In tribute to Cussler’s adventurer
As a preteen, quick-witted Dirk Pitt was my idol
The very first fictional character I wanted to be was Encyclopedia Brown.
The boy detective of Idaville was a know-it-all who didn’t get his lights punched out for being a know-it-all, partly because his detective agency partner, Sally Kimball, was the toughest kid around, but also because people appreciated the utility of Encyclopedia’s knowledge.
As a kid who read through the Trivial Pursuit cards for fun and would occasionally let loose some bit of factual flotsam, being Encyclopedia Brown seemed like a good gig if you could get it.
Plus, in Encyclopedia’s world, the good guys always win and the bad guys (Bugs Meany) are justifiably humiliated. Who wouldn’t want to live in that world?
The recent death of Aurora-born author Clive Cussler brought back memories of the second fictional character I wanted to be: Cussler’s underwater adventurer Dirk Pitt.
Perhaps best known from Cussler’s 1976 bestseller, “Raise the Titanic,” and appearing in a total of 25 novels, the last handful of which Cussler co-wrote with his son also named Dirk, Dirk Pitt is a character spun from the DNA of old movie serials, an adventurer who manages to extricate himself from impossible situations with a combination of his guile, his guts and his gun.
Like Encyclopedia Brown, Dirk Pitt has his adventures with his best friend (Al Giordino); unlike Encyclopedia Brown, evil masterminds that make Bond villains look tame are trying to kill him.
Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels were among the first adult books that I read, and I remember being thrilled by the twists and turns of story. In isolation, the plot of the average Pitt novel is ridiculous, as in “Deep Six” (1984), in which a poison is released off the coast of Alaska, killing all marine life and a member of Pitt’s team. Pitt’s quest to avenge the death of his comrade embroils him in a plot to by the Soviet Union to kidnap and then brainwash the president of the United States into a sleeper agent.
I won’t spoil the full story, but that’s the believable part.
Dirk Pitt is an almost cartoonish example of American masculinity, one that preteen me at some level desperately wanted to embody. He is both a decorated military pilot and the greatest known deep-sea adventurer combined, a marriage of Chuck Yeager and Jacques Cousteau. He is tall, strong, a deadly shot and entirely incorruptible.
His only weakness is for classic cars, a trait Pitt shared with his creator. Pitt’s “opaline green eyes” could be either transfixing or menacing, depending on the need. While he rarely had time for love and relationships, when he did, it was intense beyond belief.
I was an inconfident swimmer who was certain that girls would never be interested in him and who didn’t sleep for a month after accidentally watching 20 minutes of “The Exorcist” on television while I was home alone. Why wouldn’t I want to be
Dirk Pitt?
I don’t know that I grew out of Dirk Pitt novels, but at some point I stopped reading them. Cussler was not a particularly careful stylist, and as I became more invested in writing, those things started to matter to me as a reader.
But the sheer amount of pleasure I experienced reading a good eight or 10 Dirk Pitt novels is tough to beat. I miss that kid who was willing to let go and follow an adventure yarn no matter where it went, who was willing to believe in anything.
Thank you, Mr. Cussler, and long live Dirk Pitt.
Mantel
I think Mark will enjoy
by Elizabeth Little, an unconventional crime novel with an unconventional heroine and an uncommonly high dose of humor.
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