley

from David's link on the F word: "The etymology of fuck has given rise to a great deal of speculation, which should be regarded skeptically. The etymology within the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is only moderately successful in tracing the origin and development of the word, which is reflective of more general frustration experienced by scholars in their attempts to uncover the word's origin and subsequent linguistic evolution." I find this rather disturbing and I'm now going to have extreme dificulty sleeping at night. What can we do to help those poor frustrated scholors? Is there a charity that I can give to that will help them? ;-)

Attached Link: http://helpshaggingscholars.org

Attached Link: Quantum mechanics

Another link for the eternally curious.
D. Platt Hoadley

Eff 'em, I say.   :-D  The sleepless scholars, that is...