BOC: Imaginos

[Ted Jackson jr.]

On 18 Sep 00, at 10:57, John A. Swartz wrote:

> I've always wondered about the line "and their wives" - seems like
> there should be some significance there.  Showing my ignorance here,
> was Elizabeth I ever married - could she have been the wife of one of
> these Doctors?

No, she was 'the Virgin Queen' though of course she had many
affairs, but somehow avoided [at least as far as history knows]
getting pregnant...


Given that back in those days wives weren't exactly
> considered equals to men in so many respects, I wonder what the
> significance of wives here might be -- I keep getting this impression
> of horror stories where the mad scientist's wife discovers his
> laboratory while he is away, and then he comes back and catches her
> and does something nasty to her...
>
Or, perhaps, he is driven to seek out the dark side by his wife's
demands, or to impress her with his brilliance, power etc...

> This line conjures up images of the "Blue Oyster Cult" story ("left to
> die by two good friends" and the fact that the *Imaginos* liner notes
> mention this in reference to the "shipwreck of the expedition" that is
> told in "Del Rio's Song") - could this be a premonition of things to
> come?  Or was the drowning of Imaginos a retaliation for a similar
> murder years before in the time of Drake?  Taken in this light, might
> the sailor leaving New Orleans in 1829 who would be left to die have
> been a descendent of Drake (or Dee)?
>
It's possible, though Drake died in, I believe, 1596...






> Got to wonder if there was any significance to New Hampshire - just a
> fairly unpopulated area of the new world?  Does the "Hampshire" part
> refer back to England in some significant way?  Perhaps New Hampshire
> and England are at approximately the same latitude?
>
Not too close.  New Hampshire has about the same latitude as
southern France...




> This reminds me of a routine that comedian Robin Williams did -
> talking about sailors giving local townsmen "a few rum drinks" - and
> the next thing they knew was that these guys woke up on the deck of
> the ship and were now unwilling members of the ship's crew.  Don't
> know if this was a common practice, but if it was, might young
> Imaginos have recruited his crew in such a fashion?

Not a really common practice around these parts, but it's the genesis
for the term 'Shanghai'...apparently a quite-common practice in the
far east...

theo