How could anyone NOT like Cabin Boy???

I just found out there were actually people in the world who didn't like Cabin Boy! How is that even possible? That's like not like Lord of the Rings!

It it the compelling epic saga of how a body raised in the height of comfort and privilege still begets a soul self-unknowingly bereft of happiness. Through fate and misfortune, he is stripped of all the trappings and privileges of his class and forced to live as a slave upon a stinking hell of a floating prison, where he must then struggle against the duality of his own immaturity and ignorance, alongside the mysterious forces of folklore and legend (which are themselves metaphors to explain away that which immature humankind are themselves ignorant of). He does this, crossing the world in a desperate attempt to return home, to his idyllic life in paradise that is all he knows of his past, in and of itself a metaphor for the struggle we all faced, growing up, in transition from teen to adulthood, yearning for the idyllic innocence of our childhood, and bitterly resenting the fact we can never fully return to it, and that, even if we could, we would not wish to remain.

As he nears closer to the ironic conclusion, the love interest he has found along the way (likewise, a girl crossing the oceans in search of her dreams, isolated from everything that she knows and loves), they struggle against their feelings, overcome the awkwardness that plagues every inexperienced love, and later learn to work together to overcome a threat to their newfound home. In doing so, they both realize that they can never metaphorically go back home. For the Cabin Boy, it is the realization that "his people" are no longer those among whom he was raised, but rather those whom have come to accept him as a man in the world. For his love, she realizes she can never got back again to the isolation of a solo existence after having hard-won the acceptance of her peers. And thus, the two return once more to the sea, among the filthy unwashed masses, content to earn their place in the world, and to accept what fate may bring.

And yet, all I get in response is "Dude, it sucked!"

:shk:

that movie was either horrid or hysterical. fortunately, the hysterical parts carried you thru the horrid parts. His tv show was the same way. 28 minutes of shocking, "who the hell greenlit this crap?" viewing and 2 minutes of pure hysteria that made you forget the other 28 minutes.

If you dig his lunacy, pick up The Shroud of the Thwacker. His other book I can't comment on as I never read it but The Shroud was strange and oddballish, like everything else he does.