Ok there will be some bagging here so the sensitive may wish
to dip out now.
(Carefully putting tongue in cheek.)
After the nth reference to Moby Dick on Star Trek, we were
puzzling Why? There was the obvious parallel of ships
charting the great unknown led by 'Captain my Captain!' -
and then the penny dropped, its one of the great _american_
novels. Of Course, nuff said!
Anyway, I decided I better read the bloody thing and see
what the fuss was about.
Not very PC is it? First there's all the superstitious
nonsense about the pagan savages and cannibals, followed by
a bed scene ... well its the closest thing to a bed scene,
pity its two blokes, (er sorry one bloke and one savage). A
woman did pop up eventually, poor token thingy - and she
wasnt even a blonde waiting to be rescued - but then she was
a wowser, who being a good housewife, provided the entire
ship with hot toddys to revive themselves. And they,
ungrateful devils, poured it all overboard coz it was
alcohol free. Well at least _she_ was put in her place.
Then we have a group of provincial entrepreneurs who put
their enterprise (every pun intended) in the hands of a
raving looney and dont even notice his mental state - or
lack of it. And the stowaways!
But all is ok as we are assured that these monsters of the
deep are just big fishys in a most astounding piece of
scientific research which compares them to folios and
quartos. Just exactly what did he think "penum intrantem
feminam mammis lactantem" meant one wonders? (not even going
to comment on 'sperm' whales)
*fell asleep for a while here*
And then we get to the bit where the big fishys get hacked
to bits in gory splendour. Yeah yeah I know its a boy book
with all that manly stuff: gotta put in a bit of death and
destruction somewhere. And the precurser of the car chase.
Wot can I say! Well - I have to admit to some thoughts
concerning the bravery of these poor sods - or were they all
insane?
The only good bit was when the whale won! (I always used to
cheer for the Indians when I was a kid.)
And I was eternally grateful for the afterward that pointed
out the spiritual moral to the tale. Wot, A spiritual
message? In all those godly bits I must have missed it, -
NOT!
Pity someone couldnt give this a bit of a re-write like they
are doing with Narnia (vandals!) and bring it into the 21st
century.
*sigh*
Well there were one or two nicely written passages in there,
but you do have to dig for them, dont you?
Ok bagging finished now.
Josephine
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