Skip to main content

Pirates of the Caribbean: At (story)World's End

By
I racked my brain for days trying to think of novels I’ve read that have violated their own canon of probability. I know I have put plenty of books down out of frustration, but no specifics came to mind. I could feel the aggravation but could not remember the book or scene that caused it. I could think of authors who purposefully violated their own canon of probability, such as Hunger Games (winners of the games weren’t supposed to go back but Katniss and Peeta did) and Twilight (a vampire who's been dead for nearly 80 years could get a human pregnant). But these weren’t accidental violations. These were all so that the author could extend the narrative and make more money off of book and movie deals.


 I decided to take a brain break and watch a movie. I inserted Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End into the DVD player. (I know there’s controversy around Jonny Depp, but I’m here for Orlando Bloom and Kierra Knightly, swear.) And, then, it hit me.


 The captain of the Flying Dutchman was cursed by Calypso. He cannot go on dry land for more than a single day every decade or he will turn into a creepy fish-like thing, or whatever it is you want to call Davy Jones’ octopus face. This curse makes the ending of the movie heartbreaking. Will Turner, who is now captaining the Flying Dutchman, spends his one day on land with Elizabeth before he must leave for another ten years. Will must carry the lost souls of the sea to the afterworld for another ten years before he can return to his wife. I cried the first time I watched this scene.


Except!


I think I found a loophole.


The canon of probability has been violated in this narrative!


There is a scene in At World's End in which Davy Jones “stands” on dry land in a bucket of water. It is super strange and, at first, I tried to imagine how they got him from the ship to the bucket of water without his feet touching dry land. But if you look closely, you can see a line of buckets coming from a rowboat. He must have used the buckets of seawater like stepping stones until he reached the place on the beach the meeting was to take place.


Couldn’t Will make some sort of contraption to ensure he remained in the water while still being with his family? He would still have to ferry the dead to the afterlife, but couldn’t he take a few days off every month in order to see his wife and son? I’m imagining Will sitting on the beach inside a fish tank while his son plays in the sand. Again, super strange, but less sad than what the directors wanted us to believe. And I’m all for happy endings, especially when the canon of probability allows for this kind of loophole.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"You don't look like your dad!" Tales of Legal Adoption

By Anonymous
"You don't look like your dad. You must be the spitting image of your mother!" or "Your brothers look just like your dad! I bet you take after your momma." I heard these statements a lot growing up. And it's true. I don't look like my dad. And for a while, I didn't really look like my mom. I do now, but that isn't the point. You see, my dad adopted me when I was around six or seven years old. He had been a part of my life, for, well, all of it. When my mother and biological father (sometimes I refer to him as my sperm donor, because I think it's funny, but his name is Chris), got divorced, my dad, Kenny, married my mom resulting in a blended family of me, who was biologically my mom's, and my two brothers, who were biologically his. Suddenly I went from being the only child to being the middle child in a family dynamic that takes a lot of explaining to do. They say divorce and the things I supposedly went through in my early childhood...
Post a Comment
Read more

Melanie and Melanie: Growing up with Separated Lesbian Moms in the South

By
I came from a sperm bank, well I came from a vagina, but first I came from a sperm bank. That’s not generally my opener, but we need to make it clear. My moms discovered their sexuality long before I came along in 1992. When I was three, they separated. Gay marriage had not been legalized up to this point, so there was no divorce process involved. However, my mama, Sharon, she gave birth to me, and she wanted full custody of me. My other mom, Sylvia, worked tirelessly to pay for my existence and Sharon’s pregnancy care; she loved me, and I was her child no matter what. They went to court, and Sylvia became one of the first lesbian parents in the state of Texas to receive shared custody of a child that was not biologically hers. In some cases, this still doesn’t always happen, particularly in cases with gay and lesbian parents, regardless of how involved the parent is in their child’s life. “Who do you want to live with?” Flash forward seven years or so, and I’m being given more...
Post a Comment
Read more

Speech in its essence is not neutral.

By
“All fiction can be profitably regarded as argument” The OED Online defines “profitably” as: “with advantage or benefit; usefully” ("profitably, adv."). “Profitably” caught me off guard, but when I consider it in this junction, I’m inclined to agree. I found this quote in a work by Ronald Sukenick called Narralogues: Truth in Fiction . Sukenick makes this argument after establishing that he finds “significance” through the narrative as opposed to the plot. When I originally read the word “profitably” I felt myself wanting to be in disagreement with the claim because of the monetary implications of “profit.” Then again, I found it hard to make a case for a work of fiction that didn’t stand to gain from profit. We all have writings (and maybe even written narratives) that we don’t plan on showing to the world, but it’s hard to imagine not being willing to exchange those writings when offered money. That’s not an ideal way of thinking, but we don’t live in an ideal world. ...
1 comment
Read more