I do not think that I find this book quite as detestable as everyone else seems to. Don't get me wrong, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" will never make my favorite book list but its not on my least favorite either. I found that aside from the lengthy, unnecessary, vivid descriptions the book was captivating and almost thrilling at times. Nonetheless, the book leaves much to be desired in the areas of writing style and continuity.
I felt as though this book would have done much better sold as a collection of short stories rather than one novel. The pages of description that tend to loose the attention of the audience entirely and cause them to resort to skimming look as though they are filler pages intended to break up the action such that the entire books does not go from Pym having one near-death experience right into another. Should each event that Pym goes through be separated into its own story and the ceaseless descriptions taken out I think I would have enjoyed this book even more. Furthermore, the changes in writing style which have drawn much criticism would no longer be an issue if the book was broken up into individual short stories. One change in writing style that particularly bothered me was towards the end when Poe randomly writes journal entry style by having the date and then a description of the events, or lack there of, of the day.
Moreover, the book did become increasingly more difficult to read as it progressed. The narrative was lucid at the beginning but as it continued I often found myself lost and having to re-read and decipher what was being said. As I write this, however, it comes to me that perhaps this was Poe’s intention. Perhaps the changing writing style is symbolic of the progression of Pym’s journey and the deterioration of his health. Also it could symbolize how something that starts of as relatively innocent or at least naive, such as bringing Africans over to the New World to work, can progress into something much worse and the reality of the situation can be distorted.
This is a great way to look at the book, and definitely gives back some credibility to Edgar Allan Poe. The difficulty in calling him a bad writer is that he isn't. The entire first chapter of Arthur's childhood and adventure on the Penguin had me captivated and convinced that I was reading an exciting piece. I felt similarly about later sections, like the description of recapturing the brig. When I read the chapters about sailing between islands in the south seas or about a month of survival on an unsinkable ship, the writing style could have convinced me that I was reading a different novel altogether. Poe was writing to a formula that he was not entirely comfortable with, and his work suffered for it. We know this is true, because The Telltale Heart and the Raven are leagues better. The public should be careful what they ask for!
ReplyDeleteThis book was much more than a compilation of short stories. The structure of the narrative could be choppy at times, with long intervals at sea or page long descriptions of sails, yet I believe the novel did have a cohesive narrative. At the heart of the story is Pym's journey, both in a physical sense and an emotional sense. As we saw in class, Edgar Allen Poe had a very troubled life, especially with the deaths he experienced in his family. The feeling of loneliness that Poe must have felt are at the crux of the narrative of Pym. Pym's journey begins with Pym and Augustus in trouble at sea, and ends with Pym and Peters lost at sea. This were fitting bookends to the book because they represent the fact that for all the adventure and excitement that took place, in the end, all Pym really has is himself. It is in this deliberate narrative framework that Poe shows us that he had a design in mind while writing the novel.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great reading, Jeff. It sounds like you're suggesting the novella is a failed Bildungsroman (= "novel of formation," a story about a young person's maturation) in that Pym embarks on a journey of growth and discovery, but in the end he's right back where he started.
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