Conrad references

[HuDaFuK]

I'm sure Joseph Conrad references in the Alien series have been discussed before, but not, it seems, at all recently. Rather than reopening some ancient thread, I figured I'd just start a new one.

I'm sure there must be some I'm not aware of. These are the ones I know, off the top of my head:

The films:
*Alien - USCSS Nostromo - from the book Nostromo
*Alien - Narcissus - from The N*gger of the 'Narcissus' aka The Children of the Sea
*Aliens - USS Sulaco - from Nostromo
*Alien 3 - Patna - from Lord Jim (only named in the film's novelization)

The games:
*Aliens versus Predator 2 - USS Verloc - from The Secret Agent
*Aliens vs. Predator - USS Marlow - from Lord Jim, Chance, Heart of Darkness and Youth
*Aliens vs. Predator - USS Fidanza - from Nostromo (mentioned in Major Van Zandt's backstory)
*Aliens: Colonial Marines - USS Sephora - from The Secret Sharer

Anyone know of any others?

[Liberator]

Who is he?

[HuDaFuK]

He was a Polish author (although he lived in Britain for a lot of his life). It's something of a tradition to name spacecraft in the Alien series after things taken from his novels and short stories.

[Liberator]

He wrote Heart of Darkness, right?  Which was made into the movie, Apocalypse Now?

[HuDaFuK]

Yeah, that's the guy.

[SM]

Pretty well all the ships mentioned here have some connection to either Conrad stories or the man himself.

[HuDaFuK]

I've often wondered about the veracity of all that backstory taken from Ridley's notes, because most of it is completely contradicted by what is written in the crew files seen at the inquest in Aliens...

[SM]

I don't think that is taken from Ridely's notes.  I'm pretty sure it was written by the people who put the Legacy DVDs together.

However since the inquest in Aliens is almost entirely in jokes, I'll take the stuff that's written in-universe and has correct dates.

[HuDaFuK]

That's true, the dates in the Aliens notes don't really make any sense at all. From memory, they claim the Nostromo didn't even leave Thedus until a decade or so after it was actually supposed to.

[SM]

Most of that stuff isn't meant to be seen.  It's background colour.  Ditto the date on Amanda Ripley's photo which is also incorrect.

[RobThom]

I dont know much about conrad that cant be easily gleaned from wiki.

But I did check out "the Duel" on audio book (I'm not a good reader), and he's a good writer.

One of those really good pre-pop writers like Jack london.
Theres an argument that London was a pop writer,
and thats true.

But he was a good one.
Like Alien was a "good" monster movie.

The book (the duel) is deeper and more subtle then the movie.
(The movie is better in a different way.)


Recommended!

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

I've often wondered about the veracity of all that backstory taken from Ridley's notes,

If any of it was adapted from Ridley's notes, he did mention that he didn't have an idea about a specific year that Alien was set

[RobThom]

I'm to a degree that I've wondered whether Ridley is literate?
Wether he knows how to read!
After allegedly reading the prometheus script.

There is a question there,
how did he go from Conrad to lindelof?

Was it just a matter of aping Barry London and he heard that Conrad was an available property?
(Thats very possible! His greatest achievement was aping Star Wars.)

[HuDaFuK]

how did he go from Conrad to lindelof?

Conrad had nothing to do with writing Alien...

[SiL]

Ridley Scott's first movie was The Duellists, based on a Conrad story.