Talk:Pitcairn Island
Other stylistic choices
- The article currently says, in the lead sentence, that Pitcairn is "only famous" for the mutiny.
If the project is to be comprehensive it will cover all the inhabited Pacific Islands, and many of the uninhabited Islands -- not just those which are "famous".
- The article currently says: "Following the events dramatized in the various versions of the Mutiny on the Bounty..."
Another stylistic choice would be to confine mention fictional accounts of the Island to the end of the article. I suggest we should not suggest our readers rely on the fictional accounts -- because they are wildly inaccurate.
- The Trevor Howard-Marlon Brando version portrays Bligh as one of the most cruel and brutal of the Royal Navy's officers. It portrays Bligh ordering a keel-hauling. Keel-hauling was often fatal. It is a bad rap. Bligh, as captain, was authorized to order corporal punishment. The record shows he ordered crewmen to be whipped seven times -- a relatively moderate record for the time.
- The Bounty was Bligh's first command, and he was still a young man. And Fletcher Christian was very young, in his early twenties. Trevor Howard, Charles Laughton and Anthony Hopkins were all decades older than the historical Bligh. Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Mel Gibson are all decades older than the historical Christian.
I suggest we rewrite these sections and confine mention of the fictional accounts to the end of the article.
Cheers! George Swan 09:57, 24 August 2008 (CDT)
Whatever you like! I just made a casual edit here and there. But I can't agree with the suggestion about Mutiny on the Bounty. It should be front and center for a very obvious reason: that is why Pitcairn is known at all (any more than other similarly tiny, remote Pacific islands). This is merely the application of our policy about the lead sentence and paragraph of articles: first, explain why a thing is famous. But I would certainly agree that the elaboration of the relationship of fictional accounts to the actual facts could be put at the end of the article. --Larry Sanger 10:43, 24 August 2008 (CDT)
- Oh, OK. Cheers! George Swan 09:16, 25 August 2008 (CDT)