Desert island

:For the island off the coast of Maine, see Mount Desert Island.

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A desert island is an island, usually placed in the Pacific (and thus tropical), that is uninhabited and sometimes uncharted. In the popular imagination, they are remote locales that offer escape and force people marooned or stranded as castaways to become self-sufficient and essentially create a new society. This society can either be utopian, based on an ingenious recreation of society's comforts -such as can be seen in the novel Swiss Family Robinson and in a humorous form, in the TV series Gilligan's Island- or a regeneration or even regression into savagery -a theme of William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Related Topics:
Desert island - Pacific - Tropical - Utopian - Swiss Family Robinson - Gilligan's Island - William Golding's - Lord of the Flies

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Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe is the quintessential story of this kind. Since Defoe usually capitalized on current news events, it is likely that his real-life inspiration for Crusoe was a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk, who was rescued in 1709 by Woodes Rogers' expedition after four years on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernández off the Chilean coast. The theme of being stranded on a desert island has inspired films such as Cast Away to the TV series Lost -and the driving force behind reality shows like Survivor.

Related Topics:
Daniel Defoe's - Robinson Crusoe - Alexander Selkirk - Woodes Rogers - Juan Fernández - Chilean coast - Cast Away - Lost - Reality shows - Survivor

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Lost has characters named John Locke and Danielle Rousseau, named after John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, respectively, both of whom were social contract philosophers who dealt with the relationship between nature and civilization. Locke believed that, in the state of nature, all men had equal right to punish transgressors; to ensure fair judgment for all, governments were formed to better administrate the laws. Rousseau, on the other hand, argued that man was born weak and ignorant, but virtuous nonetheless. Only after man develops society does he become wicked.

Related Topics:
John Locke - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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As symbols of isolation, desert islands have inspired ponderings such as "If I ever went to a deserted island, the five things I would bring with me would be...", a parlor game that has resulted in the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. A message in a bottle is a form of communication often associated with people stranded on a desert island, attempting to be rescued.

Related Topics:
Desert Island Discs - Message in a bottle

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Possessing desert or tropical islands is the dream of many, and is often realized by the very rich. The term islomania is used to describe a craze for islands. In early 2005, Mago Island in Fiji was purchased by actor/director Mel Gibson. Descendants of original native inhabitants of Mago, who were displaced in the 1860s, have protested Mel Gibson's purchase of Mago from Japan's Tokyu corporation for $15 million.

Related Topics:
Islomania - 2005 - Mago Island - Fiji - Mel Gibson

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Desert islands also figure largely in sexual fantasies, with the top "dream vacation" for men surveyed by Psychology Today being "marooned on a tropical island with several members of the opposite sex." (Clarke, Crusoe, 6)

Related Topics:
Sexual fantasies - Psychology Today - Clarke

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