{"id":1336,"date":"2016-03-01T15:57:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T15:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2016-03-01T15:57:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T15:57:08","slug":"stranger-seas-seven-things-that-shaped-a-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/stranger-seas-seven-things-that-shaped-a-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Seas: Seven Things that Shaped a Childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"
or A Damp Youth Remembered<\/h5>\n

Today’s post is dedicated to those weird and exciting nautical fictions which started a lifelong interest in aquatic adventures (mostly from an armchair). A couple of weeks ago I talked about growing up on the North Sea coast, and the way in which its bleakness and legends creep up on you (whale-road, widow-maker<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This time I want to expose the soul of a little boy. The authorities wouldn’t let me do that, sadly, and then they took away all my knives, even the one for de-boning chickens. So instead, I’ll just tell you about the joys of encountering some key books, TV and comics when I was young, and the other reason why we have a Stranger Seas<\/strong> <\/em>theme\u2026<\/p>\n

One: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms<\/h4>\n

This wonderful film, originally from 1953, is probably the first real monster film that stuck with me, far more exciting at the time than vampire or werewolf films. The entire concept of a super-dinosaur, the fictional rhedosaurus<\/em>, being revived seemed almost possible to my tiny mind. I didn’t actually believe that vampires existed, but gosh, there had been dinosaurs, and scientists did odd things, so maybe this could really happen!<\/p>\n

\"Rhedosaurus_&_the_lighthouse\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Typically, the rhedosaurus<\/em> is released from hibernation by an atomic test in the Arctic. Feeling peeved, it swims and tramples its way south, heading for New York. Why? Well, it likes sailors and it wants to spawn. Something like that.<\/p>\n

With stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen<\/strong>, how could it go wrong? I should also mention, given my lighthouse keeper father, that the film includes an exciting scene where the rhedosaurus destroys a lighthouse. Clever listeners will know that this part is based on Ray Bradbury’s<\/strong> short story, The Foghorn<\/em>. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure whether to root for the lighthouse or the dinosaur.<\/p>\n