OldCaptivity.net

A research project on the author Nevil Shute.

My thesis is that his novels can and should be read together as one larger united work of Moral and Political Philosophy.

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AI Statement:
Absolutely no AI will be used in my content now or ever.

Copyright statement:
You should use caution when quoting, sending, saving or reproducing anything you find on this website. Make sure you understand the status of its copyright first.
Most of Shute’s works are in the public domain, apart from some private letters and other items in collections.
These plus other works such as books and articles may be reproduced in excerpt under fair-use clauses for researchers and reviewers.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all.

Website Founded

This website is dedicated to unpacking the works and world of British author Nevil Shute.

It was founded on the 100th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, Marazan in 1926.

My name is Andrew and I live in New Zealand. I have university qualifications at both undergraduate and postgraduate level studying Political Science, Philosophy, Peace & Conflict analysis, Business, Accounting – and Music.

I have a lifelong passion for sailing and aviation, which is what initially drew me to Shute’s books as a teen.

In between making a career out of university study, my work experience all over New Zealand and Australia has included such varied and interesting things as:

  • ship’s crew
  • insurance underwriter
  • hotel, motel and backpackers manager
  • national election management
  • bookseller
  • tour bus driver
  • caterer
  • film critic and magazine editor
  • administrator for a surgeon
  • forklift driver
  • small business entrepreneur
  • wedding and corporate function band player
  • SCUBA instructing
  • supermarket manager
  • album producer and audio engineer
  • furniture maker
  • wilderness adventure guide

Not to mention, writing code for a web blog or two since way back before the internet as we know it was invented.

One of my big goals in life is to publish a scholarly book about Nevil Shute’s works (his novels, plus some other surviving material).
My one-sentence thesis is this:

I believe all his works can and should be read as merely chapters of one larger united work of political and moral philosophy.

However, irrespective of whether that proposed book could be supported by the free market, or whether I have to attempt to obtain paid Doctoral study at a university instead, (or do it for free on my own for the next thirty years), there is a huge amount of basic research leg-work that needs doing. Mostly this means compiling lists of characters, locations, plots and subplots and so on, key themes, and especially instances of books mirroring the author’s real life experience. There is no shortage of ground to cover here in the weeds, and that is before we even touch the crunchy questions of the individual and the state, the private and the public good, socialised health and education, ethics and meta-ethics and etcetera.

I intend for this website to be a place where I collect my musings, preliminary findings, and groundwork for deeper analysis, and basically assemble the largest reference library I can.

But readers beware it may also end up being a load of
“Here is a list of all the instances of the author being weirdly obsessed with what his characters eat for breakfast, comma, used as proxy for socio-economic status, question mark?”; or
“How many references are made to income tax per book plotted against time”, for example.

These chunks of raw data aren’t particularly meaningful as individual webpages, but they are the building blocks that scholarly research can mortar together into something more elegant.