LONG MOUNTAIN BOOKS
INTRODUCTION TO "SIGNS" CONTINUES
manages to keep Blue Ocean aloft long enough to crash land on a crude airstrip two miles inland from the North Korean coast. The crash breaks the heavy aircraft into three pieces. Only 12 crewmen escape the resulting fire and explosion. Many are injured (two subsequently die from lack of medical care, leaving 2 officers and 8 men in captivity). It is not long before North Korean soldiers appear and take the survivors into captivity.
{Copyright © 2011-2021 Peter Langenberg. All Rights Reserved}
Much of the narrative is devoted to the bizarre world in which the crew found themselves, from the living quarters, clothing, and food, to the North Korean movies shown as “culture”, to the “Rules of Life” posted in the room, to the (usually painful) interactions with the guards (each of whom is given a nickname), to the tirades of the senior North Korean officer (named “Super C”), to the salting of letters home with made-up family relations and references, to the discovery of the ignorance of the captors of the meaning of the raised middle finger gesture, to its frequent use thereafter in North Korean propaganda, to the onslaught of flies and bedbugs, to the crew’s declining physical condition, to the importance of religion to some in the crew, to cutting grass with pen knives, to the “poisoned” apple given to a guard, to the farce of the “international press conference”, to the crude attempt of the North Korean “Man in a Kim Suit” to be “nice” to the otherwise hated Americans, to the drunken sailor cursing a North Korean guard, to the attempt to build a crude radio, to the navigator’s final confession that is utterly ridiculous to everyone knowledgeable of American colloquial language and popular culture (except the North Koreans) ,
<<<<< Back to prior page "Signs"
To go to Home Page with links to all pages
To go to "Contact Information" page
To go to the Computer Data Page re "Signs"
Exploring ideas through fiction