I’m deviating from my usual format to talk about something that I can’t stop thinking about since I saw the most recent Tomb Raider movie (see Shara’s Sound Off). Specifically, the lost island trope. And while I enjoyed the movie (kudos to Alicia Vikander for playing Lara Croft as if she were a real woman [sorry Angelina]), I kept thinking about lost or mysterious islands and colonialism. This Tomb Raider is based on the 2013 game, which I have never played, and which took Lara Croft to an island named Yamatai, but a lost island is also present in the original game, which I have played and which took Lara to Atlantis.
Islands figure prominently in many stories; the action takes place on said lost islands, or the plot revolves around a lost island myth (usually part of a larger “hidden civilizations” or “lost race” trope). There’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, King Kong, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver’s Travels, and Peter Pan. (Excuse me, where are all the women?) More recently, besides Tomb Raider: Lost. Arrow. Wonder Woman (Aha. Found the women). Dinotopia (technically a fictional continent). Orphan Black (directly influenced by Dr. Moreau). Aquaman (Atlantis). Jurassic Park. King Kong. Laputa: Castle in the Sky (influenced by Gulliver’s Travels). And a little further back, let’s not forget Fantasy Island.
Our obsession with lost islands began with Atlantis. In Plato’s Dialogues, Plato is telling a story Socrates told to him, which Socrates heard from his relative Critias, who heard it from Solon, who heard it from a group of priests. Plato describes a great civilization, “a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, to which [Athens] put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic ocean… there was an island situated in front of the straits which are called the Pillars of Heracles…” This island was supposedly larger than Libya and Asia together and contained a civilization that ruled not just over Atlantis but parts of Egypt, Libya, and present-day Italy. Not long after Athens repelled the Atlantean invaders (file under “things scifi writers say”), Atlantis experienced horrific earthquakes that sank it to the bottom of the sea. The takeaway is that Atlantis got too big for its britches and collapsed as a result.
There are many people who believe Atlantis wasn’t just a story. The idea of a lost island civilization that predates what we think of as ancient history is a tantalizing “what-if” question for science fiction and fantasy writers. Just the idea of a lost island sparks a story, owing in part to an archaeological precedent for “discovering” lost civilizations and locations. These days, with global mapping, it’s nearly impossible to hide an island. We even know when new islands are being made. Yet Troy was considered mythological until Heinrich Schliemann began excavating a particular hill (with varying definitions of “excavated”). Machu Picchu’s location in Peru was unknown to anyone outside of its immediate area until 1911.
Continuing the tradition of explorers “discovering” exotic locations, the lost island, whether it is Yamatai, Lian Yu, Heva, Shangri-la, and so on, is usually conceived of as an exotic location, which is itself extremely problematic. This is why Tomb Raider’s stock storyline rankled me. In a way, it continues the narrative that the known world is dominant and the unknown world, and the people who may populate it, is to be feared, plundered, or otherwise used for gain. So, a British heiress turned adventurer saves an exotic island from mercenaries who have enslaved the locals and anyone unlucky enough to shipwreck on Yamatai. Because of course until Lara arrives, it is impossible for them to even think of rebellion. For anyone who thinks this too harsh, Tomb Raider (the name is kind of a tip-off, right?) deals with the same criticisms leveled at Indiana Jones (the linked article is a great nutshell explanation of the issues). Punching Nazis is great, but keep in mind the guy steals precious artifacts and puts them in Western museums that don’t have the best track records of honoring indigenous artifacts.
And yeah, I’m complicit in these things. I bought and played Tomb Raider when I was younger and thought nothing of it beyond the puzzle-adventure that awaited me as Lara Croft. To the current film’s credit, the locals are other shipwrecked people who haven’t been able to escape Yamatai’s dangerous coastline. And although the film didn’t completely subvert the “steal the precious treasure” trope, the film did twist it. But the oppressed are still people of color and the gang of mercenaries (and Lara, etc.) disrespected native traditions in order to secure what they thought would be a mysterious, powerful treasure.
Soooo. Now that I’ve ruined a couple of franchises for everybody (I really did like Tomb Raider, but), are there “lost island” stories that get it right? I’m not sure. I can think of one story that acknowledges the problem of colonialism. And guess what? It’s a kids’ series.
The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982-83, Nickelodeon, available on DVD) is unique in a way that I didn’t understand enough to appreciate when I watched this series as a kid. This 39-episode anime is set in 1530s Peru and follows three children and their sidekicks as they stay one step ahead of invading Spanish forces who are intent on finding the fabled cities of gold and using their power and technology. Right away the series presents colonialism as problematic through the eyes of its three protagonists: Esteban, a boy of mysterious origins, Zia, a young Inca girl who is the daughter of a priest, and their friend Tao, the last survivor of a lost, technologically advanced island civilization called Heva, and their sidekicks—a Spanish soldier named Mendoza and his two henchmen Sancho and Pedro (aka, the comic relief). Think about that for a minute. The main players in this story are three kids, two of whom are indigenous (that we know of), and the adult members of the invading culture are their sidekicks.
Esteban, Zia, Tau, Mendoza, and Sancho and Pedro attempt to stay one step ahead of Francisco Pizarro, the real-life conquistador of the Inca civilization, and various other Spanish generals and travelers, some of whom were based on real historical figures, or legendary ones, but all of whom are looking for the Cities of Gold. Along the way the group aids various enclaves of indigenous people to repel the invading Spanish soldiers. Our heroes discover Tau’s island civilization is responsible for building the cities of gold, and for hiding them throughout the world, before succumbing to complete destruction via a solar-powered civil war. But it isn’t just gold that the cities contain; they also hide Heva’s technological advances, which the kids realize the Spaniards (or any invading force) could use to devastating effect on the rest of the world. Hopefully I’m not spoiling a 30-year-old series by saying that Esteban and Zia discover they are hereditary guardians of the cities, and along with Tau, who doesn’t want Heva technology to fall into the wrong hands, the kids make it their mission to find the cities before more nefarious parties do.
While I am not holding up Mysterious Cities of Gold as the echelon of lost-island anti-colonialism stories (Zia, for example, is partly defined by her search for her father and her friendship with Esteban), it respectfully subverts several colonialist themes. There must be more spec-fic lost-island stories out there that do the same, right? If you know of any, share in the comments below.
A favorite theme/fantasy of mine. There’s also Jules Verne’s MYSTERIOUS ISLAND and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Caspak trilogy (THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT). And while not quite islands, most of Burroughs’ Tarzan series is a parade of unknown ‘islands’ of lost civilizations in unexplored regions of Africa, founded by ancient Romans, Greeks, crusaders, etc. However, none of these raise the specter of colonization or exploitation, they’re more about discovery, adventure, and exploration.
This is one of my favorite sub-sub genres as well. It was very hard not to include H.G. Wells’s “Lost World” because it would have been easy to include the plateau as an island both geographical and proverbial–but then my list would have become very long! So I stuck to the literal use of islands.
I have not read Verne’s or ERB’s entries, so I can’t comment on them, but I disagree about Tarzan, whose character + plot is actually the very definition of colonialism. Burroughs himself was a believer in eugenics, and that shines through. It’s impossible for me to read his work without cringing or throwing the book, so I have avoided them.