Lost Beneath the Sea / good luck charms / boodle-bringers

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

As quoted in my previous email, Barks has written that he thinks that "the 
Number One Dime should not be treated as a *good luck charm*. It contradicts 
the way Uncle Scrooge *really* made his fortune, but woe is me!"

Barks continues by saying that he "blatantly violated that rule in at least 
one story", 'Lost Beneath the Sea' (US 46): "I not only had Scrooge calling 
the old dime a "boodle-bringer," I demonstrated such powers at points in the 
story."

Reading through 'Lost Beneath the Sea', I think the dime's luck has more 
to do with Scrooge's self-confidence than with any magical powers. I have 
some detailed notes on this, but my overall conclusion was that Scrooge has 
carried the dime with him for so long, that he has become *addicted* to the
dime's presence. Whenever Scrooge looses the dime, he loses his nerves, his 
self-confidence. And then he panicks and leaves his business alone, with 
financial disasters as a result.

This would mean that the "powers" of the dime are mostly the results of 
Scrooge's self-fullfilling prophecy, sometimes catalyzed by coincidences. 
(Coincidences like unexpected movements of the world's economy.)

In 'Lost Beneath the Sea', Scrooge loses his mind whenever he hears about 
losing his fortune. He doesn't do anything to turn the tide.

In Barks's dime synopsis for Rosa, adaptated by Blum/Mota, Scrooge has 
similar panicks. But after a while, Scrooge's state suddenly changes, 
saying: "Luck! I didn't make my fortune by being lucky. I made it in 
the old-fashioned way! By hard work." And so, he decides to go back to 
the hills, making a new fortune *without* Old Number One. This appears 
to finally debunk the dime's "boodle-bringer" powers. But as soon as 
Scrooge is sure of this explanation, Barks added a final twist...

And that twist seems to build a bridge between the two concepts of the 
dime as "boodle-bringer" and the dime as "a memento of the way Scrooge 
got his start". 

Personally, I'm pleased with that bridge. In the past, I've rarely liked 
stories with Old Number One as "boodle-bringer". The main reason was that 
I didn't like Scrooge's over-emphasized neurotic behaviour in most of them. 

Nowadays, Barks's synopsis, or at least my interpretation of it, seems to 
explain both Scrooge behaviour and his loss of fortune. And so, it gives 
me a way to understand Scrooge's character in such situations. He's just 
running after his own self-fullfilling prophecy, in such cases.

I'm curious what people think of these suggestions.

BTW. See my previous email for more details about Barks's synopsis and its 
comic book adaptation by Blum/Mota.

--- Daniël

"Take your bulb horns and go back to Bulgaria!"

hint #1: "The Love Song Of A Bulgarian Tree Toad!"
hint #2: "My word! What UNUSUAL answers!"
hint #3: "Yoo hoo! One - two - three! Testing!"