A few weeks back, I posted about possible titles for my next book. Possibilities keep cropping up ...You may recall the wonderful 1980 movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which a band of bushmen are living well off the land in the Kalahari Desert. They are happy because the gods have provided plenty of everything, and no one in the tribe has unfulfilled wants. One day, a glass Coke bottle is thrown out of an airplane and falls to earth unbroken. Initially, this strange artifact seems to be another boon from the gods, and the bushmen find many uses for it. But unlike anything that they have had before, there is only one bottle to go around. This exposes the tribe to a hitherto unknown phenomenon: private personal property. They soon find themselves experiencing things they never had before: jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, even violence.
Since it has caused the band unhappiness on two occasions, one of the men -- Xi -- decides that the bottle is an evil thing and must be thrown off of the edge of the world. He sets out alone on his quest and encounters Western civilization for the first time. The film presents an interesting interpretation of civilization as viewed through Xi's perceptions.
I saw the movie in 1984 with some missionaries while studying at St. Louis University, and their experiences in Africa gave them a take on the movie that added to my enjoyment of it.
At the library yesterday, someone referred to the movie and then altered the title for my benefit: The Dodds Must Be Crazy.
It could work.
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