The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
221 pages
Published 1838
Read from June 24 to June 25
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
I
suspect I don't have the academic training and literary sophistication
to fully appreciate this book. Richard Kopley, who wrote the
introduction and interpretive endnotes for the Penguin Classics edition,
drew upon a century and a half of Poe scholarship to pull
Christological and personal metaphors from the text, two levels of
reading I never would have suspected without his guidance, while
generally ignoring or minimizing the racial reading, which I found to be
the most blatant subtext of all. The whole thesis of paired mirrors at
the start and end of the book was either unconvincing or pretty much
beyond my abilities to really get. Yes, there's a certain amount of
symmetry to Pym, but interpreting the "perfect" white-skinned
figure at the end as the "Penguin" from the beginning is... well, it's a
bit of a stretch, if you ask me. Especially in a book as full of
obvious Providential metaphor, with a continuing contrast between black
and white. But maybe I'm not cut out for literary criticism.
Ignoring
the racial subtext is disingenuous. Hell, calling it "subtext" is a bit
dishonest; it's right there in the text. I really only read The Narrative as homework before I read Pym
by Mat Johnson. The cover and blurb of that book have intrigued me for
months. I even had it checked out for a while earlier this year, but
elected to hold off on it until I had the chance to read Poe's original
novel. Johnson's Pym, so far as I can tell from the blurb,
focuses on that racial text/subtext. I'm glad I absorbed some of
Kopley's interpretation, but right now I'm definitely looking forward to
Johnson's take on it.
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