Friendship proves crucial to adventure’s success

A boy's own adventure that is hard to put down

David Breen | Dec 11 2017 | comment

King Solomon's Minesby Rider Haggard
written for ages 13-16 | highly recommended
published in 2008 (1885) | Penguin Classics | 320 pages

A triumphally-survived trek to the edge of a wealth-filled legend is always an attractive mix for young and not so young readers alike. Throw in a tragic elephant hunt, a war with massive carnage, and the discovery of enough diamonds to make it all worthwhile, and you have a boy's own adventure that is hard to put down.

Sir Henry Curtis, a wealthy Englishmen; Good, his steadfast companion; Alan Quartermain, guide and the tale’s narrator; and Umbopa, a mysterious and majestic native servant, set off in search of Curtis’s estranged brother. They travel to an inhospitable land that could easily win first-prize in any ‘heart of darkness’ contest. None believe that the formidable task ahead offers many opportunities for success. But readers and protagonists alike are not left without that most essential ingredient of any true adventure: hope! In this 1885 Raiders of the Lost Ark prototype, along with experience, courage, and the author’s licence to sprinkle in good measures of luck, everything needed to make 120-mile desert crossings, to scale 5000-ft mountain peaks, to overcome the wiles of a cruel king and his evil and ageless sorcerous, and to survive the shock of discovering the frozen remains of one who had already tried a similar trick, 300 years previously, is safely within reach.

When irreversible decisions are being made, we are told “…the unknown and the awful always bring man nearer to his maker.” On this journey, they also bring him closer to his neighbour.

In spite of the ostensive native-servant/white-master backdrop, in some way, this is a tale that offers a way-forward for interracial harmony. From the beginning, Umbopa, the future king, manifests -in a non-violent manner- his dignity to his white travellers; and as the story unfolds, the reciprocal acceptance of this dignity develops. But more than a grudging appreciation of equal ability and strength, the bridge that allows mutual respect to cross is self-giving. The conscious self-sacrifice of a native for one of the party on an elephant hunt sets the pace. Little by little, we realise that the destinies of each of the protagonists are dependent upon their ability to give themselves to each other. It is clear in the end that the success of the trip rests more on the establishment of true and lasting friendships than on newly acquired fortunes.

While the message is subtle, the action is not.

David Breen is a primary school teacher working in New Zealand.

December 11, 2017

Today’s lead article, the first of two about Mexico’s most iconic works of art, provides an interesting angle on the Russian Revolution centenary marked this year. Mexico had its own Marxist inspired revolution in the early twentieth century and the murals described by James Bradshaw were commissioned by the government to legitimise their revolution.

Ironically the artist, Diego Rivera, was working on “The History of Mexico”, illustrating how history was moving inexorably towards a Marxist heaven, at the very time (from 1929) that Stalin began his systematic murder of millions of landowning peasants in Russia.

Mr Bradshaw’s second article, about the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, will appear tomorrow, which happens to be her feast day in the Catholic liturgical calendar.