Talk:The Call of the Wild/Archive 1

Page move was wrong

The change from "The Call of the Wild" to "Call of the Wild" is incorrect. The title of the book is "The Call of the Wild," with a "The." The word "The" is a part of the title.

Daniel Dyer's annotated edition gives its title as "The Call of the Wild." Russ Kingman's A Pictorial Biography of Jack London gives its title as "The Call of the Wild."

The Library of America edition of Jack London's Novels and Stories gives its title as "The Call of the Wild."

Joan London (Jack London's daughter) refers to it in Jack London and His Times as "The Call of the Wild." It appears in the index to that book as "Call of the Wild, The."

Clarice Stasz, in her book, Jack London's Women," refers to it as "The Call of the Wild." In the index to her book, it appears under "Writings and Film Adaptations" as "The Call of the Wild," where it is alphabetized as if it began with C but the word "The" is present.

At http://sunsite.berkeley/edu/London/Writings it appears in the list of writings as "The Call of the Wild" (alphabetized under C).

I can find no example whatsoever where the title is given without the word "The." Dpbsmith 01:17, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC)

i think that many people have many different opinoions so this site is not that accurate because any one can add anything even if it's not true —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.140.155.178 (talk) 03:29, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

wording

Someone pointed out to me that the sentence When Thornton is killed by "Yeehat Indians," Buck returns to the wild is incorrect. According to this person, Buck was raised by a lawyer, and thus was never in the wild in the first place. Having never read the book, I thought it best to solicit the opinions of those who have. →Iñgōlemo← ^talk donate 02:58, 2005 Feb 14 (UTC)

I think "Return" is meant here in the sense of returning to your ancestors. Buck has memories of older times, something like a collective memory of dogs or maybe genetic ones? anyway, in that sense, he goes back to the wild. This represents the dog as a species, not buck as an individual. Also, his return to the wild is process, beginning with his arrival to Alaska, and maybe even earlier. Thornton's death is just the last straw, where his last contact to civilization is severed.

Duck was not raised by a lawyer but by "Judge Miller". And the book is not really about dogs but is about Humanity; the dog represents what is civilized in us and as Buck becomes a wolf he represents what is natural or instinct. Patrick (talk) 22:01, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. But you can't necessarily say the story is a human allegory; that's still a hot debate. 24.16.140.61 (talk) 02:46, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Back to the main point, of "returning to the wild", i just turned it into "turn(ed) to the wild". I hope you'll agree that it's better this way. -- Jokes Free4Me (talk) 13:48, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Buck

I added an entry and made a line to Buck. I'd appreciate it if anyone can expand on it.

128.139.226.36 3 July 2005 20:03 (UTC)

Actually, when London uses the word "return" it is referring to the time Buck spent with the timberwolf who initially made the "call" and Buck came back, only to find John Thornton dead. Thus, "returning" to the wild is correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.205.146.12 (talk) 07:58, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Erm, Buck doesn't find Thornton dead when he runs with the timberwolf, he finds Thornton dead after killing a moose. Raiespio (talk) 19:20, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

I have an Essay for the first 4 chapters (to pg. 29) about Buck's transformation from a pet to a "Dominant Primordial Beast", does someone want to see and/or add to it; maybe it can be added to the page. Patrick (talk) 21:55, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

"a wilderness valley called the Nahane..."

"A few readers claim careful reading of the directions would place the final part of the book in the Northwest Territory in a wilderness valley called the Nahane. The Nahane has a mystical reputation on its own."

I'm frankly skeptical about this. I've never heard of it, we have no article on the Nahane. It's presumably a reference to the Nahane Indians[1]. But Dyer's annotated edition of The Call of the Wild mentions no such thing. If a source citation is not provided—what readers, precisely, make this claim?— I intend to remove it as original research (see WP:NOR. All Wikipedia content needs to be traceable to a published source. Dpbsmith (talk) 00:09, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

External link policy reevaluation

I run a start-up non-profit web site titled SearchLIT.org with the goal of identifying, collecting and organizing great links and information around public domain books for educators and students. A book, such as "Call of the Wild" on SearchLIT.org identifies important information such as grade level and age appropriateness, plus links to wonderful supplementary sites (including Wikipedia) and value-adding lesson plans and quizzes for teachers when appropriate. It is not a commercial site at all. I invite you to check-out SearchLIT.org's text record page for "Call of the Wild" at: http://www.SearchLIT.org/elibrary/viewnovel.php?novel_id=270

After reviewing the contents of this page, do you agree that this provides a strong complement to Wikipedia's page? If so, do you feel that adding this as an external link is suitable? If not, how can I add help Wikipedia with the information that I have collected? Note: this unsigned post was made by Searchlit (talk)

I have re-added the external link to Searchlit, without the spammy taste. They are a non-profit non-commercial site, and I believe the perception of linkspam is an education issue for a new user. WP:NOOB applies here, so I've added back the link and will discuss the issue with the user directly.--Brad Patrick 05:27, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. I've removed it and I see that some other commercial links have been inserted and I've removed them too. Although the SearchLit page itself is not obvious spam, every link I clicked on turned out to link to an advertising-heavy page. Dpbsmith (talk) 13:56, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Law of club and fang

I added a merge suggestion to the Law of club and fang article, suggesting that it should be merged into this article. It would, of course, have to be edited, but that Law of club and fang would be a reasonable redirect page for this article. FlowerpotmaN·(t) 01:22, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree with "FlowerpotmaN" Patrick (talk) 22:09, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Banned?

Zittrain writes in The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It

Imagine a world in which all copies of once-censored books like Candide, The Call of the Wild, and Ulysses had been permanently destroyed at the time of the censoring and could not be studied or enjoyed after subsequent decision-makers lifted the ban.

The Wikipedia article doesn't mention when or why The Call of the Wild was banned nor who banned it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.76.32.182 (talk) 00:55, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

It's all over the web that Mussolini banned it, but it is not clear why he bothered. It would be a good addition to the article if someone would dig into this. fotoguzzi 69.64.235.42 (talk) 02:04, 12 August 2009 (UTC)