The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear

My Dad used to lecture me about the qualities of a story.  A required element for a good story, he’d say, was someone who wants something.  I've pretty much always stood by this rule, and most books I've read have followed it. It even applies to really bad books like Twilight- she wants the boy ( or, in this case, vampire.) Throughout the 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebeard, I’ve been trying to find out exactly what it is that Bluebeard wants, pretty much unsuccessfully.

Towards the middle of the book, I thought he wanted a home.  He spends a few of his "lives" searching for the capital city of his continent, Atlantis, and spends another couple living in Atlantis. He seemed like he was very drawn to the city of Atlantis, but eventually you realize that he isn’t quite at home there, nor does he really yearn for a home in general. When Atlantis is lifted off to a different planet (don't ask) he doesn't seem to care very much. So I don't think he wants a home. He actually seems like a pretty generally content person;  not too fussy, and willing to go with the flow (not like me.)

Throughout the book, he appears mostly as the wanderer; he goes everywhere, drifting around, gains experience and knowledge, but does not really have a goal.  There really isn’t much point to his life.  
 

How there are 3 things to consider:

1) the books could have been badly written (which I doubt because I enjoyed it so much and was just delighted by its cleverness),

2) there could have been many subtle wants that I just missed (very likely) or

3) this rule could be incorrect.   
 

I will cross out “1” because I really enjoyed the book so much that I would hesitate to say anything ill of it.  

Now left over are 2 and 3.  

There could certainly be more subtle themes/wants.  He obviously wants a girlfriend and a family, and even sees his future girlfriend as an illusion to draw him in to a trap.  However, I don’t know if this is the driving factor of the story, though.  Does it need to be?

The other option is that the rule could be wrong.  What about the reluctant hero?  I guess they want to not be the hero? What does Harry Potter want?  A family as well, but does that drive him? Argh! So many books about wanderers, or long series don't have clear desires to me. Oh! I'm so very confused. What about non-fiction? Like biographies? Do any rules apply to those? Do people actually have "driving desires" in their lives that they could write biographies about?  What about all the stories I've written for school? What about small-moment stores? Can a desire drive one teensy tiny moment? Can it drive a series as long as say, James Bond or Nancy Drew? What do they want? Maybeee James Bond wants a family, but it honestly seems like his awesomeness includes not having any real nonsexual desires. And I don't really know Nancy Drew, so I couldn't answer, but maybe she wants to just solve mysteries? The books could all be little parts of her pursuit to happiness.

I end this inconclusively.  Either Bluebeard really wants something I can’t figure out, or this rule is over my head. Either way, I’m the stupid one.    

Romeo and Juliet: Their horrible parental relationships

In "Romeo & Juliet," by William Shakespeare, the title characters rebel against the adults in their lives, particularly, their parents. They do not place much trust in others save for each other, and each only has one adult in their life who is aware of their relationship – Friar Lawrence or the Nurse, respectively. The nurse isn’t even aware of some things half the time. Meanwhile, the parents have absolutely no idea what is going on their children’s lives – partly because they do not really care to ask. Maybe if both sets of parents have been less neglectful, none of this would have happened. Throughout the play, Shakespeare portrays authority as being hypocritical and distant, implying that if adults do not take the time to gain their children’s trust and respect, they’ll lose faith in them and maybe even rebel.

In "Romeo and Juliet", authority is constantly portrayed as untrustworthy (and the parents are Romeo and Juliet’s major authority figures). The Capulet family is obviously unhappy with each other. Lady Capulet is slightly bitter and unaccepting of her situation. She wants her daughter to have the same life as her; perhaps because she’s trying to convince herself that she’s happy and her daughter surely will be too. Lord Capulet is harsh and hasty and very politically correct. He prevents Tybalt from fighting in his public party, but acts almost violently towards Juliet when she refuses to marry Paris. "Fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next to go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither." (3.5.158). His conflicting actions are because does not believe in public fighting but he thinks that his daughter must always obey him, as society states. This is rather awful and hypocritical of him; how is she supposed to respect him enough to obey him when he is cruel to her because of her position in society? Or is she just meant to obey him mindlessly, like a robot? The Montague family, on the other hand, hardly speak to Romeo – when they’re worried about him they send Benvolio, his cousin, instead. They lack the means and/or inclination to talk to him themselves. Montague says " I would thou wert so happy by thy stay. To hear true shrift--come, madam, let's away." (1.1.169). Both sets of parents are woefully ignorant about what currently happens in their children’s lives.

This ignorance is really a whole lot of the trouble. Romeo and Juliet lie to and deceive their parents, leading to their ignorance. So really, it isn’t just the parents being neglectful in the relationship, its Romeo and Juliet as well. Sometimes their parents are just trying to be good but get fed up when their kids aren’t receptive – take Lord Capulet’s attempted marriage of Paris to Juliet. He wants to marry her off to cheer her up, despite the fact he’d said he wanted to wait some years (being hypocritical, tsk!) because he believed she was depressed and mourning for Tybalt. Earlier, he'd told Paris to woo her, because "my will to her consent is but a part." (2.1.17). Later however, he forces her into it. This further disturbs their mutual trust and love, and all because apulet is ignorant. Obviously, there would have been many things he’d have done if he was better informed (and aware of her marriage to Romeo) but try to cheer her up by marrying her to someone else is not one of them. If he’d known, they may not have ended up dead, because Juliet wouldn’t have been engaged to Paris, and therefore wouldn’t have felt the need to fake her death. None of it would have happened (unless of course, you believe in fate, but that’s a whole different coconut.)

Because of this mutual deception and negligence, there is a visible lack of trust between the two and their parents-- they may doubt that their pparents will go along with their own wishes rather than society and politics (rightfully, I think.) They are afraid of betrayal. When Juliet is despairing over Romeo's banishment, her mother asks after her condition, and she says "yet let me weep for feeling such a loss." (3.5.77). This is very deceptive, because it really means the loss of Romeo, when Lady Capulet believes they're talking about Tybalt. In the same conversation, Juliet tells her mother "Madam, I am not well." (3.5.70). She is well, but trying to cover up the fact that moments ago, Romeo had been in her bed. She goes to such efforts to hide these things from her parents because she is certain they will betray her. The lack of trust in the relationship is evident even since the very first scene. Juliet confides in her nurse, and Romeo in his priest – things must be pretty dreadful between you and your parents if you're confiding in others before them. This lack of trust also leads to Romeo and Juliet not particularly caring for their parents' love and support of their wedding. Gentle and mild Juliet even proposes herself! "If that thy bent of love be true, thu purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow.." (2.2.149).

Conclusively, I would say that Romeo and Juliet have pretty awful relationships with their parents, due to lack of effort and trust, and this may have driven them to seek so much love and approval from other parties – namely each other. If Romeo and Juliet had their parents’ unwavering support and approval, they would never have gotten together (even if by the idea that they would have, in this case, been aware of the affair and stopped it.) So I suppose it is meant to be that Romeo and Juliet had such awful relationships with their parents. If they really trusted each other, ultimately the feud would never have been settled.

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear

I am currently reading The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear.  I began reading this mainly because it had an interesting cover, but I have been really enjoying this book. Not enjoying the book like a 'whoa I really like this book I'm gonna stay up 'till 3:00 reading it,' but like 'O Lordy, this is a marvelous book I will treasure forever and maybe even, god forbid, reread.'  The kind of book you're not so excited about that you want to finish quickly, but the kind of book you want to read slowly so as to prolong the sacred act of soaking in its pages. Anyways, being only a hundred pages in or so, I don't necessarily have such a great grasp of the plot, but so far the author has just portrayed the protagonist drifting around and living with different strange creatures and learning strange things from them. In each of Bluebear's so- called "lives," he lives with a different group of people, but eventually has to leave. I think the author here is hinting at the theme of ending, and all things ending, and how all the experiences in your life are pretty connected in the fact that they all end, and usually in not so great ways. The subsequent endings of Bluebear's lives thus far include:

Life 1: Being ditched on an island for growing too large.

Life 2: Fleeing who he's living with (hobgoblins) in fear of becoming despicable like them.

Life 3: Nearly being eaten by the candy- filled island he's living on that actually turns out to be a creepy large creature and saved by a strange dinosaur- like bird thing in the nick of time.

Life 4: Being given up in favor of retirement.

I wouldn't say that any of these unfortunate occurances are Bluebear's fault at all (except for maybe the second, but who wants to be like a hobgoblin?) -- so maybe the author is pointing out  how every little thing in your life will end, and there's not a thing you can do about it, because it's not your fault and it's not under your control. Maybe he thinks that as a person you are not in control of anything-- after all, all Bluebear's been doing for the duration of the book is drifting, getting to other places accidentally, but not staying long, and just going where the tides take him-- sometimes literally.

Critically reading over what I have just written, I've realized that it sounds a lot like what Ms. Rear talked about with Romeo and Juliet-- fate. I think that the author of this book must be a big fan of fate, even if not in the way Shakespeare is. Bluebear may not be fated to end an ancient feud with death, but I feel like, no matter how insignifigant his life has been so far, all of this stuff has been decided for him. He has no control and everything is following a pattern- faaaate.

All of this talk makes me wonder what will happen at the end of the book. I seldom blog on a book without finishing it, for fear of making uneducated (in that book) and incorrect assumptions. But if each of his lives are fated to end in this manner, and we're on 5 out of 13 1/2, I wonder how and if he'l die. It's hard to predict what will happen later in this book, because the narrator speaks as one telling back their story, so he must be alive at the end, but if he is, that doesn't follow the pattern. Maybe he has 13 1/2 lives because the last 1/2 life is used writing this book peacefully till death? Anyway it may be will be interesting, and I look forward to seeing all my theories proven useless later in the book. Conclusively, I would say that this book is excellent, and possibly thematic, depending on if I'm right. Either way, the book is worth reading if only to be able to say you're reading a book about Captain Bluebear.