What REALLY happened to Nim's mother?
Nim's Dad said she was swallowed by a whale. Does the book ever reveal anything more?
shareIt's been awhile since I read it, but what I remember is she was studying the whale when the tourist ship came along and scared it. It opened it's mouth and in she went. That's one of the reason's Nim & Jack hate the tourists. Hope that helps.
shareHe definitely made up the story, since in reality a blue whale could not swallow a boat. Their throats are very narrow; thus they live on zooplankton.
I would think that by now Nim, with all her first-hand knowledge of nature, would know that fact. I am surprised she did not demand the true explanation of her mother's disappearance.
>He definitely made up the story, since in reality a blue whale could not
> swallow a boat. Their throats are very narrow; thus they live on zooplankton.
But don't they swallow tons of krill at a time?
Well perhaps it could not swallow the mother down into its stomac, but it certainly could engulf her in its mouth and she could drown. I've heard of a diver who accidentally got sucked into the mouth of a whale shark (also a plankton eater) but managed to escape (had scuba gear on). I think there was also a video clip of a humpbacked whale that grabbed a diver in its mouth and dragged her down quite deep in the water (she almost drowned). Apparently some eco-tourist like pestering whale sharks and whales by swimming with them -- and make the mistake of assuming whales aren't dangerous.
Is it likely? I don't know. I know that whaling back in the 19th century was very dangerous, but I don't know that much about blue whales. A more realistic scenario would be getting attacked and swalloed by a Sperm whale (which are much more aggressive than blue whales, have teeth, and eat meat such as giant squid). Apparently the scene in Moby Dick where the ship was destroyed and sunk by a sperm whale was actually based on an actual incident.
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RIGOLETTO: I'm denied that common human right, to weep.
The OP means the real explanation, not the one from Pinocchio.
shareRemember that this is from a children's book. Here it is exactly as Wendy Orr wrote it:
Long ago, when Nim was a baby, she'd had a mother as well as Jack. But one day, her mother had gone to investigatge the contents of a blue whale's stomach. It was an interesting experiment that no one had done for thousands of years, and Jack said that it would have been all right, it should have been safe - until the Troppo Tourists came to make a film of it, shouting and racing their huge pink-and-purple boat around Nim's mother and the whale. When Jack told them to stop, they made rude signs and bumped their boat against the whale's nose.
The whale panicked and dived, so deep that no one ever knew where or when he came back up again.
Nim's mother never came back up at all.
I doubt if Wendy Orr thought people would get so technical about a children's story from a children's book. She writes for children, not for psuedo-scientists/biologists/etc.
"Never have so few spent so much so quickly to do so little."
share
Well obviously people seeing the movie (at least the adults) did wonder about it. I don't give a damn about the source material; the movie could have supplied an explanation. You're right, I don't make any demands of childrens' books. I don't read them.
shareIt's a kids/family movie. Most adults that went to see it realized that. Nobody questioned whether Shrek was a real ogre. Or if there really are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Nobody asked how Jack was able to build a pontoon boat after the regular boat sank to the bottom of the ocean. Where did he get the wood - where did he get the sail? He did it because he's Jack. Period. They accepted it because it's part of the story.
I took my 11 year old and 7 year old grandchildren and THEY didn't question whether the whale could actually swallow a person. They didn't know it was a blue whale. Or that the blue whale has a small throat. The Bible teaches that Jonah was swallowed by a whale (a big fish). Doesn't say what kind of whale, just that he was swallowed.
What they wanted to know was if lizards could really fly. And what happens next to Nim, Jack & Alex!
Enjoy the movie for what it is..............a sweet children's story. Or don't enjoy it and go see a documentary.
By the way, to the OP, the book is 125 pages of large type. If you're interested in the original story, it's a quick read. (Yes, I read it).
"Never have so few spent so much so quickly to do so little."
I think Nim and her father made her into supper after one too many meals of grubworms.
shareIt's not an animated feature, it's a story with live actors playing human beings. The animals don't talk, the furniture is real. Maybe most children don't care about the adult story, but if the adults weren't meant to care about the human elements, why have two first-class actors with sexual chemistry? It's hardly a minor point (like the building of a pontoon boat) how Butler ended up a single parent and how Nim ended up in need of a mother. Palming us off with a non-explanation in the form of an animated cock-and-bull story is inadequate, and telling us what actually happened to the child's mother wouldn't make it a "documentary." There are a lot of things you can leave unexplained in a movie, but not everything in every movie. I can't evaluate the book, but I've been in writers' workshops where neophytes took on fantasy material -- nursery stories, etc. -- in the mistaken view that it was a license to be sloppy and to color outside the lines. It isn't. Relying on the apathy of a child audience to paper over your own omissions for you is a bit insulting to children, but even if it weren't, it's certainly insulting to adults.
shareI would hardly call it "apathy of a child." And I'm an adult (probably a lot older than you) and I certainly was NOT insulted by this movie. Wendy Orr is an accomplished CHILDREN'S author. I only read the book because of Gerry Butler's attachment to the movie. After I read it, I passed it on to my grandchildren who enjoyed it immensely.
I only came here to answer the OP regarding:
Does the book ever reveal anything more?"not to get into an "intellectual" discussion about a CHILDREN'S BOOK. This back and forth with you is getting boring. You can have your opinion, and I'll have mine.
I'm going outside to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Cheers Everyone!!!
"Never have so few spent so much so quickly to do so little."
share
I'm not insulted by the movie either, because I believe it was an oversight (and perhaps a bit of unfortunate editing). But I would certainly be insulted if they stated your rationale and disclaimed any responsibility for an obligatory scene. There are children's books, and children's movies, that are superb by any standard -- not just by standards set artificially low. See somebody about that boredom thing, because I have a suspicion it's something around the house.
share"The whale panicked and dived, so deep that no one ever knew where or when he came back up again. Nim's mother never came back up at all."
it never says she was eaten by a small throat. perhaps her boat merely was crushed/submersed. maybe she just drowned.
my question would be...why do they HAVE to give an explanation of the mother's death. She's dead when the story begins. What's wrong with leaving it at that. Regardless of it being a childrens story or not. If she died during the movie then I would like to know how/why or whatever. There are a lot of movies that have minor and major holes that they never explain.
share"There are a lot of things you can leave unexplained in a movie, but not everything in every movie. I can't evaluate the book, but I've been in writers' workshops where neophytes took on fantasy material -- nursery stories, etc. -- in the mistaken view that it was a license to be sloppy and to color outside the lines. It isn't."
Exactly. Well said.
That is one of my pet hates.