Whiskerandos on the High Seas

Of all the books we’ve read so far, this has been my favorite. Melville’s command of language and imagery gives this novella both a feel of reality and an elevated heart rate. From the outset of the book, with both the religious metaphors and the foggy setting, to the final shock when the “follow your leader” meaning is explained, I was engrossed. I did have a hard time getting into Melville before last class, but this reading flew by.

There are so many great recurring images that Melville uses to show Delano’s peril. I particularly liked the South American imagery, from the Lima intriguante to the moldy hammock in the ship’s state room. The international feeling (with features from Africa and continental Europe) gave the book a depth to it, perhaps because of Melville’s skill with language. Had Poe tried to do this I am convinced Pym would have become not only salt-addled but also obnoxiously cosmopolitan. Instead Melville does it with tact, even choosing to make up a few words of his own: did anyone catch ‘whiskerando’ somewhere in the 70s pages? Although I’m not an erudite Spanish student, I’m fairly sure that’s new to the Peruvian dialect.

I liked that about Melville. He took what could have been a yet another morbid briny claustrophobic experience and turned it into a riveting, goosebump-inducing, and aesthetically-pleasing work of literary art with just a few 'lies' as Colbert puts it.