Who Inspired Robinson Crusoe? | QI

Who Inspired Robinson Crusoe? | QI 0538am 8.3.25 where is arthur smith these days? i am sure i saw his lookalike in rawtenstall driving past the dole office last year. are they keeping him prisoner until he completes a whole series of voce overs for that show: mend it and fuck off!!? my mum likes that show...

There was another explorer who inspired an important part of another famous book about a far off land. Abel Tasman was the original inspiration for the land of giants in Gulliver's Travels. In Tasmania Tasman saw carved lines in tree trunks very high above the ground. He did not see any people who might have carved them. A more reasonable mind might have deduced that the Aboriginals must have climbed the trees to do the carvings. Tasman, on the other hand jumped to the conclusion that there must be giants living on the island who could easily reach the height of the carvings without having to climb the trees. This myth of a race of giants living on Tasman's island was widely circulated and widely believed despite no one ever witnessing anyone from this community of giants. They figured that the carvings high in trees that Tasman saw as all the evidence they needed.

Jonathan Swift had Gulliver journey to this land, except that he placed it in the Northern Hemisphere, a long way from Tasmania. And of course, as far as I know never acknowledged Tasman's contribution to his book. Nor did he mention Tasmania. He called the land of giants Brobdingnag, and said it was part of North America.

I always loved Jim Moir on this show.

I'm guessing Sue Lawley must have been presenting Desert Island Discs at the time.

Imagine Tom Baker giving you that book! 🤣🤣🤣

I miss Steve's banter And Clive

Peter Rabbit and the Blue Whale

Thanks!

I still find it weird that Robinson Crusoe set sail from Hull

Starbucks is called that because one of the founders had a lecturer at university who said “A solid business name should end in CK.”

They all looked through their book collections for a word ending in CK and just happened to find a copy of Moby Dick which has the character Starbuck. So that’s what they went with.

"Where'd he shoot you, Hands?"
"No, the leg!"

Does Fry still support Israel's genocide?

That's the trouble with living in a cave, people just won't stay away, they say all they want to do is explore it......... :P

I have 'Sodomy And The Pirate Tradition' and it is, indeed, a well researched book; highly recommended.

Funnily enough, Selkirk abandoned the ship because he didn't think its integrity would ensure a successful voyage. It was severely leaky and worm-eaten—so much so that, off the coast of Peru, not long after abandoning Selkirk, the ship (Cinque Ports—a rather ironic double entendre with sink) sank, and many of the crew perished.

William Dampier is well-known in Australia and is taught in Australian schools. The port of Dampier in Western Australia is named after him.

Clive. Can't watch anything with that git in it.

First