Hello and welcome to a decidedly snowy Saturday. Folks, today is November 14th, and I think it's safe to say winter is here to stay.
On this day in 1851, Moby Dick debuted in the United States. Why this classic gets a starry-eyed word like "debut" is beyond me. I have tried reading Moby Dick and it took me only a few pages before I landed, like a beached whale, with a sandy thump on the shores of exasperation. Maybe I should have stuck with it. Probably. No doubt, my Wannaskan Almanac colleagues would have plenty o' good to say about the great tome, but at this moment in time, I remain skeptical.
My book club once selected Ahab's Wife which looks at the great Melville tale from a different point of view of Una, Ahab's wife. I made an earnest attempt, optimistic that if I could read this book, perhaps it would bring me back to the real Ahab and his whale-seeking vendetta-quest. Alas, but not regrettably - I'm just not there yet - I didn't get very far in that one, either.
I think I may have even donated my copy of Moby Dick to the St. Mary's Bazaar/Garage Sale one summer, resolute in my abandonment of the classic. I know I have tried to pass on Ahab's Wife, which mysteriously keeps reappearing in my TBR stacks (of which I have many.)
Maybe this is a sign I shouldn't give up. After all, I've been toiling away at Ulysses by James Joyce for nearly a year. (Just completed Part 11 - Sirens, yesterday!) If I can pick my way through Ulysses, surely I may have it in me yet to come back to 'ole Ahab. Perhaps the key is finding willing companions for the arduous, sometimes terrifying, intellectual journey - like I have for Ulysses. Friends have that knack for making a long voyage less insufferable. Especially those who come prepared with good literary maps and food.
Also noteworthy in the literary world, on this day in 1889, Nelie Bly set out to follow in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Now that is an adventure I can get onboard with.
These historic events give reason for this writer to pause and muse: does the world inspire good literature or does good literature inspire the world?
Recently, I finished reading Lara Prescott's The Secrets We Kept which is a fictitious account of the CIA's efforts to smuggle Dr. Zhivago back into the USSR as anti-Soviet propaganda. The fascinating fact about Dr. Zhivago was that it was not published in the Soviet Union. After poet Boris Pasternak wrote this masterpiece about life during the Russian Revolution within the context of a love story, knowing it would be banned, the original manuscript was slinked out of the USSR and published in Italy in 1957. The American intelligence community obtained a copy, printed Russian-lanugage copies of it in the Netherlands, and slipped them into the hands of Soviets visiting the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1958, Albert Camus, who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in literature (and got a birthday shout-out here last Saturday), nominated Pasternak for a Nobel.
Interestingly, during the fifties, enough decision-makers within the CIA believed that literature was the way to influence the populace and found ways to get George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, among other books, also behind the Iron Curtain.
Even more interestingly, roughly 70 years later, in my little corner of Wannaskan country in 2020, the Oldest Son and I read 1984 and the WAKWIR* just finished Animal Farm and insisted I read it, too. (Note: These were English-class required assignments, so please hold the applause for any parental genius on my part.) Also on our book shelf, is a 1953 Czech-language copy of Around the World in 80 Days and other classics from the English-speaking world collected and saved by my in-laws over the years.
Does literature inform the world or does the world inform literature? Indeed.
A classic chicken-and-the-egg conundrum that pleasantly tickles my brain as I snuggle into my next read.
On This Day
Remembering You
Kim
*Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence
I'm going to encourage you to give Moby-Dick another go. It's gotten better each time I've read it.
ReplyDeleteUlysses, on the other hand, took me three tries and fifteen years and I can't say it was worth it.
Ulysses has been a group effort otherwise there is in way I would have made it this far. One of my book club buds found this recording by de Selby on YouTube. According to the show notes it is the original 1982 broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ radio. I have to say, the radio show format makes this story much more comprehensible and - dare I say it? - enjoyable. Here's the link to Part 1: Telemachus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY1E-NqPcP0&t=118s
DeleteI agree with John. Moby is one of the greats.
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ReplyDeletePerhaps you should set sail with a Moby Dick book club.
No blubbering allowed .
Well, with all this enthusiasm, I may just have to! I see a new endeavor: The Classics Book Club.
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