>> Some say Moby Dick went crazy from brain washing. Some see the figure of
>> Ahab every time Bush & Company shout "Complete Victory" - when asked about
>> what they seek to achieve in Iraq.
>
> Stephen: At least in his deluded obsession Ahab was eloquent, charged so
> with poetry. Bush...
Yes, Melville was a speech-writer of a different sort!
I read about the first 350 pages aloud to my kids when they were six and
three. My daughter , Pearl, (3) just liked the sound of the language as she
began to fall asleep (she like the Rockwell Kent illustrations, as well). My
son, Lucas, liked to discuss and interpret what was going on. Those long
speeches though sapped the narrative of 'the action' required to keep their
heads into the story - and I had to give up for different, but other good
stuff. I remember Moby Dick's active critique of capitalism as manifested
in ship operations, movement of goods, commerce, etc. Melville is right on
'the hook' of industrial profit behavior, labor management, etc.
On that level he reminds me of Proust (who is stupidly often relegated to an
aesthetic gloss - tho it certainly can be incredibly beautiful writing).
However, similar to Melville, Proust's Remembrance...(3600 pages in its
entirety) is also a running political critique of France - its relationships
with other European countries, the Dreyfus affair, etc. - as wall as any
number of other socio/political and aesthetic issues. He is very involved in
figuring out the position of photography in relationship to painting,
forensics, etc. In my opinion it is the epic of the 20th century (thank
goodness, slow, undisciplined reader moi, I had group of four of us that
took two years to slowly digest it down - en anglais - but I totally
recommend it).
Am I right to suggest that Melville would be the last place to go for gender
studies? I mean, are there meaningful women there? Proust cannot be faulted
there (tho he disguises some men as women, it "appears")
It never ceases to amaze me that writing - particularly poetry since the
1930's can never fully engage politics (in the USA) without still getting
tarred by the New Critics conservative rejection of such a taint. Politics
is not considered a natural and implicit part of what any poetry may be
about. Kind of crippling given the dangers that crowd this Bush horizon.
Back to work,
Stephen V
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
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