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The Flying Dutchman in American Literature and British Scifi: The Myth Across the

Atlantic

By: Adam White

Email: [email protected]

Dr. Julieann Ulin

American Literature

11/18/2010


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Sometime two stories separated by decades, continents, and cultures share a number

of common traits that seem to suggest the stories are related. Amiri Barakas Dutchman

and the Doctor Who episode Midnight are vastly different, but have common traits and

myths that link them. Dutchman is a story about racial violence set in a New York

subway car, while Midnight tells of an alien traveler on a diamond planet far away from

Earth. One story is part of the American Literature canon, at least as set by the Norton

anthology, while the other is a British sci-fi episode, part of popular entertainment.

Within this paper, I will analyze and explain how a common myth, in this case, that of

the Flying Dutchman, can link two stories by common tropes, even across two shores.

Additionally, I will suggest that certain tropes may appear simply because they are

common to human nature, and provide an avenue for an audience to study humanity in

detail, from a safe vantage point, while coming to the realization that they may not be as

safe as they initially feel.

Both stories employ the myth of the Flying Dutchman, a legend written about by authors

such as John Leyden, who described it as a spectre-ship denominated the Flying

Dutchman which appears in the dead of night as a luminous form of a ship (176).

Barakas play updates the myth of the flying Dutchman to take place in the flying

underbelly of the city, a subway heaped in modern myth (Baraka 2745). The use of a

subway not only provides a vehicle to parallel the mythical ship, but also provides a

claustrophobic location for the story, the outside world being nothing but flashes by the

windows (2745). The Doctor Who episode midnight employs a similar setting to evoke a

similar sense of claustrophobia. Rather than a modern city, the story takes place in a


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science fiction setting, a tram car, similar in appearance to a small airliner cabin or even

a modern subway car, about seven rows of four seats, separated into pairs in the

middle by a single aisle, with windows shielded from the outside world (Midnight). These

settings not only provide a sense of claustrophobia, but an insulated space from the

outside world. The hostess in midnight apologizes that the view is shielded, and

Professor Hobbes, a researcher of the planet Midnight states, We look upon this world

through glass, safe inside our metal box [...] crossing Midnight but never touching it

(Midnight, 8:09). These insulated settings allow the characters only a false sense of

security and serve a useful purpose for the narrative. The audience is always isolated in

some way from the dangers on stage, either viewing the world through glass on a

television screen, or sitting behind the proverbial fourth wall, comfortable in their theater

seats. They are given the same sense of security as the characters begin with, but will

be quickly reminded of how dangerous the world outside their living room or theater is.

The isolated setting allows the dangers outside the vehicle to be shown with greater

clarity. By using only a handful of characters, their flaws can bring clearer focus to the

flaws of society as a whole. The trams serve as a microcosm for humankind. By

eliminating all other elements except for the victim of the act and those complicit in it,

the story directs the audiences focus to evils that normally go unnoticed in the sea of

people that makes up society. This shatters not only the characters senses of security,

but that of those watching as well. The viewer is separate from the performance, but

must eventually leave the theatre or living room and face the outside world where these

evils exist. Each person must also examine themselves to see if they possess such evil.


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The idea of an evil or a sin is another important element of the Flying Dutchman myth.

Leydan writes that the crew of this vessel are supposed to have been guilty of some

dreadful crime, in the infancy of navigation, and are ordained to traverse the ocean on

which they perished, till the period of their penance expire (Leydan, 176). The crew of

the flying Dutchman is forced to wander due to their sin, exiled from every place they

might find some rest. The Doctor is such a wanderer. In the 1963 pilot episode of Doctor

Who, The Doctor is traveling with his granddaughter and explains to his first two human

companions, [w]e are not of this race. We are not of this earth. We are wanderers in

the fourth dimensions of space and time cut off from our own planet and our own

people (An Unearthly Child). His initial sin is that of interfering in the lives of less

advanced people, a violation of the laws of his reclusive people. Later, when the show

returns from cancellation as a new series in 2005, the doctor will be given a new reason

for wandering the universe.

Barakas character list dictates that the passengers onthe subway car should be white

and black (Baraka 2745). This choice leaves no room for anyone white or black to

blame another race for what transpires within the story. The passengers who allow the

crime to transpire, and then help to throw Clays body off the train could represent a

large number of people. White and black is specified, but these characters could

represent any member of the audience. Similarly, the Doctor Who episode Midnight

employs a wide range of ordinary characters who, despite the futuristic setting, are

dressed in a contemporary and plain style. The unnamed hostess is a black woman in a

uniform similar to a flight attendants. She is a by the book worker with a forced polite


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smile. When The Doctor explains that his exclamation of a llons-y is French for lets

go she simply smiles, and gives a curt fascinating before moving on (Midnight, 2:07).

She represents those who make themselves slaves to protocol and rules, telling the

Doctor and others to get back to your seat when th ings begin to go wrong (13:50). She

is the first to suggest murder after the first passenger is possessed, saying we should

throw her out, as she feels a responsibility to protect the tram and its passengers from

any danger (26:00). Despite this, she is the one who sacrifices her own life to save The

Doctor (39:30). Biff, Val, and Jethro are members of the same family on vacation, and

could represent many middle class families. Biff is the father of the familly and dresses

like one might imagine the typical vacationing dad, wearing a maroon polo shirt, khakis,

goatee, and an analog wristwatch. Biff is a bit of an overbearing father who complains

that his son is ashamed of us but doesnt mind us paying (3:00). Val is the typical

image of a tourist mother, focused on the complimentary trinkets such as paper slippers

provided for the travelers. When disaster begins, she allows her fear to influence her,

claiming that whatever creature possesses Sky Sylvestri, the went from her to him,

The Doctor (36:50). Her fear causes her to see things, and she forces others to try and

see the same things. She asks her son Jethro, a rebellious teenager who wears black

clothes and would rather sit at least one seat from his family while listening to music, if

he saw the same thing. When he says I dont know, she tells him Oh, dont be stupid,

Jethro! Of course you did, and convinces her son that he saw the same thing (37:10).

She also uses the same manipulation on her husband, convincing him to throw The

Doctor out of the car by playing on his insecurity, saying do it, youre useless,

questioning his adequacy as a husband and father (37:30). Deedee, a young black


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college student traveling with Professor Hobbes on research, aptly concludes that Val is

just making it up, demonstrating a stronger insight but also calling for the murder of

Sky with everyone else to protect herself saying I wanna go home. Im sorry. I want to

be safe (27:51). Hobbes is an older professor, bald, wearing a cardigan, knit tie, and

glasses. Hobbes appears very non-threatening, but he feels overly secure in his own

scientific expertise. When the entity begins knocking on the tram he explains that the

light out there is extonic and would destroy any living thingin a split second, believing

that it is impossible for someoneto be outside (13:38). As the entitys existence

becomes more apparent, he continues to fall back on his limited knowledge, trying to

overcome his fear by relying on his own intellect. Sky Sylvestri, the passenger who

becomes possessed, wears a business suit and is traveling alone, reading a novel and

keeping to herself when the story begins. Her initial interest in her novel over the other

passengers Is similar to the passengers in Dutchman who go back to newspapers or

stare out of windows while Clay and Lula are arguing (Baraka 2755). She is targeted

because she is the most afraid. She calls out Its coming for me while backing against

a wall before the entity takes control of her body and she begins repeating the words of

the others in the car (Midnight 10:10). Dutchman paints a broader stroke by simply

specifying that the passengers be both white and black, but gives little other information.

Midnight episode gives passengers specific qualities, but presents such a wide variety

of distinct personalities that the audience may identify with at least one of them. The

insecurities they hold as fathers, mothers, business people, intellectuals, and their

natural fear for their own safety and sanity motivates them.


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Lula suggests Clay knows someone named Warren Enright[,] a tall skinny black boy

with a phony English accent (Baraka 2751). She is implying that Clay is putting on an

act, being someone he is not, and keeping company that is just as phony. Baraka

seems to take a similar attitude towards him, even though he is the protagonist, and

arguably the hero of the story. Lula asks Clay why he is wearing a jacket and tie like

that, and says that his narrow-shoulder clothes come from a tradition you ought to feel

oppressed by, his three-button suit and striped tie a product of European fashion

sense brought over to the United States by people who were most likely slave holders

(2750). Amiri Baraka changed his name from Leroi Jones by taking a Bantuized

Muslim name (Norton 2743). Both Clays name and his style of dress may be under

judgment not just by Lula, but by the playwright himself. Baraka changed his name to

separate himself from the white European tradition, while his character Clay embraces

this tradition, telling her that he thought he was Baudelaire in college (Baraka 2750).

He is similar to The Doctor in this respect. The Doctor is alien but throughout all his

incarnations he has spoken English with a UK accent. The tenth Doctor in particular

who is in the story Midnight speaks with a mainstream London accent. He sometimes

gives away that he is alien however. Jethro observes however that the doctor called us

[the passengers] humans, like youre not one of us (Midnight, 29:00). He also dresses

as a human might, wearing a brown suit with purple pinstripes, and a matching purple

dress shirt underneath with a tie. The only hint that something is alien about his dress

sense is the fact that he wears converse sneakers with a suit, but even so, his dress

style is alien to his culture and allows him to blend in. For the Doctor, this is simply a


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fashion choice and a way to blend in. He also makes concessions with language,

simplifying and using other peoples terminology for explaining complex things.

Ordinarily, he travels in his own time/space traveling vehicle known as the TARDIS,

rather than a tram. It appears and disappears much like the luminous Flying

Dutchman, fading in and out as a light on top slowly pulses. Though it does not appear

in the Midnight episode, it is similar in this respect to the myth, as well as Barakas

stage directions for [d]im lights and darkness (2745). In the pilot episode, he must

explain its function as a traveling machine to a pair of school teachers in 1963 in a

manner which they will understand. He calls it a ship, explaining to them, I use your

own outdated terminology for any craft which does not roll along on wheels (An

Unearthly Child). The vernacular is not his own, but it allows him to fit in and be

understood and accepted by those around him. This concession to the people he

interacts with makes him similar to Clay, though it does not cause him the same

condemnation. The word ship also links his machine more closely with the Flying

Dutchman myth that connects both stories.

Clay wears his suit, as he says to keep himself from cutting all your throats, referring

to Lula and the other passengers, though possibly focusing on the white passengers

(2756). He is putting on an act to fit in. Baraka does not seem to view these violent

urges as negative or a sin, but suggests through Clay that Charlie Parker. Bird

wouldve played not a note of music if he just [...] killed the first ten white people he saw

(2756). Attributing these violent tendencies to a great musician who is respected by

both races gives them legitimacy within the story. The reader also sees him acting


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violently toward Lula prior to the revelation about how dangerous she is. He [s]laps her

as hard as he can, across the mouth attempting to shut her up, and does so violently

that her head bangs against the back of the seat (2755). Assuming that Baraka is not

condemning this violence, having attributed similar urges to famous musicians, Clays

sin, the transgression that relates him to the Flying Dutchman myth is his choice of

name, dress, his English friends, and his general adoption of European descended

traditions.

The Doctor is a heroic figure, but has potentially violent tendencies as Clay does. A

young boy at a military academy on the verge of World War 1 describes The Doctor as

being like fire, and ice, and rage, expressing how dangerous he is, but finishing by

saying that The Doctor is also wonderful (The Family of Blood, 24:50). His qualities

are heroic, but he is somewhat of a tragic flawed hero. In the new series, The Doctor

reveals that not only is he separated from his people, but they died by his actions as he

protected the rest of the universe. He finds what he believes to be the last remaining

member of an enemy race, the Daleks, and gloats your race is dead, you all burned all

of you, ten-million ships on fire, the entire Dalek race wiped out in one second,

emphasizing I watched it happen, I made it happen (Dalek, 8:30). He also reveals that

his race The Time Lords also burned with the Daleks, and laments that had no

choice but to end the war with a near double genocide to keep the rest of the universe

from being destroyed (8:50). The Doctor has become the sole survivor of his race by his

own actions, and so he must wander the proverbial seas of the universe without a home

port to land his luminous ship. Clay has violent urges, but his sin is not violence, but


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trying to be someone he is not, Baudelaire or any other figure, though the myth applies

more to the subway car and its passengers in general than to Clay only. Clay is violent,

but justifiably so in the eyes of the playwright, while the Doctor is punished for his

violent tendencies. The Doctor however wears the clothes and adopts the language of

another culture without any judgment against him, while these tendencies in Clay allow

him to be targeted and killed more easily. They both have violent tendencies, and make

concessions to fit in. Though they are not condemned for the same reason, the theme

of condemnation for a sin connects them by a common myth, as does being alien like

the Dutchman, unable to find a friendly home port. The curse is on the ship as well. The

Doctors TARDIS travels with him, and events after Clays murder suggest that his

death may not be the only one.

When Clay first appears, he is holding a magazine, while Lula is carrying a net bag

full of paper books (2745). At the end of the story, we see a YOUNG NEGRO who

comes into the coach, with a couple of books under his arm before becoming the new

subject of Lulas interest as she gives him a long slow look (2758). Lula is targeting

another educated young black man, and the subway train continues like the Flying

Dutchman ship. The cycle of racial violence is about to continue, as if the subway car is

forever traveling in this sea of trouble. The net bag full of books that Lula carries may

likely be trophies from previous young black men that she has killed. Even if she

changes subway cars, wherever she goes the curse will continue.

The antagonists in each story make the protagonist repeat them before taking control.


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Lula initially gets Clay to give up his voice by a simple direct command for him to repeat

her. She order him stating, Now you say to me, Lula, Lula why dont you go to this

party with me tonight? Its your turn and let those be your lines (2749). He adds a

Huh to the end of her statement and uses her name only once, but she quickly

corrects him so that he repeats her request verbatim, telling him to [s]ay her name

twice with no huhs (2749). The Doctor is also made to repeat by the entity inhabiting

Mrs. Silvestre. She begins repeating what The Doctor says, picking him because she

needs his voice in particular[,] the cleverest voice in the room (Midnight 32:23). The

Doctor is being targeted for his intelligence as Clay and the young black man after him

have been. She mimics everything he says, coming into closer and closer sync with him

until she speaks first, still inhabiting the body of Mrs. Sylvestri, but physically disabling

The Doctor while forcing him to repeat her words. Professor Hobbes observes that she

spoke before he did, and Jethro comes to the conclusion that hes copying her

(33:10). The entity can now speak on its own, answering when someone asks if Mrs.

Sylvestri has returned saying Yes, its me(33:50). Jethro concludes that its passed

into The Doctor (34:00), and the entity confirms their suspicions by saying that its

inside his head while smiling and maintaining a gentle tone to gain everyones

sympathy (35:59). Lula uses similar methods, saying I lie a lot. It helps me control the

world (Baraka 2747). Like Lula, the entity lies, but allows people to form their own

conclusions first repeating The Doctor and then paralyzing him , forcing him to repeat so

that they conclude that he is the entity because thats what the thing does, it repeats

(36:40). The Doctor lives, but his condition during this period is similar to Clay after Lula

stabs him. Clay slumps across her knees, his mouth working stupidly, his voice stolen


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as The Doctors was, and his body is unable to move save for what mute motions he

can make with his mouth.

After stealing The Doctors voice, making him repeat her, the creature controlling Sky is

still unable to fully control her body and calls in a docile, helpless tone Help me

Professor, get me away from him, please, an order which Professor Hobbes quickly

obeys (Midnight, 34:30). Similarly, Lula exercises similar control over the passengers on

the subway car after she has killed Clay. She calls out to them, Get this man off me!

Hurry, now, having committed the murder herself, she recruits the passengers of the

train to help her clean up the evidence. The circumstances from each story are slightly

different, but follow similar patterns. The entity asks to be pulled away from The Doctor,

while Lula asks them to take hold of Clay instead, but both manipulate others to put

distance between themselves and the one they have attacked.

After the passengers pull Clays body off, she tells them to [o]pen the door and throw

his body out (Baraka 2757). The entity in midnight manipulates people into trying to do

the same thing with The Doctor, though by using peoples insecurities to put the thought

into their head. The Hostess was the first to suggest throwing Mrs. Sylvestri out (26:00)

when she began repeating, and so the entity waits until peoples tempers flare up and

lies, explaining [t]hats how he does it. He makes you fight, creeps into your head, and

whispers before commanding people to listen. Just listen (37:40). She is more indirect

than Lula, but just as effective, planting mental suggestions with words alone so that

people convince themselves that they can hear the entity. Biff is the first to suggest


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lets throw him out (38:01). Val puts her fingers to her temples, beginning to believe

she is hearing voices, saying get him out of my head before telling Biff Dont just talk

about it [] youre useless, making him feel inadequate and spurring him on (38:00).

Whereas Lula directly commands, the entity uses peoples own insecurities and fears to

get them to do her will. The indirect manipulation of peoples insecurities seems more

realistic and believable than Lula simply commanding everyone to do her bidding. The

audience is able to see what motivates each person to commit terrible acts, and learns

that they have, as Clay said very rational explanations (Baraka, 2757) for what they

are doing. Biff for example, has his adequacy as a husband and a man is called into

question, and he decides his course of action. He only needs prompting when having

trouble working up the nerve to actually commit murder. He hesitates, his hands

shaking as he contemplates murdering The Doctor though, the entity becomes as direct

as Lula, calling Yes! Throw him out! Get rid of him! Now! (37:33).

Though being targeted for his intellect as Clay was, The Doctor manages to use his

intelligence to save his life. Although he can only repeat the entity, he gets the entity to

say Molto Bene and Allons-y (38:59), two phrases that the hostess would remember

he had spoken at the beginning of the trip. The hostess exclaims shes taken his voice

(39:26) and sacrifices herself. Looking at her actions in relation to the Flying Dutchman

myth, this act of self sacrifice serves as her penance for being the first to suggest

murder. No such penance is displayed in Dutchman however, only the sin and its grim

results.


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Mrs. Sylvestri is killed and The Doctor released from her control parallels closely with

Clays threats to Lula. The Doctor is only released when the hostess sacrifices herself,

pulling Mrs. Sylvestri and the entity possessing her outside (Midnight 39:40). The light

outside is called extonic, and the driver of the tram states that its one hundred

percent extonic out there, wed be vaporized (10:00). Mrs. Sylvestri is dragged outside

into this light and dies in a way that very closely resembles Clays threats against Lula.

He threatens that the blues people and half-white trusties will drag you out to the

edge of your cities so the flesh can fall away from your bones, in sanitary isolation

(Baraka 2757). Midnight is certainly a planet of sanitary isolation, a diamond planet with

no humans on the surface save for a small resort and those protected in the tram cars.

No life is present on the surface, save for the entity in the story as any flesh in the light

is vaporized. The scene of Mrs. Sylvestris death also mirrors Clays statement to Lula

that the only thing that would cure the neurosis would be your murder (2756). The

Doctor continues to repeat everything the entity says until it is either killed, or flees

when Mrs. Sylvestri dies, at which point he tells the other passengers Its gone after

being released from its controlling madness (Midnight 39:48). Perhaps murder is what

Baraka believed was the only penance that would end the curse of his Dutchman. The

passengers get off the train, but the proverbial ship continues sailing with a new

educated black man on board with Lula. Barakas work is more about race, and helping

his race escape this cycle of violence while Midnight is more universal, showing the ugly

side of all humans, regardless of color. Both stories are connected by the common myth

of the Flying Dutchman, and by the need for the viewers to analyze themselves as well

as the world around them and to be aware of such dangers.


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Works Cited

Baraka, Amiri. "Dutchman." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Seventh ed.

Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 2745-758. Print.

Baym, Nina. "AMIRI BARAKA (LEROI JONES)." The Norton Anthology of American

Literature. Seventh ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 2743-744. Print.

Coburn, Anthony. "An Unearthly Child." Doctor Who. British Broadcasting Corporation.

London, United Kingdom, 23 Nov. 1963. Youtube. Web. 14 Nov. 2010.

.

Cornell, Paul. "The Family of Blood." Doctor Who. British Broadcasting Corporation.

Cardiff, United Kingdom, 30 Apr. 2 Jun. 2007. Netflix. BBC America. Web. 17

Nov. 2010.

Davies, Russel. "Midnight." Doctor Who. British Broadcasting Corporation. Cardiff,

United Kingdom, 30 Apr. 2005. Netflix. BBC America. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.

Dicks, Terrence & Hulke, Malcolm. "The War Games." Doctor Who. British Broadcasting

Corporation. London, United Kingdom, 19 Apr. 1969. DVD.

Leyden, John. Scenes of Infancy; Descriptive of Teviotdale. Edinburgh: Longman,

Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1811. Google Books. Web. 9 Nov. 2010.

.

Shearman, Robert. "Dalek." Doctor Who. British Broadcasting Corporation. Cardiff,

United Kingdom, 30 Apr. 2005. Netflix. BBC America. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

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