Me too. I still shudder with the siren sounds today reminding me of that. It was on tv when I was young. It was devoid of hope for me though. To link someone's heart with another's in their horrific time of ugliness, human against human, was unbearable heaviness to me.
Wow, I'm impressed that you still haven't seen Titanic! But yes, reading the Diary of Anne Frank as a young girl was also so heart-breaking and captivating and bewildering.
I wasn’t allowed to watch “The Titanic” when it came out (I was 11 when it hit theaters) but eventually it did air on network television. Some of you may remember that (it was marketed as a major television event). I surreptitiously watched it in snippets during its first television broadcast, but I still haven’t seen the whole thing, either! 😆
Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” was also my historical fixation. I owned the book, the black-and-white film starring Millie Perkins, and the 2001 miniseries starring Ben Kingsley as Otto Frank. In my speech and debate days, I selected a scene from the 2001 miniseries for the Dramatic Interpretation category. There was another girl with a Dramatic Interpretation (or “DI,” as we called it) from the book and we called ourselves “The Annes.”
Oh my. Ok. Hear me out. There’s a PC game from the late 90s called “Titanic…something,” and in it you are a detective on the ship trying to find the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayam (sp?) before the ship sinks. The selling point: the entire ship is built exactly to the specifics of the actual ship. You could explore it as the detective and see all the actual staterooms, dining halls, etc., as they would’ve been in real life. That’s how I’ve come to justify gaming, lol. I see old photos of the ship’s interior and think, “oh, and if you go down that hall, the gymnasium is just to the right,” lol.
I encountered the Titanic by way of radio. Lying in my top bunk one night when I was 11 (because it was the house on Enger) the deep voice of the host of Night Sounds (or something to that effect, I think it was on the Christian station where I also found Fernando Ortega) washed over me, lying under my comforter, as though all that horror and tragedy could be gentled by dulcet tones in the dark. I distinctly remember how awful it was to imagine those flares being sent off over the glacial depths. Flares that no one answered. That was the hardest thing to bear. I believe it was this very experience that made me shun the blockbuster when it came out. I knew someone who saw it 17 times. Why are they all flocking to see a movie that ends in sadness? I shook my head in disbelief.
You had more thoughtfulness and self-control than me, even as an 11-year-old! The flares that no one answered-- yes, it's a haunting image. Could they even imagine it might be frozen in time on the cover of a children's chapter book years later?
Thanks for sharing, Mark! As a child, it's hard to imagine these events happening in the same world in which we move about every day. It was for me, anyway.
I agree – I had a general perception of unreality about historical events. Like they were made from construction paper and lists. The number of dead on both sides was a statistic that was less important than "The Allies Won" until I read survivor accounts and saw photographs. Once the curtain was pulled back I was deeply moved by the tragedy of it all and, for the first time in my life, longed for Jesus to return Right Now.
I too was fascinated with the Titanic as a child, particularly through the “Dear America” book Voyage on the Great Titanic. I also had that same globe.
My first bonding to another's suffering was when I was very small. I saw a Time magazine with a boy with iron arms or legs in the cover. I just stared. I may have been almost 4 because I remember the house we were in. I just cried and stared and hurt. I even write a small story of it. The second was walking by a black and white TV. My dad was watching Imitation of Life. A white boy was beating a girl in an alley against a dirty wall. Calling her ugly names. I stood, paralyzed with terror. I asked him what he was doing and my dad just said he was mad because he'd found her mom was black. That's it. I probably was about 7. I can't tell you the horror that shrouded me with. I couldn't understand meanness and cruelty. And poverty too. I don't think I ever walked away from this. My heart just broke but I never understood. When Titanic came out I was out of all normal loops raising my kids and it sounded more like a hit romance so I never really got involved. Biafara starvation and migrant oppression and black rights, MLK being killed...all carried in my heart and mind was so much overload to bear. But oh how I've tried to!
Tender-hearted Lori... the brokenness of the world IS too much to bear. You are a beautiful example of one who bends low like Jesus, near the broken-hearted.
You always see a beautiful thing in me Elizabeth! Thank you! That is truly like Jesus, always surprising us with his good eyes! I'd thought of your story all night long and this morning wondered if it wasn't you who walked away from your compassion for these people at all. But the movie almost did like a Marilyn Monroe thing upon the whole story. I don't know all about Marilyn, but I always have felt so sorry for her. I see her like a lonely little girl and all anybody could do is make her into a thing to be devoured instead. Her humanity was disregarded, poor little girl. And I wondered if the movie, highlighting whoever the guy was you said, and one love story in the whole tragedy, kind of dissected the real humanity out of it. I think what you left is what they'd raped, not the story and sadness and holy awe that drew you so deeply. I know the Hiding Place story so well, the old movie particularly, and have been led by Corrie all my Christian life. But I think although hers was their own story, it included so many others, without making anybody a star but Jesus. No one story dominated but His. And we leave her book loving him more. Though for me, bonded so dearly to her as well. Maybe stories can only be truly true when seen through his dear eyes. But I wonder if the sadness you felt was what they'd done to your heart. Thank you for all you are sharing here! So much!
I know I was enthralled (and horrified) by stories of volcanic eruptions, but not a specific one. I do remember my fascination with WWII events in the Philippines. We lived there from the time I was five to nine and saw numerous sites like the monument at the end of the Bataan Death March and the island of Corregidor. I remember someone driving us somewhere and pointing to little caves in tucked in the brush and telling us about Japanese soldiers beings found there years after the war who didn’t know it was over. Years later, when I met Kraig’s grandfather we bonded over his memories of being in the Philippines during WWII. I came to find out that he started to tell stories then that he’d never shared.
Have you ever seen the old Disney movie “The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark”? I saw it in theaters when we lived there and it included a story line with two Japanese soldiers like this, but played very lightly, so I never considered the sadness of it. But you’re right! I can’t even imagine.
The Titanic movie came out when I was in 1st grade, and the trailers for it were my first encounter with the Titanic idea. I remember the chatter about the movie at school, but I most remember the Titanic song being played on what felt like alllll the radio stations. We had assigned seats on the bus, and my 5th grader seatmate would sing it every day. I, err, don't want to be uncharitable, but she was an, umm, inexperienced singer at the time. I couldn't really ask her not to sing the song over and over each bus ride, though, because I was a mere 1st grader. This experience bred in me a visceral dislike of the song. I have to admit I still haven't seen the movie because of this. (Though I do love the "Titanic with a Cat" remix of the trailer).
I must also admit that I avoid being mainstream too, and have occasionally missed great things because of it, haha. In my defense, though, the mainstream book when I was in highschool was Twilight. That'll put you off mainstream for good. 😂
Elizabeth! What an essay. The final three paragraphs are some of the best I've read in months. I'm glad you took time to tangle with the significance that brooded just beneath the surface of this fascination. I'll be thinking about that last sentence, especially, for a long time.
That means the world, Micah! Thank you. If you only knew how many forms I’ve tried to wrestle this piece into. I’m glad it finally came alive somewhere. And even more glad it meant something to you!
♥️ I was definitely there for Leo. 🤣 Your remembrance of my obsession made me laugh!
And yes I saw it 4 times, paying my own way the last 3 times. I became a lifelong lover of the Titanic story thanks to the movie, I was definitely not a reader like you! 🥰
Me too. I still shudder with the siren sounds today reminding me of that. It was on tv when I was young. It was devoid of hope for me though. To link someone's heart with another's in their horrific time of ugliness, human against human, was unbearable heaviness to me.
Wow, I'm impressed that you still haven't seen Titanic! But yes, reading the Diary of Anne Frank as a young girl was also so heart-breaking and captivating and bewildering.
I wasn’t allowed to watch “The Titanic” when it came out (I was 11 when it hit theaters) but eventually it did air on network television. Some of you may remember that (it was marketed as a major television event). I surreptitiously watched it in snippets during its first television broadcast, but I still haven’t seen the whole thing, either! 😆
Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” was also my historical fixation. I owned the book, the black-and-white film starring Millie Perkins, and the 2001 miniseries starring Ben Kingsley as Otto Frank. In my speech and debate days, I selected a scene from the 2001 miniseries for the Dramatic Interpretation category. There was another girl with a Dramatic Interpretation (or “DI,” as we called it) from the book and we called ourselves “The Annes.”
Oh my. Ok. Hear me out. There’s a PC game from the late 90s called “Titanic…something,” and in it you are a detective on the ship trying to find the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayam (sp?) before the ship sinks. The selling point: the entire ship is built exactly to the specifics of the actual ship. You could explore it as the detective and see all the actual staterooms, dining halls, etc., as they would’ve been in real life. That’s how I’ve come to justify gaming, lol. I see old photos of the ship’s interior and think, “oh, and if you go down that hall, the gymnasium is just to the right,” lol.
Adventure out of Time! Yes, I had and "played" that game-- but for research, of course. :) I truly forgot about that until you mentioned it!
I got that game in a box of cereal.
Thanks for reminding me that I have a copy of the Rubaiyat I've been meaning to read ever since Malcolm Guite recommended it.
I encountered the Titanic by way of radio. Lying in my top bunk one night when I was 11 (because it was the house on Enger) the deep voice of the host of Night Sounds (or something to that effect, I think it was on the Christian station where I also found Fernando Ortega) washed over me, lying under my comforter, as though all that horror and tragedy could be gentled by dulcet tones in the dark. I distinctly remember how awful it was to imagine those flares being sent off over the glacial depths. Flares that no one answered. That was the hardest thing to bear. I believe it was this very experience that made me shun the blockbuster when it came out. I knew someone who saw it 17 times. Why are they all flocking to see a movie that ends in sadness? I shook my head in disbelief.
You had more thoughtfulness and self-control than me, even as an 11-year-old! The flares that no one answered-- yes, it's a haunting image. Could they even imagine it might be frozen in time on the cover of a children's chapter book years later?
For me it was Iwo Jima. Studying that battle in high school cured me of my fascination with war, its machines, and its machinations.
Thanks for sharing, Mark! As a child, it's hard to imagine these events happening in the same world in which we move about every day. It was for me, anyway.
I agree – I had a general perception of unreality about historical events. Like they were made from construction paper and lists. The number of dead on both sides was a statistic that was less important than "The Allies Won" until I read survivor accounts and saw photographs. Once the curtain was pulled back I was deeply moved by the tragedy of it all and, for the first time in my life, longed for Jesus to return Right Now.
I too was fascinated with the Titanic as a child, particularly through the “Dear America” book Voyage on the Great Titanic. I also had that same globe.
Did your globe also have a hidden sleeve inside for a secret journal? I can share that now that I no longer hide my journal in that globe. :)
Alas, it did not!
My first bonding to another's suffering was when I was very small. I saw a Time magazine with a boy with iron arms or legs in the cover. I just stared. I may have been almost 4 because I remember the house we were in. I just cried and stared and hurt. I even write a small story of it. The second was walking by a black and white TV. My dad was watching Imitation of Life. A white boy was beating a girl in an alley against a dirty wall. Calling her ugly names. I stood, paralyzed with terror. I asked him what he was doing and my dad just said he was mad because he'd found her mom was black. That's it. I probably was about 7. I can't tell you the horror that shrouded me with. I couldn't understand meanness and cruelty. And poverty too. I don't think I ever walked away from this. My heart just broke but I never understood. When Titanic came out I was out of all normal loops raising my kids and it sounded more like a hit romance so I never really got involved. Biafara starvation and migrant oppression and black rights, MLK being killed...all carried in my heart and mind was so much overload to bear. But oh how I've tried to!
Tender-hearted Lori... the brokenness of the world IS too much to bear. You are a beautiful example of one who bends low like Jesus, near the broken-hearted.
You always see a beautiful thing in me Elizabeth! Thank you! That is truly like Jesus, always surprising us with his good eyes! I'd thought of your story all night long and this morning wondered if it wasn't you who walked away from your compassion for these people at all. But the movie almost did like a Marilyn Monroe thing upon the whole story. I don't know all about Marilyn, but I always have felt so sorry for her. I see her like a lonely little girl and all anybody could do is make her into a thing to be devoured instead. Her humanity was disregarded, poor little girl. And I wondered if the movie, highlighting whoever the guy was you said, and one love story in the whole tragedy, kind of dissected the real humanity out of it. I think what you left is what they'd raped, not the story and sadness and holy awe that drew you so deeply. I know the Hiding Place story so well, the old movie particularly, and have been led by Corrie all my Christian life. But I think although hers was their own story, it included so many others, without making anybody a star but Jesus. No one story dominated but His. And we leave her book loving him more. Though for me, bonded so dearly to her as well. Maybe stories can only be truly true when seen through his dear eyes. But I wonder if the sadness you felt was what they'd done to your heart. Thank you for all you are sharing here! So much!
I know I was enthralled (and horrified) by stories of volcanic eruptions, but not a specific one. I do remember my fascination with WWII events in the Philippines. We lived there from the time I was five to nine and saw numerous sites like the monument at the end of the Bataan Death March and the island of Corregidor. I remember someone driving us somewhere and pointing to little caves in tucked in the brush and telling us about Japanese soldiers beings found there years after the war who didn’t know it was over. Years later, when I met Kraig’s grandfather we bonded over his memories of being in the Philippines during WWII. I came to find out that he started to tell stories then that he’d never shared.
Oh my goodness... that part about the Japanese soldiers who stayed hidden not knowing the war was over. That is such a terribly sad thought.
Have you ever seen the old Disney movie “The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark”? I saw it in theaters when we lived there and it included a story line with two Japanese soldiers like this, but played very lightly, so I never considered the sadness of it. But you’re right! I can’t even imagine.
I’ve never heard of that movie, Loren! Honestly I’ve been thinking about those Japanese soldiers all day... it’s heartbreaking.
The Titanic movie came out when I was in 1st grade, and the trailers for it were my first encounter with the Titanic idea. I remember the chatter about the movie at school, but I most remember the Titanic song being played on what felt like alllll the radio stations. We had assigned seats on the bus, and my 5th grader seatmate would sing it every day. I, err, don't want to be uncharitable, but she was an, umm, inexperienced singer at the time. I couldn't really ask her not to sing the song over and over each bus ride, though, because I was a mere 1st grader. This experience bred in me a visceral dislike of the song. I have to admit I still haven't seen the movie because of this. (Though I do love the "Titanic with a Cat" remix of the trailer).
I must also admit that I avoid being mainstream too, and have occasionally missed great things because of it, haha. In my defense, though, the mainstream book when I was in highschool was Twilight. That'll put you off mainstream for good. 😂
Twilight! The worst. If only people knew what it was really like to go to school with vampires. 😉
Agreed! :D
Elizabeth! What an essay. The final three paragraphs are some of the best I've read in months. I'm glad you took time to tangle with the significance that brooded just beneath the surface of this fascination. I'll be thinking about that last sentence, especially, for a long time.
That means the world, Micah! Thank you. If you only knew how many forms I’ve tried to wrestle this piece into. I’m glad it finally came alive somewhere. And even more glad it meant something to you!
fantastic piece.
Thank you, Brooke!
♥️ I was definitely there for Leo. 🤣 Your remembrance of my obsession made me laugh!
And yes I saw it 4 times, paying my own way the last 3 times. I became a lifelong lover of the Titanic story thanks to the movie, I was definitely not a reader like you! 🥰
Haha! I definitely didn't mind ALSO seeing Leo. :) We had some fun times!!