Sorry I’ve hardly been here, but I needed recuperative time back home with the family. On both plane flights, however, I amused myself with the first book in the aforementioned Sandokan series. It’s quite a lot of fun in an adolescent sort of way, and I don’t mean that as a bad thing, but I’ll save the review until I’ve finished it.
What I will point out now, however, is the discovery I have made of just how large a cultural phenomenon this Sandokan thing has apparently been for decades… all without those of us in the English-speaking world having even the slightest clue. Up above is the opening to an Italian miniseries from the 1970’s, (you may recognize the very simple tune as that of the Sandokan cartoon I mentioned last time) but if you really wish to see how ubiquitous the series is, take a look at this fairly recent footage from an Italian talk show, in which they did a big karaoke of the song: I mean, clearly everyone knows the thing. My girlfriend likened it, quite aptly, to knowledge of the Fresh Prince theme to Americans of our generation (20-somethings, mostly). (Speaking of the Fresh Prince, I Am Legend was a great movie, and I’m gonna read the book very soon… but I digress.) Not to turn this into some sort of Youtube blog, but if you’d like to see goofy footage of the 1970’s Sandokan fighting a tiger, you can do so right here.
But to really see what we anglophones have entirely missed out on, the best place to look may be ROH Press’ own site. Granted, those selling Sandokan books have good reason to drive home the character’s popularity, but one still can’t argue with the list of quotes at the bottom of the “Shops” section: Umberto Eco, Isabel Allende, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Pablo Neruda, Che Guevara, and many more are quoted professing their love for Sandokan and/or the works of Emilio Salgari. More than one person cite the way in which Salgari’s dissuade developing children from becoming racists–high accolades indeed.
Forgive the scattershot approach here, but I felt that, aside from getting into my own personal feelings when I have finished the book, it was simply worth pointing out the wealth of warm feelings that already surround Salgari, and his most famous character. Oh, and I really wanted to post that theme song, ’cause the shit gets stuck in my head like nobody’s business.
