I was vaguely aware that there was a series of books called Dinotopia (Greek for "terrible place"!) but had never read any of them. Naturally, after it had jumped out at me, with a sync-fairy calling card on the cover, I had to pick it up and take a look. There were, unsurprisingly, numerous syncs, only some of which I can get into in this post.
I first checked the copyright page and saw that the book had been published in 1995. I thought, "Wow, that's kind of a long time ago. I was 16." Then, skimming the first few pages, I discovered that the boy on the cover -- the character who rides the yellow-winged ptero -- is named Will and is 16 years old.
I tried to read the book but just couldn't manage to plow through it. James Gurney is an artist, not a writer, and the story -- which really exists only as an excuse for the wonderful illustrations -- is very poorly written. I skimmed it, though, and basically there are two parallel plotlines: Will has to fly his ptero into T. rex territory to get a medicinal plant to save a baby Triceratops; meanwhile, his father, Arthur, takes a submarine down to the titular "world beneath," where he discovers the ruins of the dino version of Atlantis.
The story opens with Will testing, and crashing, a "dragoncopter" designed by his father. This is an ornithopter patterned after a dragonfly. This was a minor sync, because earlier that day I had created a vocabulary quiz for my students. One of the target words was dragonfly, and on the quiz I put a picture of a dragonfly and wrote "The _____ has four wings." The illustration in the Dinotopia book also emphasized the four wings.
Later in the story, a key is needed to open a door in the world beneath. Two of the characters each have a half-key, and these must be combined in order to open the door. Each half-key features a spiral and a semicircle (D-shape), and when combined they form something very close to a lemniscate -- so, another double-D lemniscate sync, combined with the "opening the door" theme.
I was also surprised to run into this picture on p. 68:
Recognize that image? Back in December, I illustrated my post "Nutmeg is a drug" with this meme:
It was just some random meme I had run into a few weeks before and saved because I thought it was funny. (I don't remember where I got it; possibly 4chan or Secret Sun.) When I wrote a post about accidentally taking a psychoactive dose of nutmeg, I remembered that meme and put it in the post. Well, apparently this is where the picture originally came from.
Later that evening, I was at home doing some housework and playing some music on YouTube. I don't have a paid account, which means my playlist is interrupted from time to time with ads. One of these ads had just started playing, and I was going to tap "skip" when I noticed what it was saying: ". . . deep in the trench. It's an ancient ecosystem, untouched by man." Since Dinotopia: The World Beneath had featured an underwater journey to "Gold Digger Trench," home to an ancient ecosystem untouched by man (trilobites, a Devonian Dunkleosteus, etc.), that got my attention. It was a movie trailer, and I decided to watch it to the end to see what the movie was. The title was displayed only in Chinese, but it looked like it must be a sequel to the Jason Stathan shark movie The Meg.
After I'd finished the chores, I got on my computer and looked up the trailer for said sequel, which turns out to be called Meg 2: The Trench. The Dinotopia book not only features "Gold Digger Trench" but also has a minor character named Meg.
Here's the trailer:
Despite the fact that this is a shark movie, the first thing we see in the trailer is a dragonfly, followed shortly by a T. rex. This closely parallels Dinotopia: The World Beneath, which opens with Will attempting to pilot a dragoncopter, "designed after a dragonfly," and then has him go off on a mission to T. rex land. Near the end of the trailer, we see a helicopter fall down into the sea and disappear beneath the surface. This is also the fate of Will's dragoncopter: "The Dragoncopter buried its head in the foam and was instantly dragged down, never to be seen again."
I suppose the name Meg is also another sync with the "Nutmeg is a drug" post.
6 comments:
In the summer of 1995, when I was 16, I was working for the Ohio Odonata Survey — catching dragonflies and damselflies.
William,
On your recent post titled: 'How do U.S. presidents end their speeches',
there was an interesting comment by Mr. Andrew who made a intriguing numerical reference to
3 6 9 and the Golden Mean 1.618.
In the illustration on this post, the spiral on the Keys' is the Golden Mean.
If you recall in a previous post of your blog, I mentioned coiled hair and its connection
to the Golden Mean.
I found the illustration of the Black boy (with coiled hair) very interesting in this post
and also his yellow and coral(reddish) flowered headband.
Coincidently, I have a sync of my own regarding a flowered headband which I just purchased on Etsy a couple of days ago, for a very special occasion, which looks VERY similar to the young boy's headband, although the colors on my headband are different. ( see link )
My flowered headband will also crown my coiled hair which I wear my hair in a 1950's 'Beehive' hair style.
In this post,the illustration on the cover of the book titled: The World Beneath caught my eye because of the colors yellow and red, which you mentioned the color yellow as well in your post.
But IMO, the color red is also significant.
If you recall I shared my perspective about this duality dimension(Earth ) which I believe to be a 'Terrible Place" under/beneath the scorching sun which I believe our Soul 'falls' down to Earth when we incarnate away from the Divine.
If you recall I shared my perspective about Earth (Terrible Place?) being controlled by our Opponents through Maritime Law.
I also shared an interesting dream on your post several months ago, about a dream I had on Nov 22nd 2018 which I titled: Oscar which I won't repeat the dream here.
However through much research I connected several symbolic imagery in the Oscar dream ( Switzerland being one) to what I believe was the 'message' of the dream, which has significance to the word Oscar which is this :
Under the International Maritime Signal Flags, the Letter Flag O for Oscar means: Man Overboard.
Its color is Yellow and Red.
If you're familiar with the Back to the Future series movies, especially the first movie,
there is quite an abundance of yellow and red imagery throughout the move and subtle
reference to Man Overboard including the protagonist Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox)
wearing a 'sailors' life vest .
At the beginning of the clip listen to the soda shop owner
ask Marty if he had 'jumped ship'. ( see 2nd link, titled Cafe Scene)
In the first clip below (titled Marty goes to 1955) check out all the yellow and red imagery, and pay attention to the speed necessary for the DeLorean to transcend 'time' which that speed is 88, so maybe another double-D lemniscate sync?
Recall my commentary about the Octagon( 8's)
Also the keys in the illustration you posted looks as if one of the keys is made of brass
and the other key perhaps made of weathered copper?
Interesting that Marty transcends time in the parking lot of J.C. Penny, which of course
a penny was made of copper. Copper being a conduit of energy.
Marty also attends the prom dance (in 1955) where his parents met, and the prom
theme is Neptune ' Under the Sea' where Marty performs the song ; Earth Angel. ( see
3rd link )
Reference to Fallen Angel's perhaps?
Maybe we all are Man Overboard?
Back to the Future Marty goes to 1955 full scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI14kNnqBDM
Back to the future - Cafe scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-rihCFNsqQ
Back to the Future | Marty McFly Plays "Johnny B. Goode" and "Earth Angel"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_WSXXPQYeY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_maritime_signal_flags
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1247247148/flower-crown-flower-wreath-halo-flower?
Debbie, the spiral is a major theme in Dinotopia: The World Beneath. One of the artifacts from the World Beneath is captioned "Statuette of kneeling Allosaurus figure with double spiral" and has an inscription which, when translated from the dinosaurs' "footprint alphabet," reads "Spiral Master." A picture of a Troodon in distinctive headgear is captioned "Malik, the timekeeper, in his coiled hat." In a tavern scene, dinosaurs and humans drink from "drinking vessels made from giant ammonoid shells" (which are spiral-shaped). The character Oriana Nascava wears a cap with a spiral motif. In a mine, one of the characters scatters some powder on the floor, and "spiral tendrils of giant ferns sprouted from the ground and uncoiled slowly into a lush garden." One caption says simply, "Spiral designs are found throughout the World Beneath."
I'm not sure if the black person wearing the floral wreath is meant to be male or female. The caption says "Lawana," but (like Meg) this person is never mentioned by name in the text itself.
Arthur believes his half of the key is bronze but his corrected by a dinosaur who says it is "orichalc" -- a reference to orichalcum, an unidentified metal mentioned in Plato's account of Atlantis. The material of the other half-key is never mentioned.
William,
VERY VERY interesting indeed !!
What beautiful artwork!
Arthur's key-half does look more like tarnished bronze or something. Apparently the Romans took orichalcum to mean "gold copper", which seems congruent with the other key-half. I guess it could be any colour, really... Think the metal was bright magenta in one game I used to play!
Speaking of which, I'm reminded of two objects, both named Odonata, found in two different games. The one in Guild Wars 2 is a longbow, part of a set of weapons primarily made with amber (orichalcum is another component, funnily enough), each featuring a different fossilised insect -- I note the axe has a butterfly, and Meg's hairtie looks like a butterfly too. The zone where the amber can be found is dotted with mines and caverns, and was the crash site for some airships following their sabotage via a character mind-controlled by a dragon.
The other Odonata, found in the sci-fi title Warframe, is the basic "Archwing" -- equipment which allows for movement above ground, through space and underwater. The underwater levels (one on Earth being named Mariana, after the trench) feature wrecks of enemy bases and ships, along with obligatory shark-like creatures.
Something else, while I'm thinking about this again. I ventured onto TV Tropes to see what they had on Dinotopia (sadly, I didn't leave without a tab explosion). One trope says Lee Crabb, a recurring villain, used the Greek meaning of "Dinotopia" as part of justifying his view that the place isn't as good as it appears.
To quote the rest of the trope's entry: That said, "terrible" has undergone language drift; the Greek deinos meant something like "fearfully great" or "awe-inspiring" — which does describe Dinotopia — while Crabb uses the modern meaning of "terrible" as "really bad", meaning his own argument undermines his point.
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