 | A WRITER'S WIT |  L. Faderman |
MY BOOK WORLD
Melville, Herman. Typee. New York: BOMC, 1997 (1846).
When Melville is a young man, he makes a trip throughout the South Pacific as a sailor. Typee is a novel based on his voyage, yet though the arc of the narrative is fiction-like, it clearly feels as if it is based on actual experiences. The protagonist, Tom, and his friend Toby, become bored with their work on one ship and decide to ditch their agreement or contract with the captain. They run into the island mountains and are confronted with two groups of natives: the Happars and the Typees. Only the Typees are said to be cannibals, and that is the group that winds up “capturing” the two boys. At first, they do not sense the danger they are in because the natives are somewhat kind to them: feeding them quite well and meeting other needs too. However, the boys are not let out of sight of the natives, and they suspect they could wind up as dead meat on a stick for this tribe. At one point Toby does escape, and Tom believes he will never see his buddy again. Tom bides his time and somehow makes his way onto another ship and escapes back to his native America. There after some time, young Toby does appear (in rather a Coda-like chapter) and explains to his relieved friend, Tom, how he too was captured, in the sense, at least, that Toby was not allowed to return and retrieve his friend. Some of the language, and certainly the story, still remain fresh after nearly 200 years. It also prepares one for the reading of Melville’s Moby-Dick.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | David Shields
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Lauren Groff
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Zelda Fitzgerald
FRI: My Book World | Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
When Melville is a young man, he makes a trip throughout the South Pacific as a sailor. Typee is a novel based on his voyage, yet though the arc of the narrative is fiction-like, it clearly feels as if it is based on actual experiences. The protagonist, Tom, and his friend Toby, become bored with their work on one ship and decide to ditch their agreement or contract with the captain. They run into the island mountains and are confronted with two groups of natives: the Happars and the Typees. Only the Typees are said to be cannibals, and that is the group that winds up “capturing” the two boys. At first, they do not sense the danger they are in because the natives are somewhat kind to them: feeding them quite well and meeting other needs too. However, the boys are not let out of sight of the natives, and they suspect they could wind up as dead meat on a stick for this tribe. At one point Toby does escape, and Tom believes he will never see his buddy again. Tom bides his time and somehow makes his way onto another ship and escapes back to his native America. There after some time, young Toby does appear (in rather a Coda-like chapter) and explains to his relieved friend, Tom, how he too was captured, in the sense, at least, that Toby was not allowed to return and retrieve his friend. Some of the language, and certainly the story, still remain fresh after nearly 200 years. It also prepares one for the reading of Melville’s Moby-Dick.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | David Shields
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Lauren Groff
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Zelda Fitzgerald
FRI: My Book World | Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
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