Throughout it is extremely dark, even hopeless. She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her till at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says: "She is gone." The Death Ship really should be recognised as a 'classic' and more widely read. This is the heart of the matter of B. Traven's The Death Ship, and the scenes involving various kinds of red tape (which constituted most of the book) were, for that reason, among the most aggravating pieces of prose I've read in recent memory. Also highly recommend B Traven's series on the Mexican Revolution. Kind of an odd and ultimately unsuccessful book but so rich and prescient in moments it really does feel like a connective spirit between mindsets of the present and of the past (written in 1926?!). Excellent -- I can see that the middle section might be a bit of an ordeal for some readers, and I'll cop to needing the occasional side-trip into something a bit lighter. The people of Tournai bury victims of the Black Death (Wikimedia Commons) Subsequently called “death ships”, those on board were either dead or sick. O my fucking christ, this is the most miserable, insufferable book I have ever read. It is a dystopian indictment of modern bureaucracy at some points, and at others a compelling condemnation of capitalism. I can't think of a better critique of bourgeois culture, bureaucracy, citizenship and nations than this book, however miserable it might be. Abhorring notoriety and public scrutiny, Traven went to great lengths to mask his private life. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. It seems Traven set out in the first half to write a Kafka homage for the interwar period. The Ship of Death (1933) By D.H. Lawrence. The style is not as poetic as Melville, not as precise as Zola, but employs the same ideas as both authors in an equally effective way. The Death Ship tells the story of an American sailor, stateless and penniless because he has lost his passport, who is harassed by police and hounded across Europe until he finds an 'illegal' job shoveling coal in the hold of a steamer bound for destruction. ), The man who called himself B. Traven died in Mexico City in 1969. You get on a "Death Ship. Made it half way through the book...bored! The Death Ship William Clark RUSSELL (1844 - 1911) William Clark Russell is well-known for his maritime stories, for which he could draw upon his own experiences as a sailor in the British Navy. B. Traven may be the most mysterious author of all time, at least in modern days. Unfortunately, but amazingly you can almost smell the disgusting bowels of the death ship because it is so well written. We’d love your help. The style is not as poetic as Melville, not as precise as Zola, but employs the same ideas as both authors in an equally effective way. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. Death Ship is a 1980 British/Canadian horror film, directed by Alvin Rakoff (City on Fire) and starring George Kennedy, Richard Crenna, and Nick Mancuso.. As the film opens, the prickly Captain Ashland (Kennedy) is leading his cruise ship on his final voyage, attended by his replacement Trevor Marshall (Crenna), who has brought along his family. Whatever, he wrote some great stuff. This is my first read by Traven, his first published novel. I could only continue reading because its fucking brilliant, and Traven is a genius. Supremo! This is a ship that no longer makes$ for its owners and so needs to be sunk for the insurance it will bring in. This misery was clearly influenced by the defeat of the revolution in Europe and China, in which Traven had first-hand experience, as well as the development of state-capitalism in Russia. Traven succeeds in making you feel the backbreaking toil, the fi. (Sorry Adam, I know you love it. – "Death Ship!" You don't know at the end, whether he or any other character in London or Orwell actually survives. I've read so many different types of fiction in my life, sadly not all of it good, but this is a book which is unlike anything I have ever read. Grayfox Association board chair Jim Semerad has said Grasty lived on the ship … The last time i caught my self searching for an epilogue that i knew it would not exist, just to find something that would make me feel better from what i had just read,was when i read 1984. I am standing on the seashore, a ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Shipping and handling It's a really terrific novel. The ship’s crew is dead by the end of the week and the pestilence travels to … The Death Ship . Now, both of you have no papers to prove where you belong, and no country will let you stay. He knows! Last Sunday (24th November), many of you will know that the livestock cargo ship, the QUEEN HIND with 14,600 sheep on board and heading for Saudi Arabia, developed a list, capsized and sank in … The humor and hyperbole reminds me of Candide for its. And then some more, just in case you're not getting the point. The Death Ship by B. Traven 1,144 ratings, 4.18 average rating, 155 reviews The Death Ship Quotes Showing 1-5 of 5 “it would have been a rare thing anyhow for an official to come upon an idea that is not provided for in the regulations.” This brilliantly comedic first half deals with themes of identity, morality and poverty. (Bogie was a perfect villain.) Please try again. His socialist view of the world drives this story and it is not a nice view, of course, depending on your own. Like many people who have spent large portions of their life abroad, I've become a connoisseur of bureaucracies -- how to navigate them, their regional variations, etc. It will definitely make you hate your boss a little bit, but at no point turns into some high-handed polemic. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! Traven’s true identity and personal history, however, have remained shrouded in mystery. The Ourang Medan was apparently undamaged, but also uncrewed — until the rescuers went aboard and found everyone dead. Directed by Alvin Rakoff. @pixie.ntu.ac.uk> That is the Equator." and boilers and such, and there definitely is a lot of time spent on the workaday drudgery of the firemen and coal-drags working in the stoke-hold of the titular ship, but I felt this was there for a reason. Next to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, it is his most celebrated work Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Your Face Tomorrow, Volume Two: Dance and Dream Traven was a mysterious figure and this novel, dating from the 1930s, is a mysterious work. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2007. The Death Ship is a 1920s (German) / 30s (English) novel about stateless sailors stuck on a "death ship," which is one so old and decrepit that its only real value is the insurance proceeds associated with its sinking. This is my first read by Traven, his first published novel. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Wobblies and Communists are always in the background, but collective action never comes to s. Traven is a blue-collar Kafka, with the wit and irony of Joe Hill and Brecht. "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is a terrific book and a great movie. When you see B. Traven on the spine of a book, just pick it up. i found myself muttering darkly about the bloodless bureaucracy that runs the world, piling up money that will never been seen by the poor, and the honest workers who do their best to stay afloat. A great story by the intriguing B Traven. Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2015. Dr John Celes - a simple but great observation brought to light through a ship leaving the shore and vanishing from an observer's sight only to come into the purview of another at the destination point. Traven believed that an artist should be judged solely on his work, not on his personal life, and he steadfastly refused to emerge from behind his veil of secrecy. I have shipped out all my life and when I satrted going to sea I met seaman with experience on "Death Ships". No one knows who he was, though most think he lived in Germany and was forced to live because of political turbulence. - … I like sea stories, and I like stories about people who are down on their luck and downtrodden, so yeah, I was bound to like this. I would not have expected to love a novel about sailors and bureaucracy as much as I did this book. Yea, the MC is a total badass but he didnt feel overpowered or holier then thou which felt refreshing. Upon its deck stands the crew, also covered with frost, and huddled around a corpse lying on a canvas sheet. I was interested in this as it was a strong part of the inspiration for the JJ Abrams/Doug Dorst novel S. (with all of its additional elements). A brilliant novel of the interwar period, scathing socioeconomic critique, hilarious and heartbreaking. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Little do they realise that the ship is actually a Nazi torture ship which has sailed the seas for years, luring unsuspecting sailors aboard and killing them off one by one. The captain refuses to accept that they might be dead and explores several possibilities to explain what has happened including the theory that they may have time-traveled. “see that green painted fence, with an E on it? The Death Ship is the first of B. Traven's politically charged novels about life among the downtrodden, which have sold more than thirty million copies in thirty-six languages. The Death Ship tells the story of an American sailor, stateless and penniless because he has lost his passport, who is harassed by police and hounded across Europe until he finds an 'illegal' job shoveling coal in the hold of a steamer bound for destruction. The man who called himself B. Traven died in Mexico City in 1969. What happens if the ship you work on took off in the middle of the night while you were sleeping in Port? The apples falling like great drops of dew to bruise themselves an exit from themselves. Please try again. All correspondence with publishers was directed from a post office box in Mexico City. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Not this one. Kurt Ullrich lives in rural Jackson County. ... &The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A Debut Novelist's 2020 Reading that Mirrors Our Timeline. But Traven keeps the energy high at all times, and I found myself engaged throughout. I first read "Government" by B. Traven and was very impressed. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. "steel masts bend over like candles you leave standing on a hot stove in the kitchen." Some think he was more than one person. Refresh and try again. Build then the ship of death, for you must take the longest journey, to oblivion. 1 Now it is autumn and the falling fruit and the long journey towards oblivion. Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2019. Death Ship  (200)IMDb 4.91 h 30 min1980R A mysterious ghostly freighter rams and sinks a modern day cruise ship whose survivors climb aboard only to discover that it is a World War II Nazi torture vessel. B. Traven (February, 1882? – March 26, 1969?) It will definitely make you hate your boss a little bit, but at no point turns into some high-handed polemic. This misery was clearly influenced by the defeat of the revolution in Europe and China, in which Traven had first-hand experience, as well as the development of state-capitalism in Russia. Traven takes the character from hell to heaven and back to hell again, over and over. Traven believed that an artist should be judged solely on his work, not on his personal life, and he steadfastly refused to emerge from behind his veil of secrecy. The legend continues that the ship always foreshadows the death of … A rare certainty is that B. Traven lived much of his life in Mexico, where the majority of his fiction is also set—including his best-known work, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927), which was adapted as the Academy Award nominated film of the same name in 1948. I like sea stories, and I like stories about people who are down on their luck and downtrodden, so yeah, I was bound to like this. He would be more aligned with Jack London rather than George Orwell but in the end, all three of them insert the unlucky hero into a tale of destruction and sorrow without hope. What happens if the ship you work on took off in the middle of the night while you were sleeping in Port? And die the death, the long and painful death that lies between the old self and the new. Think Catch-22 set in immediate post-World War I Europe and you pretty much have it. B. Traven is an amazing author who I don't blame at all for hiding from the human race in Mexico. Wobblies and Communists are always in the background, but collective action never comes to save the day. This brilliantly comedic first half deals with themes of identity, morality and poverty. Sometime around 1940, somewhere in the western Pacific, the cargo ship Ourang Medan sent out a distress call via Morse code. It seems Traven set out in the first half to write a Kafka homage for the interwar period. Apparently Traven, whoever he was, worked on a ship that was marked for destruction by the owners for the insurance money. This book is ab. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. it was first published by traven in german and that version was translated into english by eric sutton. You know the old adage, "show, dont tell," well, Traven shows you how bad it is, and then he shows you some more. – March 26, 1969?) and boilers and such, and there definitely is a lot of time spent on the workaday drudgery of the firemen and coal-drags working in the stoke-hold of the titular ship, but I felt this was there for a reason. This book is about two"drags": coal shovelers/Ash haulers/furnace and boiler stickers for whom this devilish work is the only thing left for sailors with no papers. To see what your friends thought of this book. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2014. And it is time to go, to bid farewell to one’s own self, and find an exit It struck Europe in 1347, when 12 ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. Anarchists celebrate! Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2009. Unable to add item to List. I like B. Traven's books. Then there's talk of a cold & lighted tunnel under the ocean nearby. Whatever he was, this book is memorable as a Kafka-esque tale of a stateless sailor who is tossed across national borders and ends up on a "death ship" with the job of stoker in a hellish engine room. September 1st 1991 Like many novels written in the aftermath of tremendous human upheavals, Traven writes about what he sees as the economic slavery after WWI, in something of a "golden age" for others. Subsequently called “death ships”, those on board were either dead or sick. If I had to bet, I would say Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were both B. Traven fans. I had read this book about 30 years ago,it had an special effect on me ,reading it again after such a long time make me realize that the world has not change a bit,still who you are and what freedom and service you get in your life depends on which class in society you belong .Good read . The first ship to arrive was greeted with a grisly scene. A rare certainty is that B. Traven lived much of his life in Mexico, where the majority of his fiction is also set—including his best-known work, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927), which was adapted as. Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2016. As the ship grows closer, witnesses report that its sails and masts are covered with frost. b. traven played me like a fiddle with this book. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. It never seems to be able to decide what it wants to be, Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2014. He also authored a series of books I've read, on the Mexican revolution, that are now out of print. Um, wow. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published There are quite a few things going in favor of this novel: it's funny, it doesn't romanticize the life of a high-seas sailor, it has a playfully Kafkaesque view of governments and bureaucracy, and it has touches of the bizarre-absurd that are entertaining. Whatever, he wrote some great stuff. Huh? When he finds himself on the famous Death Ship, the adventure of his life begins, including deadly storms, pirates, and a very particular beautiful damsel in distress. Survivors of a tragic shipping collision are rescued by a mysterious black ship which appears out of the fog. This book starts well and ends well, but a long part of the middle is just really, really boring. "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is a terrific book and a great movie. by B. Traven (Originally written in English in 1923 or 1924, translated into German by B. Traven himself and first published as Das Totenschiff.Die Geschichte eines amerikanischen Seemanns in Berlin, 1926. ... as acted by Humphrey Bogart, in a hypothetical film based on the 1926 novel The Death Ship, written in buffo German by Ludwig von Mises and translated into bobo English by Raymond Chandler, or vice versa, in either case under the pseudonymn B. Traven! Synopsis Those who survive the ghost ship are better off dead! There was a problem loading your book clubs. He would be more aligned with Jack London rather than George Orwell but in the end, all three of them insert the unlucky hero into a tale of destruction and sorrow without hope. The Death Ship is in tune with the underdogs of the world, commenting on class, discrimination amongst classes and even amongst people who work shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised, already our souls are oozing through the exit of the cruel bruise. Soon, the Black Death spread to ports around the world, such as Marseilles, Rome and … Next to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, it is his most celebrated work. The St. Clair County Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a homicide. B. Traven is the author of the book behind the famous movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I've read it 3 times in 30 years with wonder and horror. This book has got it. Please try again. Especially if it's B. Traven writing anything containing a stream or a river or a sea in it, hurry home with it. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Some complain that it gets boring in the middle with a lot of talk about furnaces (hi, Maureen!) His socialist view of the world drives this story and it is not a nice view, of course, depending on your own. Now, both of you have no papers to prove where you belong, and no country will let you stay. B. Traven is the author of the book behind the famous movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. I didn't think Traven could do better but this book was it. The art was penciled by Tom Sutton and inked by Ricardo Villagran, with Robert Greenberger credited as editor. Think Catch-22 set in. B. Traven is a mysterious personality who has been identified as being Rett Marue a German national. You get on a "Death Ship. What happens when it's World War I and countries are being divided up, and you are not in the city you belong to because you are serving on a ship? The Death Ship is the first of B. Traven's politically charged novels about life among the downtrodden, which have sold more than thirty million copies in thirty-six languages. Traven succeeds in making you feel the backbreaking toil, the filth, and the danger of stoking the fires of an ancient, decrepit steamship. Welcome back. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP, WNDU) - Sentencing has been delayed for the grandfather of a Granger toddler who fell to her death from a cruise ship in Puerto Rico. Are oozing through the trade routes of Europe mysterious black ship Doomsday Bug no discussion on. Who has been identified as being Rett Marue a German national set out in the half! 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