(no subject)
I was just browsing the Titanic page on Wikipedia as light reading when I found Raise the Titanic!, a book from the mid-70s by Clive Cussler. I remember watching the movie on daytime telly.
Which reminds me of something I haven't thought of in a couple of years: when I was eleven or twelve I read my way through Clive Cussler's novels, which were about a lantern-jawed Gary Stu called Dirk Pitt, who lived in an aeroplane hangar with his vintage car collection. He had blazing green eyes and wavy hair and I think spent most of his time discovering shipwrecks and going on other improbable expeditions. Then at the end of the book he'd banter with an attractive woman and ride off into the sunset, lantern jaw lanterning and blazing eyes blazing.
It was like a mix of Thunderbirds and Indiana Jones and James Bond but far more cartoonish and formulaic than any of them. The flame of that particular craze burnt hot but not for long.
I recommended them to a few people when I worked in the bookshop, though: teenagers and old men who liked Micheal Crichton and wondered if we had anyone else like him.
Probably the most glaring example of a Gary Stu that I can think of. Pun intended.
Which reminds me of something I haven't thought of in a couple of years: when I was eleven or twelve I read my way through Clive Cussler's novels, which were about a lantern-jawed Gary Stu called Dirk Pitt, who lived in an aeroplane hangar with his vintage car collection. He had blazing green eyes and wavy hair and I think spent most of his time discovering shipwrecks and going on other improbable expeditions. Then at the end of the book he'd banter with an attractive woman and ride off into the sunset, lantern jaw lanterning and blazing eyes blazing.
It was like a mix of Thunderbirds and Indiana Jones and James Bond but far more cartoonish and formulaic than any of them. The flame of that particular craze burnt hot but not for long.
I recommended them to a few people when I worked in the bookshop, though: teenagers and old men who liked Micheal Crichton and wondered if we had anyone else like him.
Probably the most glaring example of a Gary Stu that I can think of. Pun intended.