The Sargasso Sea
 

I'm sitting at home on a Friday night, drinking some wine, watching "Wide Sargasso Sea" to see what all of Stevie's inspiration was about (it's horrible...don't bother, curious Ledgies), when I got a little curious.

I googled "Sargasso Sea," which led me to its Wikipedia page. The following line jumped out at me immediately:

"The Sargasso Sea is the only "sea" without shores."

...sound familiar?

Granted, it's Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth (I didn't realize what I was typing right there until I was halfway through it!)...just thought it was interesting!

When I just read your post, I was like, seas with no shores - that's in a Stevie song! Planets of the universe-

"They into the seas, THAT HAVE NO SHORES.."

Cool! :)

Jamie

Oh, and that movie does suck. I rented it a couple years ago

Exactly! I'm not sure if this little factoid is something that is widely known, or something that Stevie would have known ten years ago (it still feels crazy saying that) when she added the new lyrics to POTU. Or perhaps it was one of her little "premonitions"...

I'm shocked a rabid Stevie fan hasn't added Stevie's song "Wide Sargasso Sea" to the Popular Culture References yet. ;)

I've read up on this sea before, and am rather baffled by it. How can a sea exist if it's completely surrounded on all sides by an ocean? :shrug: I understand it has it's own regional properties which make it unique and set it apart from the North Atlantic in some ways, but I just don't get how it can be labeled as an entirely different body of water than which it's wholly contained within. And I have a bachelor's degree in geography! :laugh:

no wonder it's "wide"

I looked at the map:

http://media.point2.com/p2a/htmltext...a/original.jpg

No shores as it's really part of what we call the Atlantic Ocean.

Good pick up on Planets Jamie!

Louie, does it have to do with the currents?

That's pretty much the way wikipedia explains it. The Sargasso Sea is essentially a "dead spot" in the middle of the North Atlantic. It has oceanic water currents on all sides... and all currents basically dump their contents into the Sargasso Sea. The sea is also in the horse latitudes... aka a generally windless area. All of this means the water is very calm and clear, and a repository for all of the materials water and air currents in the North Atlantic. I understand how the Sargasso Sea has it's own regional identity, but I still don't quite understand how it warrants being named it's own sea since it's not bounded by anything physical (other than water currents). :confused:

The movie is dreadful, but the BBC did a two part min-series a couple of years ago that was ok. It only really makes sense, and you may only like it, if you're read Jane Eyre and are a fan of that one though. I love the novel!

I ordered the novel Wide Sargasso Sea just b/c of the song on Stevie's album. :laugh:
Unfortunately, it hasn't arrived yet. Ordinarily, I'd be annoyed right about now, but it's given me time to read Jane Eyre, which is wonderful.

I'm sort of confused about the line in Stevie's song "Through the smoke and the fire...they never found her." If that's referring to Bertha torching Mr. Rochester's house, then they did indeed "find her." So I don't get it. Unless they changed some things for Wide Sargasso Sea. :shrug:

This works out well - you really should read Jane Eyre first - and it is a wonderful novel! Love the Bronte's!

Interesting find. Actually Stevie got that line from an Edgar Allen Poe piece called "Dreamland" here's a portion of the poem :

Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;

The "Skies of fire" line should sound familiar also.

Ah yes...I did know that. This must just be another one of Stevie's "premonitions," like the white-winged dove nesting in AZ, and Rhiannon being more than just a name in a silly novel.

The current certainly creates a contrast. I think it's very interesting that the waters in the sea really don't move. Yet, you could have a raging tidal wave in the ocean around the immobile Sargasso. It is really, never have I been a blue calm sea. I have always been a storm.

It works perfectly for Stevie.

Michele

Oh and for song and romantic purposes, the difference in temperature too. I mean, if you're shipwrecked and drowning and on the verge of freezing to death in the frigid ocean, maybe if you can find the warmer, calmer Sargasso sea in the midst of that ocean you will survive.

You love to be twisted, but maybe if you fought the wind and the cold and the rage and made your way to the heart and love that's in the middle of it all, you might have survived as a couple.

Michele