Talk:Nostromo

Rubberist
According to the article, Mr Gould "is tired of the political instability in Costaguana and its concomitant corruption, and puts his weight behind the Ribierist project, which he believes will bring stability to the country." What is the Ribierist project? The article does not say. -Ashley Pomeroy 16:11, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Ribiera was the political hopes on which the San Tome Mine enterprise rested. His reign provided a moment of calm in the histories of revolution, though Riviera was also the product of a revolution.

When the next revolution started, Ribiera happened to make his escape right through the Occidental Province, right through Sulaco, saved by Nostromo himself. Aleakypen (talk) 20:26, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

A different section for main characters and "warlordism"
It would be nice if someone created a separate section for the main characters of the novel. Such a separation would help avoid some of the awkwardness in the plot summary. For instance, the sentence "Nostromo is what would today be called a shameless self-publicist" seems unnecessary and judgmental rather than descriptive. Similarly, and this has been brought up in an earlier entry in this 'talk' section, the reference to the Ribierist project makes almost no sense unless some details are provided about the government in charge of Costaguana when Gould gets the support of Holroyd and begins his work on the Sulaco silver mine. A separate section for the characters might also do more justice to the character of Decoud who is here, quite incorrectly in my opinion, described as a journalist. If he, as Conrad puts it, "condescends" now and then to write a few articles, he can hardly be called a journalist. Decoud appears to be more of a bored aristocrat who just loves dripping irony on everyone.

I also think that the article would be better if it avoided using the term 'warlord.' Though I am no expert on the concept of warlords, I do think that the denotations and connotations associated with the word give the impression of a far more disorganized state of affairs than what takes place in the novel. The 'revolution' that throws Ribiero out of power seems more like a military coup, but one that is closer to being just a coup because of the personality driven characteristics of its leaders, the Montero brothers. I believe the novel does suggest that while General Montero could have been bought, his brother Pedro was the one who wanted to grow rich off of the mine and other "material interests." In any case, they are hardly warlords. Neither is General Barrios or the bandit Hernandez.

One last thing: Does Nostromo really "set the wheels in motion" as the article puts it? While Nostromo certainly is the key figure - almost the deus ex machina when he returns to Sulaco after leaving Decoud and the silver on the island - in the execution of the plans, he plays little or no part in their formulation.

Newbie777 (talk) 06:21, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Origin of Nostromo
The article says: "Nostromo" is Italian for "mate" or "boatswain" as well as a contraction of nostro uomo — "our man." Unfortunately this is folk etymology. "Nostromo" is actually from Spanish "nostro amo" meaning "our master" and not a contraction of "nostro uomo". As to whether Conrad himself thought of it as meaning "our man" I can't of course say, but he was a good linguist and he might well have known the facts. Sorry if the foregoing sounds pedantic but like many readers of the book I supposed it must be from "nostro uomo" and was surprised to find it wasn't. I'll remove the statement.Campolongo (talk) 17:12, 19 October 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.36.200.75 (talk)

No, it isn't! Nostromo cannot be 'our master'. Our master surely refers to 'commander' or 'captain', which is far from being the case. The job of 'nostromo' was to take care of everyday's people's needs - that is, he was a kind of servant, or a helping hand under the direct command of the officers (first mate etc.). You wrote 'folk etymology, but that's exactly how it is: these people (sailors of different kinds) WERE the folks, and they themselves invented many names for many posts among the crew...

The point is simply that "Nostromo" does not mean "our man".if you think it does, you're just attributing your own ignorance to "the folk". The plain meaning of the word is a rank in the merchant navy something like bosun. Its origin is given in the Dizionario Treccani ("propr. «nostro padrone», comp. di nuestro «nostro» e amo «padrone, capo»).   — Preceding unsigned comment added by Campolongo (talk • contribs) 15:09, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

"Nostromo" is an italian word coming from Catalan "nostramo", a word today still in use in Catalan. "Nostramo" was created in 15th century as an aglutination of "nostre" and "amo" ("our" and "boss"). From Catalan this word passed to Spanish and to Italian. And from Italian it passed to French and Greek. You can read this etimology in Coromines etimological book of Catalan and also in his etimological book of Spanish. And also you can read this etimology in the major Catalan dictionnary, that is the Diccionari Alcover-Moll: http://dcvb.iecat.net/. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.146.18.115 (talk) 19:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Character page needed
I have removed the category tags listing this article as a character. The tags should be placed on a character page for Nostromo if it is created. Eroica (talk) 16:01, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Plot Summary
Gould, adamant that his silver should not become spoil for his enemies, orders Nostromo, the trusted "capataz de los cargadores" (head longshoreman) of Sulaco, to hide it on an offshore island. - I don't believe this is true. Gould wants Nostromo to meet the ship coming for the silver from San Francisco. The idea of hiding the silver on the island comes to Nostromo when he is becalmed in the gulf with daylight approaching. Eroica (talk) 16:01, 25 April 2012 (UTC)