Is a dolphin rescuing a human cliche?

Dolphins are the only marine animals that have been observed killing purely for entertainment. The only two other species that do this are chimpanzees and man.

They seem innocent yet they lie in wait like wolves. With the smell of blood in their nostrils. Waiting, interminably waiting.

EDIT- There is a video on Youtube of a pack of killer whales (a type of Dolphin bizarrely) attacking a killing a minke whale cow and pup. It is incredible because they just leap out the water and smash down on the whale, eventually knocking it out and ripping it to pieces. Nature is awesome 8)

I don't know what to call this. I think it's a good idea for a child's book. Dolphins are intelligent mammals that kids seem to be fascinated with. You might even include a shark or two and have the dolphins chase them away,

Good luck.

It is a cliche.

Knowing that, cliches aren't always bad.

See what you can do with it to give it a unique twist. What's different about your dolphin rescue? Focus on the details.

Sure, go for it. Although it would be cooler to have Deep Ones rescue the kids.



I've also read of sea turtles seeming to offer support to floundering swimmers. Then again, sea turtles (and porpoises) have also been known to show extreme romantic attention to swimmers, and that might not fly in MG.

Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, wrote about an experience he and his family had when swimming with dolphins once.

There was this pool, open to the sea but enclosed on three other sides, where two wild dolphins would swim in to accept food. Benchley, his wife and his son got into the pool, ready to play with the dolphins.

He later wrote that what had gone through the male dolphin's mind was probably something along the lines of:

"Juvenile male. No threat. Ignore.

Adult female. No threat. Ignore.

Adult male. GET OFF MY TURF."

So the male dolphin swam straight at Benchley, accelerating all the while, bottlenose (and sharp teeth) aimed for the man's crotch.

Sadly, I don't remember how the story ended.

Just because it's true doesn't mean it will make good fiction.

You can get away with it by introducing the dolphins to the narrative so we know they're out there.

They cannot come swooping in deus ex machina style to save the day.

Mary Stewart had a dolphin saving her heroine in This Rough Magic, but the dolphin was mentioned often through out the book, and in an early chapter the heroine moved heaven and earth to save the beach-stranded animal before it died.

It's a little cliche, but that doesn't automatically make it a no no. See if you can do something new with it.

I urge you to watch Guns n Roses Estranged music video. If you don't want to watch all 9 minutes 50 seconds of it, just check out the dolphin scene at around 7.44 (although they do feature throughout).

And if you do watch it all, how many modes of transport have made it into this video? Helicopter, plane, limo, Slash's water-walking (well, he doesn't even have to walk - water transport!), ship, row-boat, police car, hospital trolley, motorbikes, Axl-brand sneakers/trainers and of course, dolphins (first seen coming out of the back of a plane - naturally!). Was it some sort of joke by the producers? Or did Axl just want an excuse to go diving with dolphins?


Oh, my point being that now, whenever dolphins helping humans are mentioned, I just think of Axl and cheesiness.

I'm with Gillhoughly. If you go for it, I'd plant the idea of the dolphins earlier in the book, including the fact they do, on occasion, rescue humans. Yay foreshadowing.

Not if you write it well enough. Try to make it interesting.

Dolphins have been known to rescue humans in the past.

Kurtz said:

Dolphins are the only marine animals that have been observed killing purely for entertainment. The only two other species that do this are chimpanzees and man.

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Sure, humans and dolphins may be vicious killers, but they also rescue kids/marine mammals. So I think Barb D should go for it.

PS: There are videos of dolphins bludgeoning porpoises to death.

Barb, I'm just throwing this out for consideration and thought. You are piling on catastrophes, which isn't a bad thing for a novel (it's what we tend to do), but for a single scene and a single event it may be a little to much (even for younger readers). You have catastrophe number one--the rip tide. This is a life threatening event and one that deserves full impact as such in your writing. You then pile on a shark as catastrophe number two. As soon as you do that, the impact of the rip tide, which is still incredibly dangerous and life threatening, may be shoved to a miniscule impact because of the looming, swimming teeth (shark shows up, rip-what?). In reality, someone caught in a riptide will be in such a panic they'd probably grab onto a shark just to keep from drowning. Now, you solve the two different life threats in two very different ways--the dolphins hold off the shark and the lifeguards (who would also be threatened by the shark) rescue the kids from the riptide. Each of these life threatening events should deserve full treatment for the terror they impose and the heroic rescue. Putting them together may be a bit much in the sense that one will likely minimize the other, and in this case, neither should be minimized.

And it does get a little tedious that every time someone falls in seawater, a shark just seems to be around (human-shark interactions are not common at all).

I'd suggest you talk to someone who has been caught in a riptide and had to be rescued. I think you'll find enough terror and panic in the situation you won't need a shark to play it down to a mere vehicle to get the kids in the vicinity of the shark for a real wingding rescue by those wonderful dolphins. Most important, you'll keep it well within the confines of probable reality.

I'm with Neuro. Keeping it simple will actually increase the drama but you will have to explain what a riptide does, why it's such a threat.

I don't believe an idea can be cliched, only the execution of the idea.

As McDonalds says, have it your way. That ought to make it okay

Yeah, rip tides are scary enough. I'd lose the shark, keep the dolphins if they have a larger significance in the story than the physical rescue.

I'm having a George C. Scott/The Day of the Dolphins flashback.

"Fa love Pa!"

Carry on.

Just to chime in.

Dolphins and whales DO save people. On a yearly basis. They do it all the time so regardless of if it is a cliche or not, it is true. it happens.

BTW, being a cliche doesn't automatically make something bad. As long as it works for your story you're fine.

I mean, one could argue that vampire 'anything' is a cliche but that doesn't stop the vampire stories from rolling off the press.

Mel...

You could have a riptide, then dolphins attack, and sharks save the kids from the dolphins.

Salis said:

You could have a riptide, then dolphins attack, and sharks save the kids for leftovers from the because they're stuffed on dolphins.

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Fixed it.