Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In by C.L.R. James

C.L.R. James began writing this monograph while he was detained by the I.N.S. on Ellis Island in 1953. In the book James contends that Moby Dick is one of the greatest novels of all time because it contains an original character (Ahab). He reads the book as very applicable to life in the 1950s as well as the 1850s. Ahab and Ishmael are both representative of tyranny (Ahab's tyranny is the authoritarian tyranny of leadership whereas Ishmael's tyranny is intellectual). James thinks that Melville wasn't bold enough with the crew, which has the roots of dignifying work and labor in its depiction. In addition to the reading of the book, James also writes a chapter about his detention on Ellis Island, in which he indicts the US government for failing to humanely treat people it chooses to detain and for creating the category of alien, which strips him of rights. This discussion seems all the more relevant in the light of immigration debates happening now and in the light of the way we treat terror suspects. James's reading does not really engage in a critical conversation beyond the book, but I think that the political readings he gives more than make up for his lack of engagement with lit-crit figures.

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