posted
You know... the American equivalent of the Loch Ness monster in Lake Champlain. I was curious as to how many of you have heard of it and whether it is widespread enough as to stand on its own without too much unwieldy explanation. I used it as a story of mine, but then realised that I was submitting it to a U.K. market and I am begining to rethink its popularity, or should I say familiarity with the readership.
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posted
I've never heard of it. I also don't live in the US.
Though, even a story about Nessie I would expect to have a little neatly placed exposition explaining the premise of that legend. I'd honestly rather read a story about Champ than Nessie, if well written, just for the novelty factor
posted
I've definitely heard of Champ. In fact, there was a History Channel prgram (an episode of Monster Quest, I think) about Champ a year or two ago. I'd heard of it before that, though.
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I've heard of Champ, like Meredith through some documentary or other, maybe from an account of P.T. Barnum's eccentric interests.
Hereabouts, the legendary ghost of Egypt reigns in the fading culture of the old timers. Egypt reputedly tended try pots for the whale oil fishery. A robust and vibrant African freedwoman who remembered her native traditions, Egypt was of a very dark complexion. Nowadays, for the old timer's descendents, anything deeply dark in color is said to be as black as Egypt. One cautionary fable relates Egypt's ghost seeking out wayward, lazy children, the whales mostly gone from the coast, to render for their baby fat in her trying pots.
quote:Does it matter? There was no monster croc, but that didn't stop'em making 'Lake Placid'.
Not really, I think the monsters decription stands on its own, but it would definately serve to strengthen the theme, as I mention its name and imply that it is a shape-shifting alien which has also taken human form.
posted
I'm from the Lake champlain region and have definitely heard of Champ. It's one of those local bits of folklore that few people take seriously except as an amusement, and marketing ploy for tourists. He was the mascot of our local minor league team for a while. I could see where a UK market would draw a logical comparison to Nessie. Its about the same thing.
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posted
I've heard of it...think I read about it first in one of the tabloid newspapers, back when I still read them---which'd be sometime in the 1970s...
Certainly I never heard anything about it on the occasions I visited the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain area when I was a child...
posted
I've lived in the US all my life and never heard of it, of course I've generally spent my time in the west. I still think you can use it, but perhaps a sentence or two of background wouldn't hurt.
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posted
As a Canadian I have never heard of champ, but in British Columbia there is an Indian legend of a serpent like beast called 'Ogopogo' living in Lake Okanagan. Google it there are lots of hits.
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posted
Being from New York, and doing some undergrad work at SUNY Plattsburg, I've definitely heard of Champ.
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I've heard of champ, but I'd guess I'm in the minority, even here in the US. A comparison to "Nessie" would probably be enough to orient an audience.
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Is there some way to write or put something in story, like a newspaper article, that would let those unaware of Champ's existence know it comes from a real legend?
It wouldn't even have to be real. I'm thinking of the Princess Bride with the author's foreward. I'm also reading Life of Pi and it starts off with the author talking about how he met the author in real life. Of course his MC is completely fictional and who knows if the author ever really made it to India at all, but it was fun. Also one of my favorite picture books (the author's name escapes me at the moment) tells an outrageous story about santa claus and magic and ends with this bike being magically stuck in a tree. Then the last picture is a real photograph of a bike stuck in the middle of a tree's trunk.
quote:Is there some way to write or put something in story, like a newspaper article, that would let those unaware of Champ's existence know it comes from a real legend?
That gave me an Idea, earlier in the story, I had the MC's mom drinking coffe reading Ellory Queen. Instead I could have it be an article about champ, and perhaps her complaining about the tourists or something.
quote:I've lived in a number of places in the midwest and southwest, and I've never heard of him/it. Perhaps it is more a New England sort of thing.
Not necessarily. I said I'd heard of it and I'm on the opposite corner of the country, in California. But I imagine that there would be more people in that part of the country who had heard of it.
posted
I'm familiar with it, but I am from the US and have a strong interest in Cryptozoolgy and an overwhelming lifelong fear/fascination/love/hate relationship with water monsters, so don't go by me.
However yes there are many many lakes etc in just about every part of the world with a monstrous denizen. There are many in the US, Nessie and I believe several others in the Brittish Isles, Ogopogo in Canada. Mokele-mBembe (or however its spelled) in the Congo in Africa etc etc. Its a concept that most people who read genre fiction are going to be familiar with I'd think.
posted
Yeah, I've heard of Champ, but I've heard more about Chessie - I suppose because its name rhymes with that other sea monster.
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quote: Does it matter? There was no monster croc, but that didn't stop'em making 'Lake Placid'.
Yes, but, Lake Placid's giant crocodile is believable beacuase every major city (on the East Coast of the USA at least) has a "There's a crocodile/alligator in the sewers" urban legend. It's made slightly more feasible by it's explanation.
That said, I fully believe you can reference Nessie once (as you did here) and get the descriptive point across.
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