Jack DuBrul... a prophet?

I started to post this in the "Apart from Clive Cussler..." section, but felt it'd be better served as it's own thread. I'm reading the copy of Jack DuBrul's Pandora's Curse that Julie sent me (yay!). I'm about 40 pages in and it's really good so far. I'll post a review later when I'm done, but I just want to comment on something that struck me as prophetically ironic.

The book is published in 2001, which means most (if not all of it) was written before the tragic events of September 11th (2001) in New York. Part of the book is a "Universal Convocation" in which the new Catholic Pope is coordinating a meeting of religious leaders from all religions and belief systems. The idea is to encourage dialogue, understanding, and tolerance among the people of the earth, I guess.

I don't have my book with me, so I'm not be quoting word-for-word here. One of the organizers has been working tirelessly, but he tells the Pope: "I will gladly fade into the background and retire peacefully if my efforts on this Convocation can make it so not one more life is lost to violence due to religious extremacy." It might have even just been "...in the name of religion."

Unfortunately, as we well know, many lives were lost in that very same year for part of that very same reason, and I just found that to be shockingly poignant in hindsight due to the timing of when it was written.

Does anyone know if Jack went back in and added that line or revised some of the work after 9/11 but before the book went to print? Or is he just a visionary prophet like Clive (who writes about historical events before they are made known to the public, e.g. Black Wind)?

I don't know if Jack added that after the attacks on 9/11 but it wouldn't have been necessary. There were enough attacks for the previous 20 years to justify the statement: Khobar Towers, ongoing rocket and suicide bomber attacks in Israel, flight 103, the assasination of Anwar Sadat, the first attempt on the World Trade Center, the USS Cole, the Achille Lauro killings, the Marine barracks bombing, and so on in depressing repetition. And that's just off the top of my head. There was much more.

Jeff

Erik is this what you are looking for?

Thanks, Julie. There was another thread that discussed specifically Black Wind and the real sub being found and whatnot, but this one certainly refers to that.

"made public" would refer to mainstream I guess. Prophet, good researcher, or news-stealing theif, I'm still impressed by Clive's interest and ability to write stories about events that not a lot of peple know about.

I seem to recall that that the plot of Skeleton Coast involved an oil spill in creating a toxic cloud of benzene, driven by hurricane winds into populaated areas.

Now, I haven't heard anyone talking about the possible health effects of this scenario, but it seems quite likely that at least one hurricane is going to churn up the oil rich waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Prophetic? I think so. I don't think we're nearly worried enough.

Prophecy or just sheer timing? It boggles the mind sometimes about fiction and real events. Could it be that humans tend to share similar pathways of thought throughout history. Or is there just a cumulative effect of news events that tip certain actions? Lets just bob a long here in our own individual skiffs and ponder.

The worry is that the oil spill in the book was deliberate rather than accidental. Uh oh