Down-to-earth-aspects in Africanus' descriptions were largely ignored and heedings of great riches served as a catalyst for travellers to visit the inaccessible city – with prominent French explorer René Caillié characterising Timbuktu as “a mass of ill-looking houses built of earth”.[57] Now opened up, many travellers acknowledged the unfitting description of an “African El Dorado”.[58] This development shifted the city's reputation - from being fabled because of its gold to fabled because of its location and mystery:
They transformed their garments and dwellings, and ceasing to be Timbuktu the Great, they became Timbuktu the Mysterious.
- Felix Dubois, Timbuctoo the Mysterious (1896), p. 246
Being used in this sense since at least 1863, English dictionaries now cite Timbuktu as a metaphor for any faraway place.[59] Long part of colloquial language, Timbuktu also found its way into literature: in Tom Robbins' novel Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Timbuktu provides a central theme. One lead character, Larry Diamond, is vocally fascinated with the city. The 1960 musical Oliver!, based on the 1838 novel, features a more casual reference: at one point Oliver sings to Nancy,
"I'd do anything for you, dear, anything, for you" to which Nancy sings in reply, "Paint your face bright blue?" "Anything", Oliver responds. "Go to Timbuktu?" Nancy asks. "And back again", Oliver responds.
Similar uses of the city are found in movies, where it is used to indicate a place a person or good cannot be traced - in a Dutch Donald Duck comic subseries situated in Timbuktu, Donald Duck uses the city as a safe haven,[60] and in the 1970 Disney animated feature The Aristocats, cats are sent to Timbuktu. It is mistakenly noted to be in French Equatorial Africa, instead of French West Africa.[61] Timbuktu has provided the setting for at least one movie: the 1959 film Timbuktu was set in the city in 1940, although it was filmed in Kanab, Utah. Capitalizing on both name and fame of the historic town, both American alternative pop group "Timbuk3 and San Francisco based messenger bag manufacturer Timbuk2 derived their name via a wordplay on Timbuktu.[62]
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Friday, December 10th 2010 at 3:00AM
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