WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: B Traven 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:16.960 Thinking sideways. I don't just stories of things we simply 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:22.279 don't know the answer too. Hi there, welcome to a 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:28.920 special Encore presentation of Sticking Sideways. Encore presentation because two 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.040 days ago were recorded about of it and then realized 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:34.240 that we hadn't turned our mixer on. It was really 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.559 it was like our best episode. You guys. Yeah, I 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:39.960 don't know about that. It wasn't really that much of 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.120 a loss. Yeah, well we're here. We're gonna repeat word 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.360 for word what we said the other day if we can. Actually, 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.160 and before I forget, I'm Joe, joined as always by 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:57.280 and Steve. Okay, so let's solve another mystery before I start. 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.920 I also want to give a shout out to Kenji, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.440 who suggested the topic for this episode. Thanks can appreciate it. 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.760 Keep them suggestions coming. What are we talking about tonight? 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.039 To refresh my memory? It's been a couple of days 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:16.839 talking about talking about be Travina. Who was this guy? 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:19.600 He was a German author, if you haven't heard him before, 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.280 who published thirteen books, a lot of short stories. His 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.640 books were extremely popular and sold millions of copies. His 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.319 first book was called The Cotton Pickers. It was published 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:35.840 in serial format in Yeah, the Cotton Pickers newspaper. Yeah, newspaper, 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:39.679 got it. The second novel is called The death Ship, 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.720 which I really liked that title of came out in 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.480 ninety six, and all of these books were originally published 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:49.520 in German. By the way, I don't think I mentioned that, 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.440 So these were published in Germany. Death Ship became a 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.560 movie in nineteen fifty nine. Movie was it called the 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.840 death Ship? Yeah? Okay. His third, well, The Treasure of 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.920 the Sierra Madre, was published the year after that. I'm 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.080 not sure if that was made into a movie or not. Wait, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.960 let me, I'll look on the Google. Okay, I do that. 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:17.280 Definitely not faked at all. U huh, totally doing this, yeah, 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:22.920 in which was starring Humphrey Bogart. Who Yeah, no, Humphrey Bogart. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.440 You know him? Oh, the actor? Yeah, Frankly, my dear, 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.760 I don't give it. Yeah, the multi Falcon. Yeah he 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:30.760 played it for her. You can play it for me, sham, 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:36.639 Yeah that guy, Yeah, good old Bogie. Back to be Travin. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.880 His books were very popular in the US, in Mexico 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.120 after they were translated into Spanish, and also in Europe. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:45.680 Quite a few were adapted, as I said, from movies 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.239 and TV shows. But what's strange about Travan is that, 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.840 despite a very long later career and a huge, huge 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:56.280 fan base, nobody actually knows who he really was, or 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.040 where he was born or when he was born. Nobody 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.600 really knows, and he was always it was always kind 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.160 of coy about the whole thing. I said. Before he 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.160 was German. He published his books in German, but some 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.240 people think he may actually have been born in Chicago. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.360 Travin himself always claimed to be an American, and even 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.679 while he was still alive he died in nineteen sixty nine, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.360 people were trying really hard to figure out who he 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:21.880 actually was and not just read it. Here I'm talking 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.560 about journalists and people like that read it's really good 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:30.840 at figuring out who actually better at time, Well, actually 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:35.200 they are journalists do some amazingly hacky things sometimes, Yeah, 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.240 and read it. It's just kind of like, O, no, no no, no, 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.320 this is obviously this person. Yeah. But yeah, but there's 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.520 also the fact that read it wasn't around then, Yeah, 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:50.360 there was it in nineteen fifties. Around it was an 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.920 analog form was a card catalog. They had clanked and 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.000 clacked a lot like Computer Star Trek. I feel like 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.360 the Internet. I'll have to look it up. You know, 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:05.880 the Internet originally was in some form, but Red did 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:11.720 itself was not. Okay, Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.480 can argue. I'm not sure when the Darknet started. I'll 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.400 do a google. After the show started with Dara, Well, 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.720 you know probably what happened. If if Devin's right, is 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.960 that the original code name of the Darpinnet when it 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:31.280 was being created was Reddit read it, I find it? Okay, Okay. 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.040 Back to Betraven. At the start of his larious success, 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.400 he was living in Mexico and he stayed there pretty 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.320 much until he died, and he traveled, abrought a little bit, 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.120 but basically lived in Mexico. His publishers in Europe and 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.239 America never met him. He dealt with them only through representatives. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.080 Warner Brothers brought the rights to the Treasure of the 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.760 Sierra Madre in ninety one and they signed up John 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.240 Houston to direct. I'm sure you've heard of him. What 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.680 else did Houston direct? Do you know? Off the top 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.679 of your head. I know Houston did a bunch of stuff. 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.360 Just kidd I you know, I'm having a bit of 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.440 vaporlock right now. Okay, if you want to know what 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.719 he looks like, watch Chinatown. Did you ever see Chinatown 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.840 with Jack Nicholson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he plays he 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:13.880 plays the elderly bad guy in Chinatown. Oh okay, here 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.760 you're talking about Okay, okay, keeps calling him Mr gets Yeah, nothing, 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:19.280 you tell it's been a long time. I don't quite 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:23.040 get that joke. Yeah, Okay. Nicholson's name was Giddies and 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.240 but this guy he kept mispronouncing his name, Mr. Getts. 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.400 So if if anybody, lots of our listeners are cackling 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.000 hysterically right now. Hilarious. Actually, if you haven't seen Chinatown, 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.440 you should see it. It's a classic, really good movie. Okay, 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.240 back to I'm getting all of course here. Yeah, he 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.080 said he used to set up a meeting with Travan 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:46.120 in nine in Mexico City, but Travin didn't make it 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.800 to the meeting. A quotes included, right, yeah. Instead, a 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.320 guy named hal Crow showed up with a letter which 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.599 was a power of attorney from B. Travn. In the letter, 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.839 Travan authorized hal Crows decide all matters regarding the filming 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.240 of the novel. So Crows and not be Traven was 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.080 present for the filming of the movie on location in Mexico. 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.560 That might suggest you would think, well, yeah, a lot 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.159 of people that were involved with the film, we're asking 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.360 Crows if he was actually be Travin. Crows always said 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.920 that he was not. He probably was Travin. I will 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.800 never know absolutely for sure. I'm kind of guessing he was. 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.760 That most of the crew believed that Crows and Trading 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.640 were the same person, although John Houston came to believe 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.559 that they weren't the same person for god knows what reason. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.560 But I'm only recoinding this one story because it's so 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.800 typical Travin. He was sold. He was always real cagy 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:41.520 about his identity and protecting his privacy. He his motivation 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.640 might have been quote the creative person should have no 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:50.400 other biography than his works unquote. And that's from Travin. Yeah, 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.040 you know, it's it's unusual for somebody to want to 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.599 put their work into the public eye, whether it be 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.919 writing or music or whatever it is. For most people, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.240 there's a there's a bit of hubrist there. Yeah, and 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:11.080 to not want to be known. He's well I think 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.960 the irony of that is that, you know, if he 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:18.240 if he had truly just written his books and kind 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.120 of gone about his life, we would remember his works 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.720 likely but nobody would care who this betraven dude was 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.800 other than an author. And you know he lived in Mexico. Yeah, 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.000 but the fact that he was so cagy with his 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.920 true identity and so standoffish it is really the reason 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.480 that he's remembered for anything other than his work. Like 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.280 you said, ironic, that true irony, real kind of irony, 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.440 not like yeah or or it could be he's even 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.000 he's even smarter than we realized. And he did this 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.200 on purpose so that people would be be, you know, 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.920 obsessing over who he really was for many, many decades 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.360 after he actually did want to be remembered. That maybe 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.120 that's it sneaky. Yeah, Probably the reason he hit from 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:03.840 the public eye is that he was private and he 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:05.840 just wanted people to read his books and not not 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.920 think about him. It appears that be Travan arrived in 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.600 Mexico or around nineteen twenty four, though it's a little 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.640 bit of dispute about this. I think as early as 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:18.360 ninety two. One person says in nineteen fourteen. I've read 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.400 something about much earlier, So okay, Thanking fourteen is the 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:26.080 earliest accounting we have of trading arriving in Mexico, whether 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.360 it's accurate or not. That's the earliest. Does not appear 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.720 to be accurate, but we'll we'll figure out why it 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.280 a little bit here. His widow said that he signed 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:36.960 on he got to Mexico by signing I was a 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.240 crew member on a ship from England to Norway. She 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.559 said it was a death ship. That's what I guess 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.600 where he got. And then from Norway you got caught 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.079 another ship to Africa, and on the third he went 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.440 to Mexico from Africa. Yeah, from Africa. I just believe 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.280 he got the inspiration for death ship from his experience 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.880 on his long voyage. It makes sense. Yeah, well, the 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.400 death ship and I think the cotton pickers are both 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:07.240 deal a lot with what the proletariat experiences in these 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.360 terrible working conditions, So it would make sense that that's 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.840 where he pulled a bunch of the content from. That 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.400 was a big word for you, I know, proletariat. I 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:22.800 googled it. Yeah, sorry, you're not dumb. I'm sorry. I 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.559 think It's one of the ironic things about the industrial revolutions. 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:27.800 You hear so many horror stories, but people still flock 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:29.720 from the farms in the fields to go work in 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.440 the factories. Well better, because working on the farm sucks 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:35.800 or it sucks. And I think about farms. That's different 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.240 from factories is on farms you get these things called 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.880 failed harvests, and then after that, you guys, what's called 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:45.400 a famine. At least you got in the factory. Yeah, 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.520 even if it pays terrible, pays better than corn. The 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.720 farm thing, although it sounds like the living conditions were worse. 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.880 But hey, we're way off track. Who cares, We don't 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.640 have to do that. Back to this story here is 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:05.240 from Mexico. Travan submitted his novels for publication in Europe 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:10.000 in German in nineteen three, manuscripts of his earlier novels 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.200 in English to Alfred A. Knopp in New York for publication, 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:15.560 and he said that he claimed that these were the 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:20.800 original works and the ones previously published were just translations. Yeah, 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:29.319 when did the German versions get submitted to publishers? And anyway, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.160 still nineteen thirty three to submit him so we're talking 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:36.640 half a decade to a decade later, about eight years. 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:38.960 It's just that there's so many weird dates, and there's 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.120 so many conflicting things. I just want to try and 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:45.760 keep this linear, is possible, Yeah, with this story, it's 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.440 kind of hard to keep all the details straight in 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:50.880 your head. Just confusing that. The thing that's odd about 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.520 these translated the English version is people who happen to 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.120 read both German and English have said that there are 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.840 a lot of differences between the German and the English versions. 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.680 It's and the people claim that the German ones contain americanisms, 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:10.400 whatever those are. Yeah, I still don't understand what that is. Colloquialism, 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:15.119 perhaps colloquialisms, although that varies by region. That could be Canadian, 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.920 could be Mexican, yeah, but that it can't be Mexican 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:25.120 colloquialisms because who come from Spanish. Yeah. My German vocabulary 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.959 consists of about five words, so I'm not reading them 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.320 in German to find nor am I. Yeah, but the 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.520 americanisms in his books is why so many people believe 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.199 that he was born in America. But then here's the 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:41.120 funny part. The English version supposedly contain Germanisms, and I 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.320 haven't read, so I can't comment. The only thing I 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.440 can think of is is like the Fatherland, statements like that, 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.040 things that are just so common to say that you 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.600 hear in direct translations. Those are the only things that 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.880 I can think of that would be in there that 0:11:55.920 --> 0:12:00.520 could be called a Germanism. If he was born in 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:05.120 America but grew up in like a German slum or something, 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.240 he would be surrounded by people speaking both German and English. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.240 It's possible that he was fluent in both. It's possible 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.400 that when he wrote, he had both Americanisms and Germanisms, 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.280 and therefore that accounts. You know, I assume that they're separate. 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.280 It's not like the Americanism is replaced with the Germanism 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.360 in the English translation. So it's possible that he just 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.280 picked up both of them. That's possible that both versions 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.000 had both Americanisms, and and that you just notice it 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.720 in the other language because hey, it's different. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.640 I guess yeah. And and there are apparently either differences 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.560 between the two books too. But he if he did 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.880 submit them years after the first one, is maybe he 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.000 just revised them a little bit, because you know, I 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.640 wanted to make them better and to appeal to the reader. Yeah, 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.160 it could be that. Yeah, it appears that Mr Travan 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.400 was one of three people Barrick Travan towards then Rhett 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.920 Marut or how Crows, or possibly all three. All right, 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.439 well we'll skip let's skip right straight into the theories. 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:06.319 We're gonna go. We're gonna start with the less likely 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.400 ones first. Okay, yeah, it sounds good. Yeah, Okay, we're 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:12.720 doing like the list thing that we do sometimes we're 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:14.560 just like list a bunch of stupid theories and then 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.960 talk about some good ones. Okay, so it looks like 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:22.319 it's perfect. Yeah, we can discuss. We can discuss these 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.520 these as much as you guys want to. First, Traman 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:27.959 was an amalgamation of two or more people who collaborated 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.600 on the books and the stories. Yeah, it doesn't know 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:34.520 how many. There's not a lot of great works out 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:39.200 there that were written by collaboration. There aren't. That's a 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.680 hard thing to do. Yeah, well you only see it 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:46.880 in fantasy sci fi novels, ye, mysteries. Yeah, you do 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.440 see a lot of fantasy and sci fi oddly enough. Okay, 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.120 so much for that theory. Another theory is that it 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:55.400 was hiding from a dark past, and he apparently was 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.520 huh yeah, we'll talk about that in one of the 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.480 more serious theory theories if he was. Indeed, some people 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.360 believe he was re b Root, which I'm guessing we're 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:11.960 going to get to. Yeah, yeah, okay, next one. Travan 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.880 was just a shy guy. Oh shy guy, like, oh, 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:22.280 shy guy, a little blue boom shy guy. Yeah, I 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:26.520 don't get there. That's what they call just playing Nintendo 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.400 game sometime. Just I grew up on Nintendo games. Which 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.560 blue shy guy? Are we talking? It's not blue? A 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:37.120 little shy guy nature of low load notes from Super 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:42.000 Mario guys. Oh yes, I don't who you're talking about? 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:49.520 Failed Joe. Alright, keep moving. Let's do another theory here, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.520 and that. Another theory is that Travan was the pen 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.360 name of Adolpho Lopez Mateos, who was President of Mexico 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.960 from nineteen fifty eight to sixty four. And it's probably 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:04.960 I started because his sister, Esperanza Lopez Mateos, translated eight 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.080 of Traven's books into Spanish, and he was also be 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.120 Travan's literary representative for a while about ten years I 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.840 think she was think she was okay, So you can 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:16.960 see how that that rumor might have gotten started. Um, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:18.520 I don't know what to make of this. I don't 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.280 think Mateo spoke German. Maybe he did, but maybe his 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.320 sister did. You got another area is that Travan was 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.600 the pen name of Esperanza Lopez Mateos herself. Yeah, yea, 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.840 so maybe she spoke German. Well, but do we know 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:38.360 what language she translated the it into Spanish from did 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.640 she translated from English? Which would make sense that she 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.680 was fluent in English and Spanish. I know she spoke 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.200 eight languages, but I'm just thinking on the order of 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.840 likelihood what languages she would speak. Yeah, I don't know. 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.640 I don't know that German would be that highland in 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:58.640 that it might be maybe I don't know, And that's 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:00.800 why I'm asking. I mean in terms of like large 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:05.720 world players, right, Germany is a pretty big world power. 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:10.280 And if you're trying to study up on languages based 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.680 on who you were most likely to have to communicate with, 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.800 particularly if you were the president's sister, I would say 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:20.520 Germans a solid choice, English, Spanish, German, probably some pan 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:25.320 Asian Japanese, Chinese, probably Italian. Yeah, I don't know. That's 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.680 why I'm asked. I would say it's I would say 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:29.720 that it's a pretty good chance that she spoke German. 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.360 I don't know fluently enough to translate full novels. But 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.440 that's really I mean, yeah, you got another language, really 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.720 really well. Do we know when she was his his agent, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:46.920 his representative. I believe it was from like nineteen one. Okay, 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.680 I could see German being on the list at that time. Okay, 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:54.120 I'm just just asking anyway. Our next theory, this is 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.080 a good one. Traman was actually Ambrose Bears. Actually, you 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.360 guys have heard of this same rings a bell? Yeah, 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.200 but I can't think of who ring a bell from 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:10.639 Tuesday or Yeah. I know it's a literary figure. It's 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:16.000 famous author and satirist. Yeah. Yeah. Beers went to Mexico 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.080 during the Mexican Revolution in nineteen thirteen because he wanted 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:20.840 to check it out, perhaps report on it. And I'm 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.600 not sure, and he vanished without a trace. Another one 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:28.680 solid mystery. Huh oh, yeah, that one not me. Yeah, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.560 he banished. Problem with this theory is that he was 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:37.040 born in eighteen Yeah, so that kind of he'd be 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:44.120 an old old man seven years old, so I think 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.920 we can discount this one. Yeah, Now there was that 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.040 he Tradman was the illegitimate son of Emperor of Villenham. 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:55.000 The second. Okay, what's the foundation on this? I mean why, 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.240 I can't think of anything other than that, Like during 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.800 like World War One and so like that he was 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.200 he was able to publish his little his little agitation 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.320 magazine whatever it was, called The Brickmaker, and one paper 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.640 was in short supply and being rationed. So they thought, well, 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.760 maybe he's got royal connections. But that ties in with 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.440 a different theory about who betrayven is right. Yeah, it's 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.840 not sure that he was the one who was publishing 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.240 The Brickmaker, right, No, it's not. No, not really, that's true. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:27.719 A lot of people believe that he was, sure, but 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:29.880 it's not. I mean, that's also just a theory. That's 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:35.640 just yeah, stronger, stronger, possibility, stronger. The next theory traveling 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:39.360 was Jack London. Jack London died in at the age 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.080 of forty, but some people think he faked his death, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.440 moved to Mexico and continued his writing career, and then 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:54.720 died fifty years later. Again there's the old old man issue. 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.440 That's that's a little more credible than a hundred seven. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:04.760 But they're okay, what what officially did London die from? You? 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:10.080 Either of your overdose? Well, some people say that I 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.399 heard that he had an internal infection. I think the 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.960 official cause of death on his death certificate was drug 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.639 over He was taking morphine for the pain because he 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.080 had some serious salem. So I could see where it 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.520 be seriously easy to Actually a lot of people do it, 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:30.080 but particularly at that time. Yeah, self medication was the 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.560 way to medicate. Well yeah, and that's terrifying. Morphine and 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.800 stuff like that easy to do. If I'm never in 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:38.639 the hospital and they say would you like morphine? My 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.720 answer will be no. I will scream thank you. But 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:48.480 my question is, isn't there I swear there's something about 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.800 images or accountings of people who were who saw London's 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.880 body after because he there was an autopsy done. Wasn't 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.480 there on London? I think so? And I we're I've 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:05.600 seen something about people having seen the body post the autopsy, 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.040 So that would that would lend me to say to 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.840 poopoo on this one? Yeah, not an okay theory because 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.720 of that I think it's a bad theory. The theory. 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.200 I mean, there's no particular reason he needed to do this, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.359 and he was already successful writer, yeah and he was, 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.720 and he was he wasn't against sick and very poor 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.680 health and taking morphine, So that at least me to 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:28.879 believe that he probably just accidentally o'deed or had a 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:33.439 natural causes and yeah, he had no real motive death. 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.960 Uh see. Another another's last of the loopie theories. B 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:40.920 Traven was a pen name of a guy named August 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.439 Beblje and I might be mispronouncing them, who was a 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.160 German from Hamburg who wasn't an adventurer and actually did 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.200 spend time in Mexico. But of course I don't know 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.160 why he came up with this theory and proposal because 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.880 Belge died in the Spanish Civil War in the late thirties, 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.840 so probably not him. Probably not yeah, yeah, unless he 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:02.000 faked his own death. Yeah, that could have been it. 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:08.480 But again, a couple of these are faked death scenarios, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:12.960 and I don't I don't understand why. Okay, I can 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:19.359 see somebody having a big political shift or an ideology 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:24.400 shift and changing the things that they write but I 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:29.280 can't see somebody doing that and saying this is gonna 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:34.640 cause a firestorm. So instead I'll just die and come 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:39.280 back as somebody else so I don't damage that other reputation. 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:43.920 That's that's an odd train of thought. I think in general, 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:46.800 fixed death theories are kind of bunk in my book. Okay, 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.480 I think it does happen. I've done it a few times. Yeah, 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:54.680 but don't need to get away from girlfriends pretty much 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:59.959 to escape my debtor. Yeah, government, Yeah, let's dive into 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.719 some meteor theories like good ones. Yeah. Better, you know, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:06.720 I'll see how you like him. I thought we were talking, 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:11.280 like knew were there. I'm sorry, that's what I thought. 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:15.640 I'm sorry. All right, what do we got? The first 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:18.800 one of the documents to the reet ma Rout thing, 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:25.359 as I mentioned before, and as like foreshadowed, honestly, yeah, 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.119 well this is actually it was actually the connection between 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:31.359 ret mar uts is some claim was made by an 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.600 East German author named Rolf rec Nagel, but actually it 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:37.320 was actually made by one of his fellow revolutionaries, a 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.159 guy named Eric Mousseum. You probably wondering about revolutionaries. He 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.679 got you kind of ret Rout Actually appeared on the 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.320 scene in the early nineteen hundreds in Germany. He was 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:51.560 an actor, occasionally wrote plays, also directed plays, danced and 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:56.320 all that stuff, and then eventually started Yeah, I guess, 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:59.000 I guess whatever theater was like in Germany in those days, 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:02.200 that was in the live so I don't know. Yeah, 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:06.720 Eventually he got involved in politics and joined up with 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:09.560 a bunch of a bunch of revolutionaries in Bavaria, and 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:12.800 one of them was Eric Moosem, who and read My 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:17.520 Roots had a distinctive writing style that and Eric was 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:21.199 some recognize that, and it it first made the connection. So 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:23.800 a nice German author named Ralph rock Nagel, who I 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:27.000 just mentioned, wrote a book about in nineteen sixties six, 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:33.119 we did some while while Travan was still alive, right, 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:37.040 unless he faked his death in sixty to get away 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:41.600 from this, So I'm not sure that this is Obviously 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:44.560 the sixties sixty six is still I'm fairly late in 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:46.400 the game. I mean, people back in the forties where 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:49.000 we're trying to guess what his real identity was. But 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:51.479 this this just made it like sort of flare up 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:54.280 anew And actually, I guess I guess, actually you could 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:56.600 say that it was back in the twenties when people 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:58.680 actually because it was actually the publication of the Death 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:02.080 Ship in Germany that started this, because that's when Eric 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:05.080 Lewis Um recognized his writing style. Let's get back into 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:07.119 what he was up to in Bavaria. I said, he 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:09.680