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This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Welcome to Fortress

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Fiction episode 11. Join me as I talk about Hatchet. Hatchet by Gary Paulson

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published in 1987, a very good year. After a plane crash, here's the synopsis,

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after a plane crash, 13-year-old Brian spends 54 days in the Canadian wilderness

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learning to survive with only a hatchet. That's it. That's the book and that's

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exactly what it is. There's no secret there, there's nothing fantastical going

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on, there's no science fiction plot, there's nothing, no murder mystery,

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nothing. It's just him trying to survive in the wilderness, him trying and

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succeeding to survive in the wilderness for all that time with this hatchet and

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it's pretty fantastic. So here we go. Does this book belong in the Fortress

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Fiction and Place of Honor? I would say yes, but. And the but I will explain as I

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talk about the book in a very off-the-cuff manner, but definitely it's

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something I would suggest that young readers read and even older readers. It's

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a very good book, very well written. So here we go. The thing about Hatchet is

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while it is a good book and it has very good things in it, it was entertaining, it

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was well written, it was entertaining, and what else? It was well written, it was

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entertaining, and it's about resiliency. I don't really know that there are strong

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themes here. I definitely think this is something that would be good and

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instructive and inspirational for somebody to think about life in a

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different way because Brian is forced to think about life in a different way. He's

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forced to see beyond his petty concerns. He even kind of reflects and thinks that

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he's been reborn and it's true to an extent and well it's very true. And the

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surviving the wilderness and going back to normal life affects him in a

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way that seems to be true for the rest of his life. And because we get a little

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thing at the end that I don't know what it's officially called, perhaps a coda,

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although I don't know what that means and I don't like the way that word sounds.

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And when I've heard people use it, it's a very pretentious and very pretentious

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circumstances or it's a very pretentious way it's said. So I feel a little awkward

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about using it and maybe I shouldn't be using it, but I am going off the cuff

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here. So in the coda or in the ending thing that tells you kind of what happened

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to him after he gets out of the situation, it's interesting because it

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talks about how this seriously affected his life and it almost makes you think

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that what we're living in right now is not the normal state of life and it's

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not natural and there's something wrong and there's something deficient, there's

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something that we lose by having all this safety and security and wealth. And

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there is a topic of wealth that comes up which is food security basically. Brian

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is in a place where he feels wealthy when he has an abundance of food and at

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late in the book that's food that he finds that's you know like a packaged

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manufactured processed food in a survival kit and before then it's food

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that he's gotten for himself and that he's used his know-how and his skills to

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go ahead and store food up for himself. And it's very interesting the book is I

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don't know it's kind of provocative in a way but it's also very like simple and

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very I don't know it's funny there's the reason that Brian is on a plane going

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towards Canada is because he's in New Yorker and I believe he's in New Yorker

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anyway he's flying up to Canada to visit his dad his parents are divorced

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because his mother sorry this infidelity in the marriage the father doesn't know

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about it Brian knows about it but it like I said his father doesn't know and

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he never tells him which is something we learn in the book and he keeps thinking

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back on his mother with love and tenderness but also with frustration and

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anger a lot of frustration anger towards the man as well the other man

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who is involved and Brian sees them a public place obviously not acting like

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their best friends acting like they're something else instead and he knows he

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knows that's the reason why his mother is divorcing his father now in reality

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you know he could be abusive he could be whatever and we just don't know that but

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from his perspective that's what we're seeing and it's interesting because this

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thing about the divorce and the breakup of the family and the marriage is kind

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of it's a through line it kind of is a through line and it's something that

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gets used time and again to reflect and almost to show like a benchmark that

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Brian is in a place where this is still something that's a concern to him and

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eventually survival becomes such a serious concern to him it takes primacy

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over his thinking about his family and why he's in the situation and he's no

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longer mourning or bemoaning the fact that you know this happened to his

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family or in his family but it's just a reality that he accepts and he moves on

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it's just like the fact that water is wet and you know he has to hunt for fish

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and things it's just it's just something that's true in the world and he's able

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to accept that move on there's something interesting towards at the end of the

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book when there's wrap-up thing is going on telling what happened with Brian in

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his life after he was rescued which is that he thinks that his there's pretty

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short period of time it seems as if his parents might get back together but that

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never ends up happening and that's kind of interesting because in a way the book

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is almost saying that life and the world is it's not uncaring or unforgiving but

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life in the world will go their own way based on whatever internal logic the

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operators who are causing things to happen have and you as an individual can

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either choose to be crushed by that or you can choose to cope with that and

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adapt and overcome and that's really interesting that's really interesting

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it's true it is true there's a concept of you have your circle of control you

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have your circle of influence you have your circle of concern and that the most

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important thing for you to do as an individual from a survival perspective

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is think about and manage your circle of control and try your best to do to

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influence people around you in your circle of influence and I can't remember

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what the other one was I said I don't know that well because I'm not like a

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die-hard survivalist kind of guy who's setting up on all this stuff but it

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makes sense that you really control you can control and you shouldn't worry

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about the things you can't control and you should primarily take care of the

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things that you have control over and if you have influence on others to take

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care of things you should encourage them to do that as well but you can't force

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them because you don't have control over them and Brian's doing everything he

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can to survive with what he has in his hand which is the hatchet and it's

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interesting because the hatchet is a gift from his mother and he wore it at

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the insistence of his mother before they parted ways when she dropped him off

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to get on this airplane and that hatchet that she asked him to wear that he was

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kind of embarrassed to wear in front of the pilot of the plane is the thing it

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is the thing that saves his life but really Brian is the thing that saves his

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life he works with his resources and he works with his knowledge and he applies

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himself in the situation and uses everything around him effectively to

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survive and you know Brian's only here because of his parents and his mother you

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know asked for the divorce filed for the divorce because whatever happened

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happened and she was taking him to the airport and all these things she got

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custody and he was going back and forth with his parents so it's almost like all

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these things that happened in order for the scenario to unfold the way it did

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but also everything happened in such a way that everything that he experienced

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up until this point gave him what he needed the tools and the know-how to

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survive in the situation but he had to have the will he had to do the work he

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couldn't just expect that he would live and I know it's a really interesting it's

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a it's like a thought-provoking book it could be useful to kids to read this I

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think it's useful for older people to read it and to get into that mindset and

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think about like how harsh and for even the world can be but also how beautiful

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it can be and how your efforts in the world can make the world a more

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beautiful place for you at least and there's like concepts of harmony with

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nature and there's concepts in there about teaching yourself to be better to

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be more resilient and to be able to survive in any situation and what

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really matters in life what really has value in life and I really appreciate

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that so let me see oh I have it saved here I at first thought that Gary Paulson

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had only written this five book series because it's the Brian saga it's a

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hatchet the river also called hatchet the return hatchet winter or Brian's

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winter Brian's return which is called hatchet the call and Brian's hunt and

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those books span 1987 to 2003 which is a decent amount of time but there are

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other books and these are just some of them the mr. Tuckett saga which is mr.

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Tuckett call me Francis Tuckett Tuckett's ride Tuckett's gold Tuckett's home

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then there's the Murphy series Murphy Murphy's gold Murphy's herd Murphy's

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war and then co-authored with another author Brian Burks you've got Murphy's

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stand Murphy's ambush Murphy's trail then there's the Alita's series called

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the cook camp Alita song the quilt and there's a lot more books check out the

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full bibliography linked in the notes it's a source to a wiki but still

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reliable and I think there's dozens and dozens of books there which is amazing

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so you could find this book to read it and I suggested you because it's good

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you can get it from your library for free cloud library has an audible or an

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audiobook version of it that you can get for free if you have an audible

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membership the base level membership you can get it it's included that's how I

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listen to it you can buy it from publishers website which again is linked

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in the show notes you could get it from Kobo as an ebook or an audiobook or you

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can get it from audible as an audiobook as well as I'm sure Amazon you can get

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an ebook there or Kindle I haven't checked to see I didn't check see if it's

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in the Kindle store or not as a like a KDP type thing which means it's included

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with your KDP plan or is it KDP well you know if you've got it if you've got

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the all you can read Kindle deal then you know you know what it's called you

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know to look in there for it as well which is probably something that should

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include going going on from here but anyway yeah it's a good book there's a

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lot of valuable things in it I don't it's not like a high level thing from

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fortress fiction but maybe you're really because it's about fundamentals and

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it's about the basics of life it's about like it's not a morality tale it's a

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like a reality survival tale maybe even more so it's valuable and it's valuable

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in much better ways much more applicable ways than like a heroic journey that

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teaches about the self and morality and making a stand this is just about being

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able to stand up on your own which might be even more fundamental and more

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foundational and might even do a better job or serve better as something to

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function as a foundation in the fortress fiction so definitely it's a recommend

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it's a short book it's a good book and I think it has a lot of important things

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to say anyway until next time I hope you take care yourselves and keep reading I

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do not know what is coming next in fortress fiction you're gonna find out

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with me at some point in the future so until next time folks take care I hope

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you enjoyed that go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions comments or other

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feedback you might have there you can find all of my analysis art and fiction I

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cover books tokusatsu comic books anime and more look around you're sure to find

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something else that you'll enjoy as well this has been a story over everything

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production