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Μπίλλυ Μπαντ, Ναύτης
Ο Μπίλλυ Μπαντ, ένας νεαρός ναύτης, στρατολογείται σε ένα αγγλικό πολεμικό πλοίο την εποχή της Γαλλικής Επανάστασης. Εκεί μπλέκεται άθελά του στα δίχτυα ενός μοχθηρού οπλονόμου, που τον κατηγορεί ενώπιον του καπετάνιου για υποκίνηση ανταρσίας. Το τελευταίο έργο του Χέρμαν Μέλβιλ, η πνευματική του παρακαταθήκη, είναι μια ιστορία για τη μάχη του καλού με το κακό, για την αθωότητα και την αδικία, για την ομορφιά και τον πόθο· είναι συγχρόνως ένας βαθύς στοχασμός για την ελευθερία και την εξουσία, για την πολιτική και τη δικαιοσύνη, για την αποδοχή και την αντίσταση.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1924
606 people are currently reading
10.5k people want to read
About the author
Herman Melville
2,157books4,326followersThere is more than one author with this name
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,439 reviews
April 22, 2024
Master side tracker.
Billy Budd is possibly the best sailor ever, skilled, respectful, athletic, good natured and charismatic; always happy to do his job, and help others with theirs. But his handsome qualities and warmhearted personality frequently shadows his peers, and arises the jealousy and resentment of others; one in particular. Sometimes you can see your enemy coming, but sometimes, your innocence may blind you.
This was one sad story, but overall worthy. Somewhat predictable too; I went in blind and got the feeling where it was going right from the start, and I wasn’t wrong, which I generally am. Must also note Melville is the ultimate expert in divagation and off track narration, taking the trouble to write many extra chapters to ramble about the most inconsequential things; and frequently incurring in tediously long convoluted descriptions like “Billy Budd is, against any ill thoughts anyone may have of him, for is the nature of people to sometimes judge without any well founded reasons, unquestionably and unequivocally, and without a single trace of a doubt, if such thing may even exist, an excellent sailor�, when he could’ve just simply said “Billy Budd is a good sailor.� Which is of course 99% less flowery, but, 200% less annoying. Ultimately I enjoyed the general idea of the book, yet no so much the way it was written. To my experience, so far, Melville has never been an easy read, not in English nor Spanish.
Can’t say I loved this, but I don’t regret reading it. For a used book, and a short one, it was worth it. Can’t really recommend it to anyone though, except maybe to a Melville or classics fan.
Still remaining, the movie (1962)
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1924] [166p] [Classics] [Conditional Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------
★★★☆� Moby-Dick or, The Whale. [3.5]
★★★☆� Billy Budd, Sailor.
★★☆☆� The Lightning-Rod Man.
-----------------------------------------------
Maestro del divague.
Billy Budd es posiblemente el mejor marinero jamás, habilidoso, respetuoso, atlético, de buen espíritu y carismático; siempre feliz de hacer su trabajo, y de ayudar a otros con el suyo. Pero sus bellas cualidades y buen corazón frecuentemente eclipsa la de sus pares, y enciende los celos y resentimiento de otros; uno en particular. A veces podés ver venir a tu enemigo, pero a veces, tu inocencia puede cegarte.
Esta fue una triste historia, pero dentro de todo valiosa. Algo predecible también; entré a ciegas y pude presentir hacia donde iba desde el mismísimo comienzo, y no me equivoqué, lo que generalmente suele suceder. Debo además añadir que Melville es un experto consumado en divagar e irse por las ramas, tomándose el esfuerzo de escribir numerosos capítulos extra para hablar de las cosas más inconsecuentes; y frecuentemente incurriendo en tediosamente extensas descripciones enrevesadas como “Billy Budd es, contra lo mal que alguna gente pueda pensar de él, ya que es la naturaleza de las personas a veces juzgar sin buenas fundadas razones, incuestionable e inequívocamente, y sin ningún asomo de duda, si tal cosa existiera, un excelente marinero�, cuando simplemente podría haber dicho “Billy Budd es buen marinero.� Lo cual es por supuesto 99% menos florido, pero, 200% menos molesto. En última instancia disfruté la idea general del libro, aunque no tanto la forma en que fue escrito. Según mi experiencia, hasta ahora, Melville nunca fue una lectura fácil, en inglés o español.
No puedo decir que amé esto, pero no me arrepiento de haberlo leído. Para un libro usado, y uno corto, valió la pena. Pero no podría realmente recomendárselo a nadie, excepto tal vez a un fan de Melville o de clásicos.
Queda pendiente, la película (1962)
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1924] [166p] [Clásicos] [Recomendable Condicional]
-----------------------------------------------
Billy Budd is possibly the best sailor ever, skilled, respectful, athletic, good natured and charismatic; always happy to do his job, and help others with theirs. But his handsome qualities and warmhearted personality frequently shadows his peers, and arises the jealousy and resentment of others; one in particular. Sometimes you can see your enemy coming, but sometimes, your innocence may blind you.
This was one sad story, but overall worthy. Somewhat predictable too; I went in blind and got the feeling where it was going right from the start, and I wasn’t wrong, which I generally am. Must also note Melville is the ultimate expert in divagation and off track narration, taking the trouble to write many extra chapters to ramble about the most inconsequential things; and frequently incurring in tediously long convoluted descriptions like “Billy Budd is, against any ill thoughts anyone may have of him, for is the nature of people to sometimes judge without any well founded reasons, unquestionably and unequivocally, and without a single trace of a doubt, if such thing may even exist, an excellent sailor�, when he could’ve just simply said “Billy Budd is a good sailor.� Which is of course 99% less flowery, but, 200% less annoying. Ultimately I enjoyed the general idea of the book, yet no so much the way it was written. To my experience, so far, Melville has never been an easy read, not in English nor Spanish.
Can’t say I loved this, but I don’t regret reading it. For a used book, and a short one, it was worth it. Can’t really recommend it to anyone though, except maybe to a Melville or classics fan.
Still remaining, the movie (1962)
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1924] [166p] [Classics] [Conditional Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------
★★★☆� Moby-Dick or, The Whale. [3.5]
★★★☆� Billy Budd, Sailor.
★★☆☆� The Lightning-Rod Man.
-----------------------------------------------
Maestro del divague.
Billy Budd es posiblemente el mejor marinero jamás, habilidoso, respetuoso, atlético, de buen espíritu y carismático; siempre feliz de hacer su trabajo, y de ayudar a otros con el suyo. Pero sus bellas cualidades y buen corazón frecuentemente eclipsa la de sus pares, y enciende los celos y resentimiento de otros; uno en particular. A veces podés ver venir a tu enemigo, pero a veces, tu inocencia puede cegarte.
Esta fue una triste historia, pero dentro de todo valiosa. Algo predecible también; entré a ciegas y pude presentir hacia donde iba desde el mismísimo comienzo, y no me equivoqué, lo que generalmente suele suceder. Debo además añadir que Melville es un experto consumado en divagar e irse por las ramas, tomándose el esfuerzo de escribir numerosos capítulos extra para hablar de las cosas más inconsecuentes; y frecuentemente incurriendo en tediosamente extensas descripciones enrevesadas como “Billy Budd es, contra lo mal que alguna gente pueda pensar de él, ya que es la naturaleza de las personas a veces juzgar sin buenas fundadas razones, incuestionable e inequívocamente, y sin ningún asomo de duda, si tal cosa existiera, un excelente marinero�, cuando simplemente podría haber dicho “Billy Budd es buen marinero.� Lo cual es por supuesto 99% menos florido, pero, 200% menos molesto. En última instancia disfruté la idea general del libro, aunque no tanto la forma en que fue escrito. Según mi experiencia, hasta ahora, Melville nunca fue una lectura fácil, en inglés o español.
No puedo decir que amé esto, pero no me arrepiento de haberlo leído. Para un libro usado, y uno corto, valió la pena. Pero no podría realmente recomendárselo a nadie, excepto tal vez a un fan de Melville o de clásicos.
Queda pendiente, la película (1962)
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1924] [166p] [Clásicos] [Recomendable Condicional]
-----------------------------------------------
November 18, 2024
To read Melville, as the Buddha might have said, is to finally Join the Stream. To finally give up control. And, with Edgar Allan Poe, to Descend into the Maelstrom. But where are we GOING now?
“The Daemon Knows...�
Such is the title of a book on the enormous influence of an ancient Gnostic tenet on American writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by our preeminent critic, Harold Bloom.
And two faces of the Daemon rule this short but unfinished masterpiece by Melville...
On one side, the dumbstruck adherence to painful honesty and virtue in young Billy, whom the captain of this 18th century Royal Navy Man ‘o War calls “the Angel of God,� and on the other, the slimy and envious maleficence of Master of Arms Claggart.
Neither man is the picture of a stalwart seaman - they are both Odd Men Out.
For just so the clash of Good and Evil Daemons within us evokes a veritable supernatural storm of Misrule... and ends in appropriate tragedy.
For a nautical Daemon is also a Lord of Misrule.
Now, the Lord of Misrule was a theatrical custom created by the old salts in bygone days, on crossing the Equator�.
One selected raw-spirited Ancient Mariner would be dressed in a robe, crown and mitre, and paraded about the deck of the Man ‘o War, as the young bucks partied with their generous tots of rum and perhaps a pipe and fiddle tune: a traditional seagoing perk on the crossing.
But the Lord of Misrule - like his inspiration, Neptune, god of the sea - has a highly hazardous side, when mankind’s good and evil sides clash in a fictional typhoon.
And when Billy Budd crosses Claggart, King Neptune lets loose with a storm composed of all the furies of Hell.
No, not a real, physical storm...
The inevitable storm of justice in action.
For as in a bloody Jacobean tragedy, when justice is done, ALL the actors are cut down.
And all go to their Reward.. or Doom.
So Billy goes to his Reward by answering their brute sentences of doom in blessing them all - echoing Rilke’s Duino Elegies in which a released Arrow chooses Life over Death - and finds Peace.
And Billy Budd is just such an aporetic work for which the only solution is in blood sacrifice.
Because the staged shifting of guilt will wreak total Misrule...
And then - the ultimate space of Final and Irrevocable Apocalyptic Divine Justice -
Ends by enacting a bloodbath:
For the Daemon, too, is liquidated in the end.
But we readers, renewed by Melville’s massive Catharsis, are FREED.
“The Daemon Knows...�
Such is the title of a book on the enormous influence of an ancient Gnostic tenet on American writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by our preeminent critic, Harold Bloom.
And two faces of the Daemon rule this short but unfinished masterpiece by Melville...
On one side, the dumbstruck adherence to painful honesty and virtue in young Billy, whom the captain of this 18th century Royal Navy Man ‘o War calls “the Angel of God,� and on the other, the slimy and envious maleficence of Master of Arms Claggart.
Neither man is the picture of a stalwart seaman - they are both Odd Men Out.
For just so the clash of Good and Evil Daemons within us evokes a veritable supernatural storm of Misrule... and ends in appropriate tragedy.
For a nautical Daemon is also a Lord of Misrule.
Now, the Lord of Misrule was a theatrical custom created by the old salts in bygone days, on crossing the Equator�.
One selected raw-spirited Ancient Mariner would be dressed in a robe, crown and mitre, and paraded about the deck of the Man ‘o War, as the young bucks partied with their generous tots of rum and perhaps a pipe and fiddle tune: a traditional seagoing perk on the crossing.
But the Lord of Misrule - like his inspiration, Neptune, god of the sea - has a highly hazardous side, when mankind’s good and evil sides clash in a fictional typhoon.
And when Billy Budd crosses Claggart, King Neptune lets loose with a storm composed of all the furies of Hell.
No, not a real, physical storm...
The inevitable storm of justice in action.
For as in a bloody Jacobean tragedy, when justice is done, ALL the actors are cut down.
And all go to their Reward.. or Doom.
So Billy goes to his Reward by answering their brute sentences of doom in blessing them all - echoing Rilke’s Duino Elegies in which a released Arrow chooses Life over Death - and finds Peace.
And Billy Budd is just such an aporetic work for which the only solution is in blood sacrifice.
Because the staged shifting of guilt will wreak total Misrule...
And then - the ultimate space of Final and Irrevocable Apocalyptic Divine Justice -
Ends by enacting a bloodbath:
For the Daemon, too, is liquidated in the end.
But we readers, renewed by Melville’s massive Catharsis, are FREED.
November 14, 2024
"Semejante centro de todas las miradas, al menos por su aspecto, y en parte también por su naturaleza, aunque con variaciones de importancia que se pondrán de manifiesto a medida que avance el relato, era Billy Budd, el de los ojos cerúleos, o Baby Budd, como llegaron a llamarle más familiarmente en las circunstancias que luego detallaremos. Tenía veintiún años y era gaviero de la Armada británica hacia el final de la última década del siglo XVIII."
Herman Melville, cansado de tantos reveses literarios, críticas desfavorables y vaivenes económicos se había auto exiliado para trabajar detrás de un escritorio en un humilde puesto administrativo de la Aduana de Nueva York.
Una series de traspiés generados por las fallidas repercusiones de sus últimos libros, la inabordable novela "Moby Dick" de 1851, la inclasificable y retorcida novela "Pierre, o las ambigüedades" publicada el año siguiente y "El embaucador", que aparició en 1857 con escasa atracción en los lectores y de críticas destructivas, empujaron a Melville al ostracismo, pero muy especialmente a la desazón y en consecuencia, el abandono total de sus actividades literarias, con excepción de la poesía, actividad que nunca abandonó hasta el final de su vida.
Entre esos pocos quehaceres quedaron los papeles de esta novela, que su esposa Elizapeth Knapp se propuso pasar en limpio para publicarla luego de su muerte, siendo recién a principios del siglo siguiente que llegaría a las manos de los lectores.
Por suerte, la recepción de esta obra póstuma fue diferente y logró, sustentada en ser considerada una novela realmente lograda, que los editores y críticos literarios reflotaran su obra y la finalmente revalidaran, poniendo especial atención en cuán importante había sido para las letras norteamericanas, pero que había sido muy poco respetado.
La novela tiene un argumento claro, la de un joven, apuesto e inofensivo marinero que es contratado en un barco de guerra, el "Indomitable", y por las extrañas fuerzas del destino, tiene que cruzarse indefectiblemente con unos de los hombres de mando a bordo, quien tendrá la idea fija (sea por envidia, por maldad o por el hecho de hacer daño) de exponerlo ante el capitán como un potencial motivo de amotinamiento y por ende terminar embrollándolo todo.
Uno de los puntos a destacar es que nuevamente Herman Melville dota a uno de sus personajes de características que rozan la homosexualidad, como pasara en su otra novela, "Redburn, su primer viaje", en la relación íntima entre Ishmael y Queequeg en la novela "Moby Dick" o en la naturaleza casualmente ambigua del personaje principal de "Pierre, o las ambigüedades".
Muchos investigadores han arribado a la conclusión de que Melville poseía inclinaciones y tal vez convicciones de índole homosexual, más allá de estar casado desde 1847 con Elizabeth Knapp.
Algunos de ellos tratan de corroborarlo en la frondosa correspondencia entre él y su gran amigo, el escritor Nathaniel Hawthorne, a quien está dedicado "Moby Dick", y llegan a aseverar que ante tanta presión epistolar de Melville, Hawthorne decidió cortar todo lazo de comunicación y amistad. Sospechan también que esto generaba la influencia que Melville volcaba en sus personajes, de hecho, muchas descripciones en sus nos llevan a pensar que así fue.
En el caso de esta novela, puede apreciarse en pasajes como estos: "La situación como marinero bonito de Billy Budd en el setenta y cuatro cañones recordaba a la de una belleza rural trasplantada desde provincias a la corte para competir con las damas de más alcurnia. Pero él apenas notó el cambio de circunstancias. Igual que no reparó en que algo en él hacía sonreír con gesto ambiguo a uno o dos de los chaquetas azules más curtidos... Era joven y a pesar de su figura desarrollada casi por completo, de aspecto parecía más joven de lo que era en realidad, debido a la persistencia de una expresión adolescente en la cara aún tersa, casi femenina en la pureza de su tez natural... Aunque nuestro Apuesto Marinero tenía tanta belleza masculina como puede esperarse en ver en cualquier parte, sin embargo, como en la bella mujer de los cuentos menores de Hawthorne, había en él una única falla."
Este tipo de descripciones más relacionadas con personajes femeninos que atribuidas a marineros, pueden encontrarse a lo largo de toda la novela.
Melville, experto en relatar historias de altamar, nos lleva a bordo de este barco de guerra en el que el forcejeo psicológico entre los tres personajes principales y se desentiende de la acción en el mar, ya que todo se orienta a lo que sucede entre estos hombres, y si yo comparara esta novela con otras como "Tifón", de Joseph Conrad en el que otro triángulo de personajes está sometido a la acción trepidante de un barco azotado por el vendaval es hacia eso que los personajes son arrastrados, mientras que aquí, las actividades o circunstancias que atraviesa un buque de guerra pasa a un segundo plano.
La elección de los apellidos de los personajes no está librada al azar, ya que para Billy (en forma adrede, creo yo), Melville elige el apellido Budd, que sin una de las d significa "capullo", al capitán lo apellida Vere, (del latín vere, "de acuerdo con la verdad"y que adquiere real importancia durante el juicio a Billy que se realiza a bordo) sumado al perverso maestro de armas John Claggart (no hay juego de nombres aquí) construye un cerrado triángulo de tensión que los llevará a una situación extrema, la que desencadenará un final tal vez imaginado, pero que al principio de la novela está lejos de ser posible.
Considero que Herman Melville construyó en la figura de Billy Budd, una alegoría de Jesucristo, en la que el capitán Vere oficia a modo de un Poncio Pilatos más comprometido, ya que es partícipe directo de la historia y donde el maestro de armas John Claggart es un Caifás desesperado por condenar a Billy para verlo crucificado.
En un leve instante, todo girará rápidamente a un desenlace insospechado y es desde que sucede esta situación que el autor comienza a dar una serie de detalles en los que sellará la vida del humilde gaviero de trinquete, quien será sometido a un tironeo cargado de una tensión extrema con aires funestos y un final bíblico.
Casualmente, podemos apreciar también la gran cantidad de referencias bíblicas y mitológicas durante toda la novela, lo que demuestra el poder de erudición que poseía Herman Melville, algo que había quedado demostrado en "Moby Dick" y que cobra nuevamente fuerza en esta hermosa novela.
Fue muy importante la justa revalorización que la obra de Herman Melville tuvo a partir del año 1924, cuando se la reeditó en varios volúmenes.
Era justo y necesario rendirle el merecido honor a uno de los pioneros que sentó las bases de la literatura norteamericana y que se transformó en un mito y un referente de la literatura mundial.
Herman Melville, cansado de tantos reveses literarios, críticas desfavorables y vaivenes económicos se había auto exiliado para trabajar detrás de un escritorio en un humilde puesto administrativo de la Aduana de Nueva York.
Una series de traspiés generados por las fallidas repercusiones de sus últimos libros, la inabordable novela "Moby Dick" de 1851, la inclasificable y retorcida novela "Pierre, o las ambigüedades" publicada el año siguiente y "El embaucador", que aparició en 1857 con escasa atracción en los lectores y de críticas destructivas, empujaron a Melville al ostracismo, pero muy especialmente a la desazón y en consecuencia, el abandono total de sus actividades literarias, con excepción de la poesía, actividad que nunca abandonó hasta el final de su vida.
Entre esos pocos quehaceres quedaron los papeles de esta novela, que su esposa Elizapeth Knapp se propuso pasar en limpio para publicarla luego de su muerte, siendo recién a principios del siglo siguiente que llegaría a las manos de los lectores.
Por suerte, la recepción de esta obra póstuma fue diferente y logró, sustentada en ser considerada una novela realmente lograda, que los editores y críticos literarios reflotaran su obra y la finalmente revalidaran, poniendo especial atención en cuán importante había sido para las letras norteamericanas, pero que había sido muy poco respetado.
La novela tiene un argumento claro, la de un joven, apuesto e inofensivo marinero que es contratado en un barco de guerra, el "Indomitable", y por las extrañas fuerzas del destino, tiene que cruzarse indefectiblemente con unos de los hombres de mando a bordo, quien tendrá la idea fija (sea por envidia, por maldad o por el hecho de hacer daño) de exponerlo ante el capitán como un potencial motivo de amotinamiento y por ende terminar embrollándolo todo.
Uno de los puntos a destacar es que nuevamente Herman Melville dota a uno de sus personajes de características que rozan la homosexualidad, como pasara en su otra novela, "Redburn, su primer viaje", en la relación íntima entre Ishmael y Queequeg en la novela "Moby Dick" o en la naturaleza casualmente ambigua del personaje principal de "Pierre, o las ambigüedades".
Muchos investigadores han arribado a la conclusión de que Melville poseía inclinaciones y tal vez convicciones de índole homosexual, más allá de estar casado desde 1847 con Elizabeth Knapp.
Algunos de ellos tratan de corroborarlo en la frondosa correspondencia entre él y su gran amigo, el escritor Nathaniel Hawthorne, a quien está dedicado "Moby Dick", y llegan a aseverar que ante tanta presión epistolar de Melville, Hawthorne decidió cortar todo lazo de comunicación y amistad. Sospechan también que esto generaba la influencia que Melville volcaba en sus personajes, de hecho, muchas descripciones en sus nos llevan a pensar que así fue.
En el caso de esta novela, puede apreciarse en pasajes como estos: "La situación como marinero bonito de Billy Budd en el setenta y cuatro cañones recordaba a la de una belleza rural trasplantada desde provincias a la corte para competir con las damas de más alcurnia. Pero él apenas notó el cambio de circunstancias. Igual que no reparó en que algo en él hacía sonreír con gesto ambiguo a uno o dos de los chaquetas azules más curtidos... Era joven y a pesar de su figura desarrollada casi por completo, de aspecto parecía más joven de lo que era en realidad, debido a la persistencia de una expresión adolescente en la cara aún tersa, casi femenina en la pureza de su tez natural... Aunque nuestro Apuesto Marinero tenía tanta belleza masculina como puede esperarse en ver en cualquier parte, sin embargo, como en la bella mujer de los cuentos menores de Hawthorne, había en él una única falla."
Este tipo de descripciones más relacionadas con personajes femeninos que atribuidas a marineros, pueden encontrarse a lo largo de toda la novela.
Melville, experto en relatar historias de altamar, nos lleva a bordo de este barco de guerra en el que el forcejeo psicológico entre los tres personajes principales y se desentiende de la acción en el mar, ya que todo se orienta a lo que sucede entre estos hombres, y si yo comparara esta novela con otras como "Tifón", de Joseph Conrad en el que otro triángulo de personajes está sometido a la acción trepidante de un barco azotado por el vendaval es hacia eso que los personajes son arrastrados, mientras que aquí, las actividades o circunstancias que atraviesa un buque de guerra pasa a un segundo plano.
La elección de los apellidos de los personajes no está librada al azar, ya que para Billy (en forma adrede, creo yo), Melville elige el apellido Budd, que sin una de las d significa "capullo", al capitán lo apellida Vere, (del latín vere, "de acuerdo con la verdad"y que adquiere real importancia durante el juicio a Billy que se realiza a bordo) sumado al perverso maestro de armas John Claggart (no hay juego de nombres aquí) construye un cerrado triángulo de tensión que los llevará a una situación extrema, la que desencadenará un final tal vez imaginado, pero que al principio de la novela está lejos de ser posible.
Considero que Herman Melville construyó en la figura de Billy Budd, una alegoría de Jesucristo, en la que el capitán Vere oficia a modo de un Poncio Pilatos más comprometido, ya que es partícipe directo de la historia y donde el maestro de armas John Claggart es un Caifás desesperado por condenar a Billy para verlo crucificado.
En un leve instante, todo girará rápidamente a un desenlace insospechado y es desde que sucede esta situación que el autor comienza a dar una serie de detalles en los que sellará la vida del humilde gaviero de trinquete, quien será sometido a un tironeo cargado de una tensión extrema con aires funestos y un final bíblico.
Casualmente, podemos apreciar también la gran cantidad de referencias bíblicas y mitológicas durante toda la novela, lo que demuestra el poder de erudición que poseía Herman Melville, algo que había quedado demostrado en "Moby Dick" y que cobra nuevamente fuerza en esta hermosa novela.
Fue muy importante la justa revalorización que la obra de Herman Melville tuvo a partir del año 1924, cuando se la reeditó en varios volúmenes.
Era justo y necesario rendirle el merecido honor a uno de los pioneros que sentó las bases de la literatura norteamericana y que se transformó en un mito y un referente de la literatura mundial.
August 20, 2007
Dear High School Curriculum Writers:
I am positive that you can find a better novel than this one to use when introducing symbolism and extended metaphor to developing readers. "Christ-figure" is the most over-used of these extended metaphors; over-used to the point where its offensiveness ceases to be about the in-your-face religious aspect of it and becomes instead about the simple over-use of the symbols. If you want to "go there" with symbolism and metaphor and have high school age kids the ways in which literature can illuminate our experience not by representing it literally but by unhinging from it, try helping these students discover Garcia-Marquez or Allende.
And that's just assuming you want to stay in the "safe" territory of the Western hemisphere.
Ever your advisor,
me.
I am positive that you can find a better novel than this one to use when introducing symbolism and extended metaphor to developing readers. "Christ-figure" is the most over-used of these extended metaphors; over-used to the point where its offensiveness ceases to be about the in-your-face religious aspect of it and becomes instead about the simple over-use of the symbols. If you want to "go there" with symbolism and metaphor and have high school age kids the ways in which literature can illuminate our experience not by representing it literally but by unhinging from it, try helping these students discover Garcia-Marquez or Allende.
And that's just assuming you want to stay in the "safe" territory of the Western hemisphere.
Ever your advisor,
me.
September 3, 2024
Melville’s style : Go to war against the reader, make every sentence an obstacle course, make it rebarbative, crabbed, recursive, stogged and clogged. Make it like this (Melville describes some parts of Billy Budd) :
The ear, small and shapely, the arch of the foot, the curve in mouth and nostril, even the indurated hand dyed to the orange-tawny of the toucan's bill, a hand telling alike of the halyards and tar-bucket; but, above all, something in the mobile expression, and every chance attitude and movement, something suggestive of a mother eminently favored by Love and the Graces; all this strangely indicated a lineage in direct contradiction to his lot.
And here, one of the sailors decides to embellish some innocent gossip about Billy Budd to please his boss :
From his Chief's employing him as an implicit tool in laying little traps for the worriment of the Foretopman---for it was from the Master-at-arms that the petty persecutions heretofore adverted to had proceeded--the Corporal having naturally enough concluded that his master could have no love for the sailor, made it his business, faithful understrapper that he was, to foment the ill blood by perverting to his Chief certain innocent frolics of the goodnatured Foretopman, besides inventing for his mouth sundry contumelious epithets he claimed to have overheard him let fall.
My head! My head! My kingdom for an aspirin! Then there’s the ridiculous melodramatic ultravictorian moustache-twirling verbiage he comes out with when something actually happens (only four things actually happen in this novelette) :
He stood like one impaled and gagged. Meanwhile the accuser's eyes removing not as yet from the blue dilated ones, underwent a phenomenal change, their wonted rich violet color blurring into a muddy purple. Those lights of human intelligence losing human expression, gelidly protruding like the alien eyes of certain uncatalogued creatures of the deep.
Is this the Melville of Moby Dick which I read years and years ago and loved thoroughly? I can’t believe it.
The logic of the story of Billy Budd is tragic and perfect. The way it’s told is excruciating. Melville took a sad song and made it bitter.
The ear, small and shapely, the arch of the foot, the curve in mouth and nostril, even the indurated hand dyed to the orange-tawny of the toucan's bill, a hand telling alike of the halyards and tar-bucket; but, above all, something in the mobile expression, and every chance attitude and movement, something suggestive of a mother eminently favored by Love and the Graces; all this strangely indicated a lineage in direct contradiction to his lot.
And here, one of the sailors decides to embellish some innocent gossip about Billy Budd to please his boss :
From his Chief's employing him as an implicit tool in laying little traps for the worriment of the Foretopman---for it was from the Master-at-arms that the petty persecutions heretofore adverted to had proceeded--the Corporal having naturally enough concluded that his master could have no love for the sailor, made it his business, faithful understrapper that he was, to foment the ill blood by perverting to his Chief certain innocent frolics of the goodnatured Foretopman, besides inventing for his mouth sundry contumelious epithets he claimed to have overheard him let fall.
My head! My head! My kingdom for an aspirin! Then there’s the ridiculous melodramatic ultravictorian moustache-twirling verbiage he comes out with when something actually happens (only four things actually happen in this novelette) :
He stood like one impaled and gagged. Meanwhile the accuser's eyes removing not as yet from the blue dilated ones, underwent a phenomenal change, their wonted rich violet color blurring into a muddy purple. Those lights of human intelligence losing human expression, gelidly protruding like the alien eyes of certain uncatalogued creatures of the deep.
Is this the Melville of Moby Dick which I read years and years ago and loved thoroughly? I can’t believe it.
The logic of the story of Billy Budd is tragic and perfect. The way it’s told is excruciating. Melville took a sad song and made it bitter.
February 6, 2017
“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its jagged edges.�
� Herman Melville, Billy Budd
Reading 'Billy Budd' left me thinking of David Foster Wallace and his unfinished novel . Both are unfinished literary works that -- despite their roughness (and yes incompleteness) -- seem to suggest or hint that if given time/space/temperament, etc., Melville and Wallace could have produced works equalling their respective magna opera. Both are full of a confident stillness that hint at a genius between the words and a soul and art floating just under the text.
Is Billy Budd a greater work than ? Pshaw! Of course not, because perfection. But it shows that that damn book about an enigmatic, amelanist whale was not a fluke. Billy Budd's simplicity and shortness is deceptive -- the water here isn't wide, but it is deep with strong currents.
At the end of reading this I was left with a dreamy visual of a giant wave which looks destined to break in a tremendous fashion against the ship I am sitting in. At the very last moment, however, the swell rolls under my lonely craft. While the ship survives, there is that one full-stop second; that heavy moment as the wave passes UNDER the portside where your bodymindandsoul recognizes the strength of the ocean and the power of that one beautiful wave that barely missed destroying you.
� Herman Melville, Billy Budd
Reading 'Billy Budd' left me thinking of David Foster Wallace and his unfinished novel . Both are unfinished literary works that -- despite their roughness (and yes incompleteness) -- seem to suggest or hint that if given time/space/temperament, etc., Melville and Wallace could have produced works equalling their respective magna opera. Both are full of a confident stillness that hint at a genius between the words and a soul and art floating just under the text.
Is Billy Budd a greater work than ? Pshaw! Of course not, because perfection. But it shows that that damn book about an enigmatic, amelanist whale was not a fluke. Billy Budd's simplicity and shortness is deceptive -- the water here isn't wide, but it is deep with strong currents.
At the end of reading this I was left with a dreamy visual of a giant wave which looks destined to break in a tremendous fashion against the ship I am sitting in. At the very last moment, however, the swell rolls under my lonely craft. While the ship survives, there is that one full-stop second; that heavy moment as the wave passes UNDER the portside where your bodymindandsoul recognizes the strength of the ocean and the power of that one beautiful wave that barely missed destroying you.
August 29, 2015
Herman Melville's place in the literary canon is secure today, mainly on the strength of his novel Moby Dick; but ironically, that work was largely panned by critics and regular readers alike when it was published, and in the last decades of his life (he died in 1891) the author turned away from trying to publish fiction to write poetry instead. But he didn't give up writing fiction privately; and this novella, begun late in 1888, is the testament to the fictional achievement of his later years. It was discovered and pieced together among his disorganized papers in 1919 by his first biographer, Raymond M. Weaver, who had been given access by the author's widow, and was published a few years later. (The current Wikipedia article makes the claim that it was unfinished at Melville's death; but there's no internal or external evidence to that effect, to my knowledge. As it stands, the text reads like a complete and coherent whole.) I read it in college for my American Literature class, and appreciated it from the get-go.
Like much of Melville's work, this is set on the sea, and benefits from his experience as a sailor on sail-powered ships. Unlike his other maritime novels, though, this is set in a British milieu and in the generation before the author's birth: the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. This is a setting much explored in subsequent fiction. Though Melville wasn't the first writer to do so --he had several 19th-century predecessors, especially if we consider age-of-sail naval fiction more broadly (and Melville's own earlier novel , though dealing with the American navy, was part of that 19th-century tradition), I think it's arguable that he was a significant influence on both the authors of and C. S. Forester.
If you like later works of this type, by the above-mentioned authors or others such as Patrick O'Brian, and you aren't put off by 19th-century diction, this read might appeal to you as well. Much shorter than Moby Dick, it lacks the latter's info-dumps and wordy philosophical digressions, and the tighter narrative benefits from this. The three main characters are very well-developed, the plot is well-organized and absorbing, and the tone and approach serious. Nautical terminology isn't so thick that a modern-day landlubber like myself can't understand it well enough to follow the basic narrative. Without giving out any spoilers, though, readers should be warned that this isn't a feel-good story. That wasn't the author's intention.
The ambiguity of Melville's message(s) here have been, IMO, greatly exaggerated by interpreters who like ambiguity. It's definitely an exploration of the possible conflict between genuine justice and the letter of the law, and (through the last two chapters especially) of the ways that people knowingly or unknowingly distort reality by seeing it through their own lenses or using it to serve their own agendas. Unlike some critics, I don't see any clear Christ symbolism in the protagonist; I think that's something that's more read into the text than deduced from it. (A victim of a Calvinist religious upbringing that repelled him, Melville's attitude towards Christianity, at least when he wrote his earlier works, wasn't particularly positive.)
Critics tend to treat Moby Dick as Melville's masterpiece; but I personally rated this tale higher, and stand on that. (I can't say it's his masterpiece, because I haven't read any of his other novels --but I definitely want to, someday!) Although ŷ is more concerned with books than film, it's also worthwhile to note that the 1962 movie adaptation starring Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov and Robert Ryan is a top-notch production very faithful to the original, and highly recommended.
Like much of Melville's work, this is set on the sea, and benefits from his experience as a sailor on sail-powered ships. Unlike his other maritime novels, though, this is set in a British milieu and in the generation before the author's birth: the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. This is a setting much explored in subsequent fiction. Though Melville wasn't the first writer to do so --he had several 19th-century predecessors, especially if we consider age-of-sail naval fiction more broadly (and Melville's own earlier novel , though dealing with the American navy, was part of that 19th-century tradition), I think it's arguable that he was a significant influence on both the authors of and C. S. Forester.
If you like later works of this type, by the above-mentioned authors or others such as Patrick O'Brian, and you aren't put off by 19th-century diction, this read might appeal to you as well. Much shorter than Moby Dick, it lacks the latter's info-dumps and wordy philosophical digressions, and the tighter narrative benefits from this. The three main characters are very well-developed, the plot is well-organized and absorbing, and the tone and approach serious. Nautical terminology isn't so thick that a modern-day landlubber like myself can't understand it well enough to follow the basic narrative. Without giving out any spoilers, though, readers should be warned that this isn't a feel-good story. That wasn't the author's intention.
The ambiguity of Melville's message(s) here have been, IMO, greatly exaggerated by interpreters who like ambiguity. It's definitely an exploration of the possible conflict between genuine justice and the letter of the law, and (through the last two chapters especially) of the ways that people knowingly or unknowingly distort reality by seeing it through their own lenses or using it to serve their own agendas. Unlike some critics, I don't see any clear Christ symbolism in the protagonist; I think that's something that's more read into the text than deduced from it. (A victim of a Calvinist religious upbringing that repelled him, Melville's attitude towards Christianity, at least when he wrote his earlier works, wasn't particularly positive.)
Critics tend to treat Moby Dick as Melville's masterpiece; but I personally rated this tale higher, and stand on that. (I can't say it's his masterpiece, because I haven't read any of his other novels --but I definitely want to, someday!) Although ŷ is more concerned with books than film, it's also worthwhile to note that the 1962 movie adaptation starring Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov and Robert Ryan is a top-notch production very faithful to the original, and highly recommended.
January 5, 2018
704. Billy Budd, Foretopman, Herman Melville
عنوانها: بیلی باد؛ بیلی باد ملوان؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ انتشاراتیها: (اردیبهشت، کوثر، قصه پرداز، جویا، فردا) ادبیات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: دوازدهم ماه آوریل سال 2006 میلادی
عنوان: بیلی باد؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: غلامحسین اعرابی؛ تهران، اردیبهشت، 1367؛ در 344 ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، کوثر؛ 1382؛
در 352 ص؛ شابک: 9647579217؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، قصه پرداز، 1393؛ در 140 ص؛ شابک: 978646916760؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، اردیبهشت، 1396؛ در 344 ص؛ شابک: 97896441713449؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان امریایی - قرن 19 م
عنوان: بیلی باد ملوان (روایتی درونی) به همراه دو داستان: زوال خاندان آشر؛ چلیک آمونتیلادو؛ از ادگار آلن پو؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: احمد میرعلایی؛ تهران، جویا، 1370؛ در 195 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: اصفهان، فردا، 1384؛
عنوان: بیلی باد؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: محمد عبادزاده کرمانی؛ اصفهان، کیمیا، 1380؛ در 128 ص؛ شابک: 9647595182؛
عنوان: بیلی باد؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: محمد عبادزاده کرمانی؛ اصفهان، کیمیا، 1380؛ در 128 ص؛ شابک: 9647595182؛
بیلی باد ملوان؛ جوان زیبایی ست که همگان او را بسیار دوست میدارند. ایشان در یک کشتی نظامی انگلیسی به کار مپپردازد و رویدادها نیز در زمان جنگ رخ میدهد. بیلی پسری خوب است و کلاگارت معلم اسلحه کشتی مردی شرور و بسیار بدجنس که کوشش میکند برای بیلی دردسرها بیافریند. ا. شربیانی
عنوانها: بیلی باد؛ بیلی باد ملوان؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ انتشاراتیها: (اردیبهشت، کوثر، قصه پرداز، جویا، فردا) ادبیات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: دوازدهم ماه آوریل سال 2006 میلادی
عنوان: بیلی باد؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: غلامحسین اعرابی؛ تهران، اردیبهشت، 1367؛ در 344 ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، کوثر؛ 1382؛
در 352 ص؛ شابک: 9647579217؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، قصه پرداز، 1393؛ در 140 ص؛ شابک: 978646916760؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، اردیبهشت، 1396؛ در 344 ص؛ شابک: 97896441713449؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان امریایی - قرن 19 م
عنوان: بیلی باد ملوان (روایتی درونی) به همراه دو داستان: زوال خاندان آشر؛ چلیک آمونتیلادو؛ از ادگار آلن پو؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: احمد میرعلایی؛ تهران، جویا، 1370؛ در 195 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: اصفهان، فردا، 1384؛
عنوان: بیلی باد؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: محمد عبادزاده کرمانی؛ اصفهان، کیمیا، 1380؛ در 128 ص؛ شابک: 9647595182؛
عنوان: بیلی باد؛ نویسنده: هرمان ملویل؛ مترجم: محمد عبادزاده کرمانی؛ اصفهان، کیمیا، 1380؛ در 128 ص؛ شابک: 9647595182؛
بیلی باد ملوان؛ جوان زیبایی ست که همگان او را بسیار دوست میدارند. ایشان در یک کشتی نظامی انگلیسی به کار مپپردازد و رویدادها نیز در زمان جنگ رخ میدهد. بیلی پسری خوب است و کلاگارت معلم اسلحه کشتی مردی شرور و بسیار بدجنس که کوشش میکند برای بیلی دردسرها بیافریند. ا. شربیانی
June 19, 2021
Μεγαλοφυές στην απλότητα του το ρέκβιεμ του τιτανοτεράστιου Μέλβιλ προσφέρεται για πολλαπλές αναγνώσεις και πολλαπλές ερμηνείες
Όπως και στο Moby Dick πολύ μπροστά από την εποχή του ο συγγραφέας προβληματίζει πάνω σε ζητήματα όπως ομοφυλοφιλία, εκκλησία και που αρχίζουν και τελειώνουν τα όρια του κακού
ΥΓ Πολύ καλή έκδοση από τους αντίποδες για άλλη μια φορά!
Όπως και στο Moby Dick πολύ μπροστά από την εποχή του ο συγγραφέας προβληματίζει πάνω σε ζητήματα όπως ομοφυλοφιλία, εκκλησία και που αρχίζουν και τελειώνουν τα όρια του κακού
ΥΓ Πολύ καλή έκδοση από τους αντίποδες για άλλη μια φορά!
September 4, 2023
Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor represents an unfinished work but one that was in its 3rd draft at the point when the author died in 1891 & which was subsequently tended to by his widow before being published to great acclaim 30+ years later in 1924 and then in a 2nd revised format in 1948.
In reading the book a 3rd time, I continue to find Melville's novella a most captivating tale, one conveying considerable psychological depth. With each of Melville's drafts, there was a broadening of the 3 principal characters: 1st Billy Budd, then the master-of-arms John Claggart and finally the ship's captain, Edward Fairfax Vere.
With Herman Melville, so much of the detail within his novels is reflective of his experiences at sea on whaling ships, for as Melville put it: I ascribe all the honor & glory of my life to whaling; for a whale ship was my Yale College & my Harvard. It was said that at this time, men often ran away to the sea as women took themselves to a nunnery, in an attempt to expiate past sins or alter their fate by somehow transforming themselves.
And so much of the author's nautical education involved a study of how men at sea interacted with one another, observing the complexity of personalities on long whaling ship voyages & particularly in view of the rigid hierarchy of roles in the case of Billy Budd, set on board a British man-of-war in 1797.
At the novel's outset, Billy has just been transferred to the Bellipotent, biding an audible farewell to the Rights of Man, that being the name of his former merchant ship, quickly providing a framework though which Billy is measured as a newcomer & forced to adapt.
However, Billy Budd is no ordinary sailor but rather an exceedingly innocent lad who his shipmates quickly come to love, excepting the one named Claggart, someone who is both transfixed by Billy's seeming purity of spirit and annoyed by his stature among his fellow seaman. Is Billy to be seen as a Christ-figure or a gay icon of some sort, with reviewers following both camps?
I sense that Billy is far more complex than a character who can be quickly shoehorned into a single type. My focus has remained that Billy, a foundling, somehow appears childlike & untainted, seemingly so natural as to confound those he encounters, displaying a quality that both amazes & captivates those who observe him on board the man-of-war.
But the ability to attract attention due to his good looks & sense of youthful uprightness causes the master-of-arms to work at undermining Budd, with Claggart's conniving belligerence not unlike that of Shakespeare's Othello.
Claggart is described as a man of "constitutional sobriety, an ingratiating deference to superiors, a peculiar ferreting genius capped by a certain austere patriotism" & with it all, an abject fear of Billy's ability to charm, merged with a supremely antagonistic suspicion of the man who some on board called "Baby". For, Billy came on board...
At this point, I am forced to issue a Spoiler Advisory in advance of what follows just below!
Another character on board is "Dansker", an older sailor who warns Billy of Claggart's potential to harm him but Billy is so naïve & without guile that he seems unable to comprehend why he could possibly be the source of anyone's discomfort, let alone malice.
In spite of Billy's abiding innocence, Claggart does lay a trap that ultimately leads to the demise of both with Captain Vere presiding over a "drumcourt" that condemns Billy for striking a superior officer, shortchanged of a vocal defense of himself by his temporary speechlessness. Captain Vere is forced to follow military code, though he had despised Claggart & had grown to revere Billy:
And so ends a tragedy of wonderfully rendered force that is somehow uplifting, at least for me. And for Billy's fellow sailors on the Bellipotent it was said that the spar from which the foretopman was suspended became sacred, like a chip from the cross on which Christ died.
The novel ends with a poem composed by one of Billy's mates, an epitaph entitled Billy in the Darbies, with that word employed to describe the chains or handcuffs in which Billy spent his final night. It is a most fitting conclusion to this powerful story, one with many biblical references and very memorable characters.
* My University of Chicago Press version of Billy Budd, Sailor (1962) featured a comprehensive "post-mortem" of the original Melville manuscript, housed at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, done by Harrison Hayford (Northwestern) & Merton Sealts (Harvard) with many references to Melville's "genetic text" vs. the "reading text". There is terminology within the work that is at times oblique but the novel remains a classic work in spite of some occasionally distracting minor flaws & I feel comfortable with my 5* rating.
**Within my review are the images of author Herman Melville; the image of Terrence Stamp as "Billy" beside Robert Ryan as his nemesis, Claggart in the film version; lastly, a painting of Melville with a harpoon.
In reading the book a 3rd time, I continue to find Melville's novella a most captivating tale, one conveying considerable psychological depth. With each of Melville's drafts, there was a broadening of the 3 principal characters: 1st Billy Budd, then the master-of-arms John Claggart and finally the ship's captain, Edward Fairfax Vere.
With Herman Melville, so much of the detail within his novels is reflective of his experiences at sea on whaling ships, for as Melville put it: I ascribe all the honor & glory of my life to whaling; for a whale ship was my Yale College & my Harvard. It was said that at this time, men often ran away to the sea as women took themselves to a nunnery, in an attempt to expiate past sins or alter their fate by somehow transforming themselves.
And so much of the author's nautical education involved a study of how men at sea interacted with one another, observing the complexity of personalities on long whaling ship voyages & particularly in view of the rigid hierarchy of roles in the case of Billy Budd, set on board a British man-of-war in 1797.
At the novel's outset, Billy has just been transferred to the Bellipotent, biding an audible farewell to the Rights of Man, that being the name of his former merchant ship, quickly providing a framework though which Billy is measured as a newcomer & forced to adapt.
However, Billy Budd is no ordinary sailor but rather an exceedingly innocent lad who his shipmates quickly come to love, excepting the one named Claggart, someone who is both transfixed by Billy's seeming purity of spirit and annoyed by his stature among his fellow seaman. Is Billy to be seen as a Christ-figure or a gay icon of some sort, with reviewers following both camps?
I sense that Billy is far more complex than a character who can be quickly shoehorned into a single type. My focus has remained that Billy, a foundling, somehow appears childlike & untainted, seemingly so natural as to confound those he encounters, displaying a quality that both amazes & captivates those who observe him on board the man-of-war.
But the ability to attract attention due to his good looks & sense of youthful uprightness causes the master-of-arms to work at undermining Budd, with Claggart's conniving belligerence not unlike that of Shakespeare's Othello.
Claggart is described as a man of "constitutional sobriety, an ingratiating deference to superiors, a peculiar ferreting genius capped by a certain austere patriotism" & with it all, an abject fear of Billy's ability to charm, merged with a supremely antagonistic suspicion of the man who some on board called "Baby". For, Billy came on board...
like a Catholic priest striking peace in an Irish shindy (disturbance). Not that he preached to his fellow sailors or did anything in particular; but a virtue went out of him, sugaring the sour ones.But with Billy Budd's ability to mesmerize his fellow seamen, while ably performing his duties as foretopman on the ship, he did have an Achilles heel as it were, manifesting an occasional nervous stutter that made it difficult for Billy to speak when he most needed to, a state that led to the primary confrontation of Melville's brief novel.
They took to him like hornets to treacle; all but the buffer of the gang, the big shaggy chap with the fire-red whiskers, who perhaps out of envy of the newcomer & thinking that such a "sweet & pleasant fellow" could hardly have the spirit of a gamecock, bestirred himself to get into a row with Billy, insultingly giving him a dig in the ribs. Quick as lightening Billy let fly his arms & gave Red Whiskers a terrible drubbing. And, will you believe it, the fellow now really loves Billy!
At this point, I am forced to issue a Spoiler Advisory in advance of what follows just below!
Another character on board is "Dansker", an older sailor who warns Billy of Claggart's potential to harm him but Billy is so naïve & without guile that he seems unable to comprehend why he could possibly be the source of anyone's discomfort, let alone malice.
In spite of Billy's abiding innocence, Claggart does lay a trap that ultimately leads to the demise of both with Captain Vere presiding over a "drumcourt" that condemns Billy for striking a superior officer, shortchanged of a vocal defense of himself by his temporary speechlessness. Captain Vere is forced to follow military code, though he had despised Claggart & had grown to revere Billy:
He was old enough to have been Billy's father. In spite of the austerity of military duty, he let himself melt back into what remains primeval in our formalized humanity & may in the end have caught Billy to his heart, even as Abraham may have caught young Isaac on the brink of resolutely offering him up in obedience. But there is no telling the sacrament, seldom if ever revealed to the world. That the condemned one suffered less than he who had mainly effected the condemnation was apparent.The night before Billy Budd is to die, he is visited by "a minister of Christ receiving his stipend from Mars", a man who doesn't know quite how to comfort the young sailor but before departing, kisses Billy's cheek. It is said that Budd was incapable of conceiving what death really is & wholly without irrational fear of it.
Billy listened to the man but less out of reverence than from a certain natural politeness. And this sailor way of taking clerical discourse was not unlike the way in which the primer of Christianity, full of transcendent miracles, was received long ago on a tropic isle by a superior savage--a Tahitian say, of Captain Cook's time. Out of natural courtesy he received but did not appropriate it. It was a gift placed in the palm of an outstretched hand on which the fingers do not close.And at the moment of his undoing & without a hint of irony, Billy Budd shouts: God bless Captain Vere! Yes, Melville creates a sacrificial lamb and if memory serves me, in the excellent black & white film version with Terrence Stamps as Billy, Robert Ryan as Claggart & Peter Ustinov as Captain Vere, there is a kind of epilogue suggesting that justice will live as long as the human heart and law will live as long as the human mind. There is also an excellent operatic depiction of Melville's tale by Benjamin Britten.
And so ends a tragedy of wonderfully rendered force that is somehow uplifting, at least for me. And for Billy's fellow sailors on the Bellipotent it was said that the spar from which the foretopman was suspended became sacred, like a chip from the cross on which Christ died.
The novel ends with a poem composed by one of Billy's mates, an epitaph entitled Billy in the Darbies, with that word employed to describe the chains or handcuffs in which Billy spent his final night. It is a most fitting conclusion to this powerful story, one with many biblical references and very memorable characters.
* My University of Chicago Press version of Billy Budd, Sailor (1962) featured a comprehensive "post-mortem" of the original Melville manuscript, housed at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, done by Harrison Hayford (Northwestern) & Merton Sealts (Harvard) with many references to Melville's "genetic text" vs. the "reading text". There is terminology within the work that is at times oblique but the novel remains a classic work in spite of some occasionally distracting minor flaws & I feel comfortable with my 5* rating.
**Within my review are the images of author Herman Melville; the image of Terrence Stamp as "Billy" beside Robert Ryan as his nemesis, Claggart in the film version; lastly, a painting of Melville with a harpoon.
July 5, 2016
Billy Budd, another in Melville's oeuvre of nautical tales of gay passion, is shorter than his masterpiece and not as rewarding. The problem is that it's kindof boring and not much happens.
It was Melville's last work, and he never really finished it - he just left a ton of scribbles and sketches and conflicting drafts kicking around - and maybe that's why it feels like a bit of a mess: because it literally was, before various people tried to stitch it together.
Your basic story is that there's this super-pretty guy, Billy Budd, and this other dude on the ship, Claggart, is deeply closeted and therefore confused and eventually enraged by his unstoppable attraction to him. So of course he And that's about it, and there are the usual Melvillian tangents into, like, the history of mutinies and whatever.
"But," you say, "What makes you so sure this is a story of gay unrequited love? Maybe Claggart just doesn't like the guy." Glad you asked. I underlined all the stuff that sounds kinda gay - what, you don't do that? - and I have a lot of underlines. Like when Claggart would gaze at Billy,
"But," you say, "Melville goes out of his way, once or twice, to be like 'It wasn't a sex thing!'" For instance, in a long discussion of Claggart's "depravity according to nature," in which he's described as "a nut not to be cracked by the tap of a lady's fan," Melville specifically says "the depravity here meant partakes nothing of the sordid or sensual." And "well," I respond, "I said closeted."
Melville is like Shakespeare in that if you suspect his words may have a double meaning, you'd be a sucker not to assume he knows what he's doing. He's a master of language; if he can mean two things, he generally does. And here, thanks probably in part to his natural desire to leave things open (he is a brilliant writer, after all, and the best books aren't easily defined), and in part to the fact that he himself was (I think) a closet case (whose own unrequited crush on Hawthorne ended up causing a rift between them), and of course also due to the obvious fact that back in 1824 one couldn't just run around writing gay love stories whether or not one wanted to - a fact that Oscar Wilde could still attest to 75 years later - he's written a book that never explicitly says it's a story about the thin line between closeted love and hate.
But, I mean, let's be serious, that's definitely what it is. "A mantrap may be under the ruddy-tipped daisies," he says, optimistically.
It was Melville's last work, and he never really finished it - he just left a ton of scribbles and sketches and conflicting drafts kicking around - and maybe that's why it feels like a bit of a mess: because it literally was, before various people tried to stitch it together.
Your basic story is that there's this super-pretty guy, Billy Budd, and this other dude on the ship, Claggart, is deeply closeted and therefore confused and eventually enraged by his unstoppable attraction to him. So of course he And that's about it, and there are the usual Melvillian tangents into, like, the history of mutinies and whatever.
"But," you say, "What makes you so sure this is a story of gay unrequited love? Maybe Claggart just doesn't like the guy." Glad you asked. I underlined all the stuff that sounds kinda gay - what, you don't do that? - and I have a lot of underlines. Like when Claggart would gaze at Billy,
his eyes strangely suffused with incipient feverish tears. Then would Claggart look like the man of sorrows. Yes, and sometimes the melancholy expression would have in it a touch of soft yearning, as if Claggart could even have loved Billy but for fate and ban.Just sayin'.
"But," you say, "Melville goes out of his way, once or twice, to be like 'It wasn't a sex thing!'" For instance, in a long discussion of Claggart's "depravity according to nature," in which he's described as "a nut not to be cracked by the tap of a lady's fan," Melville specifically says "the depravity here meant partakes nothing of the sordid or sensual." And "well," I respond, "I said closeted."
Melville is like Shakespeare in that if you suspect his words may have a double meaning, you'd be a sucker not to assume he knows what he's doing. He's a master of language; if he can mean two things, he generally does. And here, thanks probably in part to his natural desire to leave things open (he is a brilliant writer, after all, and the best books aren't easily defined), and in part to the fact that he himself was (I think) a closet case (whose own unrequited crush on Hawthorne ended up causing a rift between them), and of course also due to the obvious fact that back in 1824 one couldn't just run around writing gay love stories whether or not one wanted to - a fact that Oscar Wilde could still attest to 75 years later - he's written a book that never explicitly says it's a story about the thin line between closeted love and hate.
But, I mean, let's be serious, that's definitely what it is. "A mantrap may be under the ruddy-tipped daisies," he says, optimistically.
May 21, 2021
Πριν έξι χρόνια έτυχε να διαβάσω τον «Μόμπι Ντικ» του Χέρμαν Μέλβιλ, το βιβλίο που από ‘κείν� τη στιγμή και μετά έγινε το αγαπημένο μου βιβλίο. Κι επειδή μόνο ο Μέλβιλ μπορεί να ξεπεράσει τον Μέλβιλ, ήρθε τώρα ο «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» κι έκλεψε τη θέση του πιο αγαπημένου μου βιβλίου. Βέβαια αυτό μπορεί και να μην είναι και πολύ δίκαιο γιατί τον «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» τον διάβασα παράγραφο την παράγραφο, πρόταση την πρόταση, λέξη τη λέξη, προσπάθησα να καταλάβω (δηλαδή προσπάθησε ο καημένος ο μεταφραστής να μου εξηγήσει) τι διάολο συμβαίνει σε αυτή τη νουβέλα, δεν έχω καταλάβει τα πάντα, και αυτή είναι η μαγεία με αυτό το βιβλίο, ότι κανείς δεν έχει καταλάβει τα πάντα, αλλά αυτά που κατάλαβαν αρκούν για να πουν ότι ο «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» είναι η καλύτερη νουβέλα που έχει γραφτεί ποτέ.
July 10, 2018
Jealousy's a green-eyed monster, folks.
July 6, 2009
Billy Budd adds to the evidence in Moby Dick that Melville was a master of the English language and a master of all things nautical. It's a great, short tale of good, evil and the sometimes harrowing injustice of circumstance. It was fascinating to see in Melville's last work, the dramatic difference in his earlier writing and the style of Billy Budd. For example, comparing two completely random sentences, first from Typee:
And from Billy Budd:
The language in Billy Budd is remarkably more dense and lush. It makes for a more difficult read, but also makes the effort that much more rewarding.
A Digression
The other reviews of Billy Budd by high school kids and adults who read Billy Budd in high school are indicative of the overall quality of education in the US. This isn't to come across as condescending, if I had read it in High School, my review would have probably been equally dismal since I was in no way prepared to appreciate a book that wasn't as exciting as a Bond movie or that used sentences more complex than Lord of the Flies. Billy Budd definitely shouldn't be required reading in high school, at least not until high school provides a competent enough education for students to appreciate a great work, even if they don't "like" it. But again, I digress.
The story of Billy Budd isn't the most moving that I've ever read, but the characters are good and it's interesting moral dilemma. I think the criticism that it is too blatantly a metaphor for Christ come from people who either don't understand Billy Budd or don't understand the basics of the life of Christ. Budd is probably a metaphorical character and maybe even for Christ, but it's naive to give up on the book and characterize him as simply a mechanical metaphor for Christ. There are enough differences, enough other issues raised and enough nuances to make Billy Budd stand on its own as a solid book and a precautionary tale of the harsh realities of justice and circumstance.
In the course of a few days Toby had recovered from the effects of his adventure with the Happar warriors; the wound on his head rapidly healing under the vegetable treatment of the good Tinor.
And from Billy Budd:
Nevertheless, to anybody who can hold the Present at its worth without being inappreciative of the Past, it may be forgiven, if to such an one the solitary old hulk at Portsmouth, Nelson's Victory, seems to float there, not alone as the decaying monument of a fame incorruptible, but also as a poetic reproach, softened by its picturesqueness, to the Monitors and yet mightier hulls of the European ironclads.
The language in Billy Budd is remarkably more dense and lush. It makes for a more difficult read, but also makes the effort that much more rewarding.
A Digression
The other reviews of Billy Budd by high school kids and adults who read Billy Budd in high school are indicative of the overall quality of education in the US. This isn't to come across as condescending, if I had read it in High School, my review would have probably been equally dismal since I was in no way prepared to appreciate a book that wasn't as exciting as a Bond movie or that used sentences more complex than Lord of the Flies. Billy Budd definitely shouldn't be required reading in high school, at least not until high school provides a competent enough education for students to appreciate a great work, even if they don't "like" it. But again, I digress.
The story of Billy Budd isn't the most moving that I've ever read, but the characters are good and it's interesting moral dilemma. I think the criticism that it is too blatantly a metaphor for Christ come from people who either don't understand Billy Budd or don't understand the basics of the life of Christ. Budd is probably a metaphorical character and maybe even for Christ, but it's naive to give up on the book and characterize him as simply a mechanical metaphor for Christ. There are enough differences, enough other issues raised and enough nuances to make Billy Budd stand on its own as a solid book and a precautionary tale of the harsh realities of justice and circumstance.
December 31, 2018
It's an story from English Lit and honestly I remember very little. I didn't even remember I read it, so you see how it stuck with me.
September 20, 2021
Reading "Billy Budd" For Independence Day
In 2012, I celebrated Independence Day by reading and reviewing Melville's 1855 novel "White-Jacket". In his book, "Melville: His World and Work", Andrew Delbanco described "White Jacket" as Melville's 'paean on behalf of democracy". The book includes scenes in which the sailors celebrate the Fourth of July with a pageant. A major character in "White Jacket" is a sailor named Jack Chase, a man whom Melville deeply admired. In chapter 4 of "White Jacket" the narrator says of Jack Chase: "Wherever you may be now rolling over the blue billows, dear Jack! take my best love along with you; and God bless you, wherever you go!"
For Independence Day, 2015, I found myself rereading Melville's novel, "Billy Budd, Sailor". Melville was working on this book at the time of his death in 1891 and his near-final draft remained unpublished. Scholars discovered the manuscript in the 1920s, and its first publication in 1928 was critical in the discovery of Melville and in his literary reputation. Late in his life, Melville remembered his friend Jack Chase. Melville dedicated "Billy Budd" to "Jack Chase, Englishman", "Wherever that great heart may no be. Here on Earth or harbored in Paradise. Captain of the Maintop in the year 1843 in the U.S. Frigate United States"
"Billy Budd, Sailor" is a difficult, deep short philosophical novel written in a gnarled prose. It has religious themes of the fall of man and of the moral law, but there is no God. The book is about the beauty of innocence and its fate in the world. The book also considers the too-easy invocation of rights in a world of complexity . The story is set on an English warship, the Bellipotent (warpower) in 1797 during Britain's war with revolutionary France and following a large attempted mutiny of British seamen. The three main characters of the book are Billy Budd, John Claggaart and Captain Vere. Billy Budd has impressed from a merchant ship tellingly called the "Rights-of-Man." Billy is loved by nearly all who know him for his innocence and his grace. John Claggart is the sergeant at arms on the Billipotent and the embodiment of evil. He hates Billy for his beauty and goodness and concocts a story about Billy plotting a mutiny. The third character, Captain Vere, is the most complex of the three. When Claggart tells his story in the presence of Captain Vere and Billy, Billy lashes out, punches Claggart, and accidentally kills him. An agonized Captain Vere, realizing what has transpired, caused Billy to be sentenced to death and hung. In a private scene, Vere communicates the sentence to Billy Budd. Billy Budd's last words are "God bless Captain Vere!" Most of the book turns on Vere's decision and on the ambiguous responses it provokes in Melville, Vere, and the reader.
Melville shows a strong admiration for Captain Vere. In Chapter 7, he writes:
His settled convictions were as a dike against those invading waters of novel opinion social, political, and otherwise, which carried away as a torrent no few minds in those days, minds by nature not inferior to his own. ... Captain Vere disinterestedly opposed them not alone because they seemed to him insusceptible of embodiment in lasting institutions, but at war with the peace of the world and the true welfare of mankind."
Later in the book, after the execution of Billy Budd has been carried out, Captain Vere says:: "With mankind, forms, measured forms are everything; and that is the import couched in the story of Orpheus with his lyre spellbinding the wild denizens of the wood."
A critical passage of the book captures the ambiguous, difficult nature of reality and of moral decision. Melville uses a metaphor which in recent discussions has been used for a different and not entirely consistent purpose. For Melville, the rainbow is a metaphor of the difficulty of understanding as colors grade insensibly into one another. Melville writes at the beginning of Chapter 21 of the book.
"Who in the Rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of colors, but where exactly does the one first blindingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity. In pronounced cases there is no question about them. But in some supposed cases, in various degrees supposedly less pronounced, to draw the exact line of demarcation few will undertake, though for a fee becoming considerate some professional experts will. There is nothing namable but that some men will, or undertake to, do it for pay."
"Billy Budd, Sailor" has been the subject of much controversy since its 1928 publication, much of which is outlined in Delbanco's excellent biography of Melville mentioned above. Delbanco writes:
"Charting the attitudes pro and con toward Captain Vere is one way to follow the contours of twentieth-century political thought. At times of high regard for constituted authority, Vere tends to come off as a heroic figure who, with tragic awareness of his responsibilities, sacrifices an innocent for the sake of the state. At times of public suspicion toward established power, Vere tends to be condemned as a despot whose callous commitment to the letter of the law, 'however pitilessly' it grinds the innocent, is ultimately no different from Ahab's doctrinaire will."
I learned a great deal from rereading and thinking about "Billy Budd, Sailor" during this week of Independence Day. I also learned from thinking about "White-Jacket" again. Vere's decision in Melville's story may be questioned but I find much wisdom in his observation that "with mankind, forms, measured forms are everything." With this Independence Day, I hope Americans may come together and live as members of a community which they love and revere.
Robin Friedman
In 2012, I celebrated Independence Day by reading and reviewing Melville's 1855 novel "White-Jacket". In his book, "Melville: His World and Work", Andrew Delbanco described "White Jacket" as Melville's 'paean on behalf of democracy". The book includes scenes in which the sailors celebrate the Fourth of July with a pageant. A major character in "White Jacket" is a sailor named Jack Chase, a man whom Melville deeply admired. In chapter 4 of "White Jacket" the narrator says of Jack Chase: "Wherever you may be now rolling over the blue billows, dear Jack! take my best love along with you; and God bless you, wherever you go!"
For Independence Day, 2015, I found myself rereading Melville's novel, "Billy Budd, Sailor". Melville was working on this book at the time of his death in 1891 and his near-final draft remained unpublished. Scholars discovered the manuscript in the 1920s, and its first publication in 1928 was critical in the discovery of Melville and in his literary reputation. Late in his life, Melville remembered his friend Jack Chase. Melville dedicated "Billy Budd" to "Jack Chase, Englishman", "Wherever that great heart may no be. Here on Earth or harbored in Paradise. Captain of the Maintop in the year 1843 in the U.S. Frigate United States"
"Billy Budd, Sailor" is a difficult, deep short philosophical novel written in a gnarled prose. It has religious themes of the fall of man and of the moral law, but there is no God. The book is about the beauty of innocence and its fate in the world. The book also considers the too-easy invocation of rights in a world of complexity . The story is set on an English warship, the Bellipotent (warpower) in 1797 during Britain's war with revolutionary France and following a large attempted mutiny of British seamen. The three main characters of the book are Billy Budd, John Claggaart and Captain Vere. Billy Budd has impressed from a merchant ship tellingly called the "Rights-of-Man." Billy is loved by nearly all who know him for his innocence and his grace. John Claggart is the sergeant at arms on the Billipotent and the embodiment of evil. He hates Billy for his beauty and goodness and concocts a story about Billy plotting a mutiny. The third character, Captain Vere, is the most complex of the three. When Claggart tells his story in the presence of Captain Vere and Billy, Billy lashes out, punches Claggart, and accidentally kills him. An agonized Captain Vere, realizing what has transpired, caused Billy to be sentenced to death and hung. In a private scene, Vere communicates the sentence to Billy Budd. Billy Budd's last words are "God bless Captain Vere!" Most of the book turns on Vere's decision and on the ambiguous responses it provokes in Melville, Vere, and the reader.
Melville shows a strong admiration for Captain Vere. In Chapter 7, he writes:
His settled convictions were as a dike against those invading waters of novel opinion social, political, and otherwise, which carried away as a torrent no few minds in those days, minds by nature not inferior to his own. ... Captain Vere disinterestedly opposed them not alone because they seemed to him insusceptible of embodiment in lasting institutions, but at war with the peace of the world and the true welfare of mankind."
Later in the book, after the execution of Billy Budd has been carried out, Captain Vere says:: "With mankind, forms, measured forms are everything; and that is the import couched in the story of Orpheus with his lyre spellbinding the wild denizens of the wood."
A critical passage of the book captures the ambiguous, difficult nature of reality and of moral decision. Melville uses a metaphor which in recent discussions has been used for a different and not entirely consistent purpose. For Melville, the rainbow is a metaphor of the difficulty of understanding as colors grade insensibly into one another. Melville writes at the beginning of Chapter 21 of the book.
"Who in the Rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of colors, but where exactly does the one first blindingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity. In pronounced cases there is no question about them. But in some supposed cases, in various degrees supposedly less pronounced, to draw the exact line of demarcation few will undertake, though for a fee becoming considerate some professional experts will. There is nothing namable but that some men will, or undertake to, do it for pay."
"Billy Budd, Sailor" has been the subject of much controversy since its 1928 publication, much of which is outlined in Delbanco's excellent biography of Melville mentioned above. Delbanco writes:
"Charting the attitudes pro and con toward Captain Vere is one way to follow the contours of twentieth-century political thought. At times of high regard for constituted authority, Vere tends to come off as a heroic figure who, with tragic awareness of his responsibilities, sacrifices an innocent for the sake of the state. At times of public suspicion toward established power, Vere tends to be condemned as a despot whose callous commitment to the letter of the law, 'however pitilessly' it grinds the innocent, is ultimately no different from Ahab's doctrinaire will."
I learned a great deal from rereading and thinking about "Billy Budd, Sailor" during this week of Independence Day. I also learned from thinking about "White-Jacket" again. Vere's decision in Melville's story may be questioned but I find much wisdom in his observation that "with mankind, forms, measured forms are everything." With this Independence Day, I hope Americans may come together and live as members of a community which they love and revere.
Robin Friedman
July 28, 2021
Nella semplice vicenda di Billy Budd, sembra quasi di poter cogliere un parallelo tra la vita dell'uomo e il mare stesso. Entrambi infiniti, entrambi oscillanti tra insidia e serenità, trabocchetti e spontaneità, entrambi capaci di concedere doni insperati o precipitare negli abissi più scuri e profondi. Forse la mia è un'interpretazionr ardita, ma è quanto l'opera ha saputo trasmettermi leggendola.
March 13, 2011
I had hoped that during the time that has lapsed between having had to read this and as an undergraduate and now I would have warmed up a bit more to Melville, who along with Dickens holds the dubious distinction as being my least favorite "canonical" authors.
No dice. I found this just as difficult to read and even more difficult to sustain any kind of interest in, and was most grateful for the relative brevity of Billy Budd, especially as Melville's writing style can charitably be described as impenetrable, if not at times actually unreadable.
The thing is, I really, really WANT to like Melville. I love reading interpretations of Melville's writing, as they are of the type that fracture and fragment under postmodern analysis, bursting with utterly fascinating queer resonances. Certainly the all-but-slavering characterization of the titular character throughout the novella is one of the glories of homoerotic 19th century literature:
"He was young; and despite his all but fully developed frame, in aspect looked even younger than he really was, owing to a lingering adolescent expression in the as yet smooth face all but feminine in purity of natural complexion but where, thanks to his seagoing, the lily was quite suppressed and the rose had some ado visibly to flush through the tan."
Of course, Billy's corporeal beauty is rather problematically utilized by Melville as a symbol for purity, innocence, and moral as much as physical beauty, something that ultimately creates a rather blank and even unsympathetic cipher of a character. Not that, Claggart, his shadowy nemesis, is accorded any particularly interiority either that would help rationalize the hatred he develops that will eventually destroy Billy�
But Melville's silence in regards to the character of Claggart is also one of the most evocative qualities of the novella, creating an opening that has often been interpreted as sexual in nature: that Claggart is motivated by an attraction that is almost inevitably one-sided, that his fateful claim against Billy is rooted in a self-hatred caused by this attraction, etc.
One way or the other, what interests me about Billy Budd is that Melville's elusively was appropriated by director Claire Denis for her lyrical and (very) loose adaptation (France, 1999). In Denis's capable hands the bare bones of Melville's story is transformed into a beautiful meditation on postcolonialism, homoeroticism, the human (specifically male) body, marginality, movement, race relations, etc, etc, etc that in its own way is just as elusive and endlessly evocative as Melville's text. Only rendered, if you excuse my (very) biased opinion, with a masterfulness and density that Melville's text barely hints at.
No dice. I found this just as difficult to read and even more difficult to sustain any kind of interest in, and was most grateful for the relative brevity of Billy Budd, especially as Melville's writing style can charitably be described as impenetrable, if not at times actually unreadable.
The thing is, I really, really WANT to like Melville. I love reading interpretations of Melville's writing, as they are of the type that fracture and fragment under postmodern analysis, bursting with utterly fascinating queer resonances. Certainly the all-but-slavering characterization of the titular character throughout the novella is one of the glories of homoerotic 19th century literature:
"He was young; and despite his all but fully developed frame, in aspect looked even younger than he really was, owing to a lingering adolescent expression in the as yet smooth face all but feminine in purity of natural complexion but where, thanks to his seagoing, the lily was quite suppressed and the rose had some ado visibly to flush through the tan."
Of course, Billy's corporeal beauty is rather problematically utilized by Melville as a symbol for purity, innocence, and moral as much as physical beauty, something that ultimately creates a rather blank and even unsympathetic cipher of a character. Not that, Claggart, his shadowy nemesis, is accorded any particularly interiority either that would help rationalize the hatred he develops that will eventually destroy Billy�
But Melville's silence in regards to the character of Claggart is also one of the most evocative qualities of the novella, creating an opening that has often been interpreted as sexual in nature: that Claggart is motivated by an attraction that is almost inevitably one-sided, that his fateful claim against Billy is rooted in a self-hatred caused by this attraction, etc.
One way or the other, what interests me about Billy Budd is that Melville's elusively was appropriated by director Claire Denis for her lyrical and (very) loose adaptation (France, 1999). In Denis's capable hands the bare bones of Melville's story is transformed into a beautiful meditation on postcolonialism, homoeroticism, the human (specifically male) body, marginality, movement, race relations, etc, etc, etc that in its own way is just as elusive and endlessly evocative as Melville's text. Only rendered, if you excuse my (very) biased opinion, with a masterfulness and density that Melville's text barely hints at.
July 27, 2020
اثری خاص با ترجمه ای متفاوت..اثری که ظاهرا بیشتر عمرش را ناشناخته سپری کرده,همچون کوسه ای در بطن دریا,لحظه ای بر سطح آمده و بعد تا ابد در اعماق ناپدید شده..
لحظه ی خریدن این کتاب را در سال ها پیش بیاد می اورم,آن زمان که شناختی از نام هرمان ملویل نداشتم,این کتاب اما در میان قفسه ها,چون کشتی کوچکی آماده رهسپاری به سفری در قلب دریا ها مرا به خود خواند,و امروز سرانجام آن سفر رخ داد..سفری به غایت غریب,گاه زیبا و گاه مشکل..و امروز که میخواهم راجع به آن بنویسم,گویی تحفه ای غریب از سرزمینی دور آورده ام و در تلاشم که آن را توصیف کنم..
خواندن آخرین اثر نویسنده ای که سال ها قبلش به پایان کامیابی ادبی ش رسیده تجربه متفاوتی ست..مانند آنکه به رستورانی که تمام معروفیتش برای غذای خاصی ست بروی,و آنگاه ایتم دیگری را سفارش دهی..تجربه ای نا مشخص و غریب خواهی داشت.. تجربه ای نامطمئن آنگاه که آن رستوران را ترک میکنی و هرگز نخواهی دانست که آیا این تمام چیزی بود که برای ارائه داشت یا که خیر..
بیلی باد ملوان اثر غریبی ست..غرابتش گاه شیفته کننده است و گاه از خواننده می گریزد اید..اثری عمیق تر از تنها از مبارزه ای میان منطق و اخلاقیات.....سمفونی نه چندان روشن و گاه قطعه قطعه ای,که گویی با آخرین نت به هماهنگی ابدی می رسد..آخرین اثر هرمان ملویل..
لحظه ی خریدن این کتاب را در سال ها پیش بیاد می اورم,آن زمان که شناختی از نام هرمان ملویل نداشتم,این کتاب اما در میان قفسه ها,چون کشتی کوچکی آماده رهسپاری به سفری در قلب دریا ها مرا به خود خواند,و امروز سرانجام آن سفر رخ داد..سفری به غایت غریب,گاه زیبا و گاه مشکل..و امروز که میخواهم راجع به آن بنویسم,گویی تحفه ای غریب از سرزمینی دور آورده ام و در تلاشم که آن را توصیف کنم..
خواندن آخرین اثر نویسنده ای که سال ها قبلش به پایان کامیابی ادبی ش رسیده تجربه متفاوتی ست..مانند آنکه به رستورانی که تمام معروفیتش برای غذای خاصی ست بروی,و آنگاه ایتم دیگری را سفارش دهی..تجربه ای نا مشخص و غریب خواهی داشت.. تجربه ای نامطمئن آنگاه که آن رستوران را ترک میکنی و هرگز نخواهی دانست که آیا این تمام چیزی بود که برای ارائه داشت یا که خیر..
بیلی باد ملوان اثر غریبی ست..غرابتش گاه شیفته کننده است و گاه از خواننده می گریزد اید..اثری عمیق تر از تنها از مبارزه ای میان منطق و اخلاقیات.....سمفونی نه چندان روشن و گاه قطعه قطعه ای,که گویی با آخرین نت به هماهنگی ابدی می رسد..آخرین اثر هرمان ملویل..
June 12, 2021
Από πού να το πιάσεις; Από πού να το εξηγήσεις;
Υπέροχο στην πολυπλοκότητά του και στην καλειδοσκοπική του προσέγγιση.
Ένα βιβλίο για την αίσθηση του δικαίου ―που μου έφερε στο νου καφκικούς συνειρμούς�, αλλά και για την ελευθερία. Πώς επιδρά πάνω μας η εξουσία και πώς μπορεί να δημιουργηθεί μια ευρύτερη συνθήκη αντίστασης; Να το διαβάσετε.
Υπέροχο στην πολυπλοκότητά του και στην καλειδοσκοπική του προσέγγιση.
Ένα βιβλίο για την αίσθηση του δικαίου ―που μου έφερε στο νου καφκικούς συνειρμούς�, αλλά και για την ελευθερία. Πώς επιδρά πάνω μας η εξουσία και πώς μπορεί να δημιουργηθεί μια ευρύτερη συνθήκη αντίστασης; Να το διαβάσετε.
November 18, 2016
The tragic story of Billy Budd is a captivating and interesting read. Melville is a master of physical and psychological description and an expert at ships at sea and this makes for a great story. I am all too familiar with rumor-mongering and how poisonous and destructive it can be and this posthumously published novella serves as a sort of naval parable about it. A must read after Moby Dick.
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December 1, 2023Biraz garip bir kitap, hem deniz ve gemicilik içeriğinden dolayı Moby Dick'e, hem de Billy Budd'ın tutumlarındaki kayıtsızlıktan ve diğer karakterlerin tavırlarından dolayı Katip Bartleby'e benziyor. Ama analizler ve tasvirler o kadar ağırlıkta ki, hikaye minicik kalmış. Ben pek tat alamadım bu kitaptan. İki yıldız vermeye elim varmıyor ama ancak o kadar tat alabildim.
March 21, 2022
Εξαιρετική νουβέλα του Μέλβιλ.
Η ιστορία ακολουθεί φαινομενικά μια γραμμική εξέλιξη, αλλά μέσα σε αυτή όλα αλλάζουν. Το κακό, το καλό, η δικαιοσύνη, η τιμωρία είναι έννοιες οι οποίες γίνονται ρευστές και εν τέλει ο ίδιος ο αναγνώστης καλείται να δώσει την τελική εξήγηση στην αμφισημία αυτών, η οποία είναι διάχυτη σε όλο το κείμενο.
Ό,τι προβλημάτιζε στα τελευταία χρόνια της ζωής του τον συγγραφέα, το προσδίδει ως χαρακτηριστικό στους βασικούς χαρακτήρες της ιστορίας. Ίσως και ο ίδιος να μην είχε καταφέρει να δώσει ξεκάθαρες απαντήσεις σε όλους αυτούς του υπαρξιακούς στοχασμούς.
Ο Μπίλλυ Μπαντ , ο οπλονόμος Κλάγκαρντ και ο καπετάνιος Βίερ μοιάζουν με βιβλικούς ήρωες αλλά στη βάση τους είναι αρχέτυποι χαρακτήρες διότι η μάχη του Καλού και του Κακού, του Δίκαιου με το Άδικου προβληματίζουν δημιουργούς και αποδέκτες από την αρχή των ημερών του ανθ��ωπίνου είδους.
Η ιστορία ακολουθεί φαινομενικά μια γραμμική εξέλιξη, αλλά μέσα σε αυτή όλα αλλάζουν. Το κακό, το καλό, η δικαιοσύνη, η τιμωρία είναι έννοιες οι οποίες γίνονται ρευστές και εν τέλει ο ίδιος ο αναγνώστης καλείται να δώσει την τελική εξήγηση στην αμφισημία αυτών, η οποία είναι διάχυτη σε όλο το κείμενο.
Ό,τι προβλημάτιζε στα τελευταία χρόνια της ζωής του τον συγγραφέα, το προσδίδει ως χαρακτηριστικό στους βασικούς χαρακτήρες της ιστορίας. Ίσως και ο ίδιος να μην είχε καταφέρει να δώσει ξεκάθαρες απαντήσεις σε όλους αυτούς του υπαρξιακούς στοχασμούς.
Ο Μπίλλυ Μπαντ , ο οπλονόμος Κλάγκαρντ και ο καπετάνιος Βίερ μοιάζουν με βιβλικούς ήρωες αλλά στη βάση τους είναι αρχέτυποι χαρακτήρες διότι η μάχη του Καλού και του Κακού, του Δίκαιου με το Άδικου προβληματίζουν δημιουργούς και αποδέκτες από την αρχή των ημερών του ανθ��ωπίνου είδους.
December 28, 2022
Οι ιστορίες που ξεχωρίζουν αψηφώντας τον χρόνο, τα μεγάλα έργα στα οποία επανερχόμαστε γενιά τη γενιά για να ανακαλύψουμε εκ νέου το θαυμαστό εντός τους, προϋποθέτουν καταρχάς προσωποπαγές αφηγηματικό ύφος. Εν συνεχεία, συνήθως διαθέτουν δύο επίπεδα από ερμηνευτικής πλευράς: ένα πρώτο, άμεσα ορατό από τ��ν αναγνώστη, μια ιστορία-πλοκή που η έντασή της κρατά αμείωτο το ενδιαφέρον. Και μόνο αυτό είναι συνήθως αρκετό για ένα καλό βιβλίο.
Αλλά εκείνο το στοιχείο που το καθιστά κλασικό είναι το δεύτερο επίπεδο, ο συνδυασμός τής πλοκής με τα πολλαπλά στρώματα ανάγνωσης, ερμηνείας. Μια «ποιότητα» που καθιστά επιτακτική ανάγκη την επανάγνωση, καθώς το κείμενο, όπως χαρακτηριστικά λέγεται, δεν «εξαντλείται» στην πρώτη ανάγνωσή του. Πώς όμως επιτυγχάνεται αυτό; Η απάντηση δεν είναι απλή και έχει πολλές παραμέτρους. Μία εξ αυτών είναι εκείνη της αμφισημίας, η οποία κυριαρχεί στο «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ», το έσχατο μυθιστόρημα του Μέλβιλ (σε προσεγμένη μετάφραση Κεχαγιά/ Σπαθαράκη από τους Αντίποδες).
Προτού αναφερθώ εκτενώς στην παράμετρο αυτή, θα κάνω μια μικρή παρέκβαση με λίγα λόγια για την υπόθεση: ο Μπίλλυ Μπαντ, υπόδειγμα ναύτη και άνδρα, στρατολογείται σε πολεμικό πλοίο κι εκεί έρχεται σε ακούσια -από πλευράς του- αντιπαράθεση με έναν σκοτεινό και δόλιο οπλονόμο, ονόματι Κλάγκαρτ. Το γεγονός λαμβάνει διαστάσεις σύγκρουσης Καλού � Κακού, με διαιτητή και τελικό κριτή τον καπετάνιο του πλοίου, οδηγούμενο στα άκρα με καταστροφικές συνέπειες. Τα γεγονότα αυτά λαμβάνουν χώρα κατά τη διάρκεια του πολέμου Αγγλίας- Γαλλίας την εποχή του Διευθυντηρίου και ενώ έχουν προηγηθεί καθοριστικής σημασίας στασιαστικές εξεγέρσεις στο πολεμικό ναυτικό της πρώτης. Και αυτό είναι το γενικό ιστορικό πλαίσιο στο οποίο εκτυλίσσεται η ιστορία, βασισμένη εν πολλοίς σε αληθινά περιστατικά.
Ας επανέλθω όμως σε αυτό που έχει σημασία για την ανάγνωση (φυσικά δεν είναι τα ιστορικά γεγονότα). Το «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» εμπίπτει πανηγυρικά στις κατηγορίες που προανέφερα περί επιπέδων ανάγνωσης. Κι αν ο αφηγηματικός οίστρος του Μέλβιλ είναι πανταχού παρών καθώς συνυφαίνεται με την πλοκή και τις επιμέρους θεματικές, εκείνο που καθιστά το βιβλίο αυτό επαναγνώσιμο είναι η αμφισημία του, η κρυπτικότητά του � εν ολίγοις, όλα όσα δεν λέγονται εμφανώς. Πρόκειται, βέβαια, για καθολική νίκη του ύφους, δεδομένου ότι απαιτεί υπέρτατης κλάσης πένα, η οποία θα αποδώσει το υπόρρητο με τέτοιο τρόπο που αφενός δεν θα διαταράσσει την ενότητα της εν εξελίξει πλοκής, και αφετέρου θα εμποδίζει την αμεσότητα της πρόσληψης που εξαντλεί το έργο σε μια πρώτη ανάγνωση. Ο αναγνώστης του χθες, αλλά και του σήμερα, θα πισωγυρίσει, θα αναρωτηθεί, θα επανακάμψει. Και αυτό είναι πραγματικό επίτευγμα και βασικός λόγος που το «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» δικαίως θεωρείται κλασικό.
Η αναφορά στις αμφισημίες δεν γίνεται τυχαία, καθώς διαπερνούν επιδέξια το βιβλίο. Για αρχή, οι σχέσεις μεταξύ των τριών βασικών προσώπων που δεν περιορίζονται σ� ένα πρωτόλειο επίπεδο θρησκευτικής σύγκρουσης, φερ� ειπείν, με τον Μπίλλυ ως Χριστό, τον Κλάγκαρτ ως Σατανά και τον Καπετάνιο Βίερ ως Πόντιο Πιλάτο. Ούτε όμως στη δευτερεύουσα, αν και πιθανή, ομοερωτικής φύσεως έλξη/ απώθηση μεταξύ του Ωραίου Ναύτη και του Οπλονόμου που η ατελέσφορη έκβασή της οδηγεί στην τελική σύγκρουση, αλλά και, από απόσταση, του Καπετάνιου ως τρίτου σκέλους . Ακόμα, εμφανής είναι και η φιλοσοφική διάσταση περί ανθρώπινης φύσεως, η αέναη σύγκρουση καλού-κακού, αλλά και η θεολογική ανάγνωση με την αναφορά στο άκρως αμφιλεγόμενο βιβλικό χωρίο, «το μυστήριον της ανομίας», επιδεχόμενο πολλαπλές αναγνώσεις και ερμηνείες ανά τους αιώνες. Δεν θα σταθώ όμως περισσότερο σ� αυτά, καθώς ο Θ. Δρίτσας τα έχει αναλύσει με άψογο τρόπο στο Επίμετρο.
Παραμένει το γεγονός ότι στο βιβλίο, η αμφισημία είναι ο τρόπος, είναι η ουσία, είναι το μυστικό. Κι ας μην ξεχνάμε ότι ετούτη είναι «μια εσωτερική αφήγηση» όπως αναγράφεται χαρακτηριστικά στον υπότιτλο. Ο Μέλβιλ, σύμφωνα με στοιχεία των μελετητών του, επανερχόταν τα τελευταία χρόνια συνεχώς στο έργο, αφαιρώντας περιττά στρώματα λίπους. Κατ� αυτόν τον τρόπο επιδρούσε άμεσα όχι μόνο υφολογικά στο κείμενο καθ� αυτό, αλλά και στην ερμηνεία του. Υπάρχουν τελικά δύο τρόποι αντιμετώπισης του αναγνώστη από τον συγγραφέα: η μέχρις εξαντλήσεως ανάλυση της πλοκής, των χαρακτήρων, των κινήτρων, οπότε ο πρώτος δεν χρειάζεται παρά να παρακολουθήσει με προσοχή το νήμα των σκέψεων του δημιουργού απολαμβάνοντας παθητικά τη διαδικασία ως το τέλος. Ο άλλος τρόπος είναι η ενεργητική συμμετοχή τού αναγνώστη στο παιχνίδι της ανάγνωσης, η οποία βέβαια προϋποθέτει ότι το κείμενο παραμένει ανοιχτό σε ερμηνείες, σε αναλύσεις, σε πολλαπλές αναγνώσεις. Ο δεύτερος τρόπος είναι ο πλέον συνηθισμένος σε πιο σύγχρονα κείμενα, καθώς συνδυάζεται ευκολότερα με υφολογικές καινοτομίες που επιτρέπουν με τη σειρά τους αυτού του είδους την ενεργητική ανάγνωση.
Αποτελεί λοιπόν αξιοθαύμαστη καινοτομία το γεγονός ότι ένας συγγραφέας του 19ου αιώνα πέτυχε αυτό ακριβώς το αποτέλεσμα με εκφραστικά μέσα της εποχής του. Συγκεκριμένα, ο Μέλβιλ εκ πρώτης κινείται σε παραδοσιακά μοτίβα, παρουσιάζοντας έναν σχεδόν ανεπίληπτο και άρτιο θετικό χαρακτήρα, εν συνεχεία εισαγάγοντας το δίπολο καλού-κακού σε σχέση με τον οπλονόμο αλλά και τον εξισορροπητικό παράγοντα του Καπετάνιου που εκπροσωπεί τον Νόμο, τον πολιτισμό, αλλά και άλλους χαρακτήρες που διαθέτουν συμβολικό βάρος. Θα μπορούσε να παραμείνει σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, προσφέροντάς μας ένα εντυπωσιακό έργο όπου οι μελλοντικές γενιές θα απολάμβαναν εξίσου με τους συγκαιρινούς του. Ο μέγας συγγραφέας όμως δεν αρκέστηκε σ� αυτή τη δόξα. Επέλεξε την ασάφεια σε κομβικά σημεία της υπόθεσης: Ο καπετάνιος τελικά έχασε τα λογικά του; Τι διημείφθη στην καμπίνα μεταξύ του καπετάνιου και του Μπίλλυ μετά την καταδικαστική απόφαση; Ποιο το νόημα των τελευταίων λέξεων του ναύτη; Σε ποιον απευθυνόταν το μουρμουρητό του πληρώματος και τι σήμαινε, κατά τη στιγμή της εκτέλεσης; Και άλλα πολλά που οι αναλυτές ανασκάπτουν εκ νέου σε κάθε ανάγνωση.
Θέλω να καταλήξω στο αυταπόδεικτο γεγονός ότι στην τέχνη -συχνά, αν και όχι πάντα- τα ερωτήματα έχουν μεγαλύτερη αξία από τις απαντήσεις. Ο ενορχηστρωτής, ο δημιουργός, φιλοτεχνεί ένα αεροστεγές, συμπαγές, ολοκληρωμένο κύκλωμα (το μυθιστόρημα), το οποίο ταυτόχρονα μπορεί να είναι ανοιχτό, ευέλικτο και διαμπερές. Εκ πρώτης ακούγεται ως αντινομία, αλλά δεν είναι τελικά. Συγκολλητικό στοιχείο αποτελεί η ισορροπία των επιμέρους στοιχείων, η οποία βασίζεται στον απόλυτο έλεγχο του αφηγηματικού στιλ, των εκφραστικών μέσων από τον συγγραφέα. Συνέπεια αυτού είναι ότι το έργο αποτελεί ταυτόχρονα ερώτηση και απάντηση.
Ο «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» παραμένει ερωτηματικό, ένα δυσεπίλυτο ίσως πρόβλημα για εκείνους που αναζητούν ερμηνείες, οριστικές απαντήσεις που θα δώσουν δια παντός τη λύση στο αίνιγμα. Για όλους εμάς όμως που η τελική απάντηση δεν έχει κανένα νόημα, όπως εξάλλου άπαντα τα σημαντικά στη ζωή, το αίνιγμα της ανάγνωσης αποτελεί και την αφορμή της. Γι� αυτό επιστρέφουμε στον Μέλβιλ, επιβιβαζόμαστε και ανανεώνουμε εκ νέου τα ερωτήματά μας.
Αλλά εκείνο το στοιχείο που το καθιστά κλασικό είναι το δεύτερο επίπεδο, ο συνδυασμός τής πλοκής με τα πολλαπλά στρώματα ανάγνωσης, ερμηνείας. Μια «ποιότητα» που καθιστά επιτακτική ανάγκη την επανάγνωση, καθώς το κείμενο, όπως χαρακτηριστικά λέγεται, δεν «εξαντλείται» στην πρώτη ανάγνωσή του. Πώς όμως επιτυγχάνεται αυτό; Η απάντηση δεν είναι απλή και έχει πολλές παραμέτρους. Μία εξ αυτών είναι εκείνη της αμφισημίας, η οποία κυριαρχεί στο «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ», το έσχατο μυθιστόρημα του Μέλβιλ (σε προσεγμένη μετάφραση Κεχαγιά/ Σπαθαράκη από τους Αντίποδες).
Προτού αναφερθώ εκτενώς στην παράμετρο αυτή, θα κάνω μια μικρή παρέκβαση με λίγα λόγια για την υπόθεση: ο Μπίλλυ Μπαντ, υπόδειγμα ναύτη και άνδρα, στρατολογείται σε πολεμικό πλοίο κι εκεί έρχεται σε ακούσια -από πλευράς του- αντιπαράθεση με έναν σκοτεινό και δόλιο οπλονόμο, ονόματι Κλάγκαρτ. Το γεγονός λαμβάνει διαστάσεις σύγκρουσης Καλού � Κακού, με διαιτητή και τελικό κριτή τον καπετάνιο του πλοίου, οδηγούμενο στα άκρα με καταστροφικές συνέπειες. Τα γεγονότα αυτά λαμβάνουν χώρα κατά τη διάρκεια του πολέμου Αγγλίας- Γαλλίας την εποχή του Διευθυντηρίου και ενώ έχουν προηγηθεί καθοριστικής σημασίας στασιαστικές εξεγέρσεις στο πολεμικό ναυτικό της πρώτης. Και αυτό είναι το γενικό ιστορικό πλαίσιο στο οποίο εκτυλίσσεται η ιστορία, βασισμένη εν πολλοίς σε αληθινά περιστατικά.
Ας επανέλθω όμως σε αυτό που έχει σημασία για την ανάγνωση (φυσικά δεν είναι τα ιστορικά γεγονότα). Το «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» εμπίπτει πανηγυρικά στις κατηγορίες που προανέφερα περί επιπέδων ανάγνωσης. Κι αν ο αφηγηματικός οίστρος του Μέλβιλ είναι πανταχού παρών καθώς συνυφαίνεται με την πλοκή και τις επιμέρους θεματικές, εκείνο που καθιστά το βιβλίο αυτό επαναγνώσιμο είναι η αμφισημία του, η κρυπτικότητά του � εν ολίγοις, όλα όσα δεν λέγονται εμφανώς. Πρόκειται, βέβαια, για καθολική νίκη του ύφους, δεδομένου ότι απαιτεί υπέρτατης κλάσης πένα, η οποία θα αποδώσει το υπόρρητο με τέτοιο τρόπο που αφενός δεν θα διαταράσσει την ενότητα της εν εξελίξει πλοκής, και αφετέρου θα εμποδίζει την αμεσότητα της πρόσληψης που εξαντλεί το έργο σε μια πρώτη ανάγνωση. Ο αναγνώστης του χθες, αλλά και του σήμερα, θα πισωγυρίσει, θα αναρωτηθεί, θα επανακάμψει. Και αυτό είναι πραγματικό επίτευγμα και βασικός λόγος που το «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» δικαίως θεωρείται κλασικό.
Η αναφορά στις αμφισημίες δεν γίνεται τυχαία, καθώς διαπερνούν επιδέξια το βιβλίο. Για αρχή, οι σχέσεις μεταξύ των τριών βασικών προσώπων που δεν περιορίζονται σ� ένα πρωτόλειο επίπεδο θρησκευτικής σύγκρουσης, φερ� ειπείν, με τον Μπίλλυ ως Χριστό, τον Κλάγκαρτ ως Σατανά και τον Καπετάνιο Βίερ ως Πόντιο Πιλάτο. Ούτε όμως στη δευτερεύουσα, αν και πιθανή, ομοερωτικής φύσεως έλξη/ απώθηση μεταξύ του Ωραίου Ναύτη και του Οπλονόμου που η ατελέσφορη έκβασή της οδηγεί στην τελική σύγκρουση, αλλά και, από απόσταση, του Καπετάνιου ως τρίτου σκέλους . Ακόμα, εμφανής είναι και η φιλοσοφική διάσταση περί ανθρώπινης φύσεως, η αέναη σύγκρουση καλού-κακού, αλλά και η θεολογική ανάγνωση με την αναφορά στο άκρως αμφιλεγόμενο βιβλικό χωρίο, «το μυστήριον της ανομίας», επιδεχόμενο πολλαπλές αναγνώσεις και ερμηνείες ανά τους αιώνες. Δεν θα σταθώ όμως περισσότερο σ� αυτά, καθώς ο Θ. Δρίτσας τα έχει αναλύσει με άψογο τρόπο στο Επίμετρο.
Παραμένει το γεγονός ότι στο βιβλίο, η αμφισημία είναι ο τρόπος, είναι η ουσία, είναι το μυστικό. Κι ας μην ξεχνάμε ότι ετούτη είναι «μια εσωτερική αφήγηση» όπως αναγράφεται χαρακτηριστικά στον υπότιτλο. Ο Μέλβιλ, σύμφωνα με στοιχεία των μελετητών του, επανερχόταν τα τελευταία χρόνια συνεχώς στο έργο, αφαιρώντας περιττά στρώματα λίπους. Κατ� αυτόν τον τρόπο επιδρούσε άμεσα όχι μόνο υφολογικά στο κείμενο καθ� αυτό, αλλά και στην ερμηνεία του. Υπάρχουν τελικά δύο τρόποι αντιμετώπισης του αναγνώστη από τον συγγραφέα: η μέχρις εξαντλήσεως ανάλυση της πλοκής, των χαρακτήρων, των κινήτρων, οπότε ο πρώτος δεν χρειάζεται παρά να παρακολουθήσει με προσοχή το νήμα των σκέψεων του δημιουργού απολαμβάνοντας παθητικά τη διαδικασία ως το τέλος. Ο άλλος τρόπος είναι η ενεργητική συμμετοχή τού αναγνώστη στο παιχνίδι της ανάγνωσης, η οποία βέβαια προϋποθέτει ότι το κείμενο παραμένει ανοιχτό σε ερμηνείες, σε αναλύσεις, σε πολλαπλές αναγνώσεις. Ο δεύτερος τρόπος είναι ο πλέον συνηθισμένος σε πιο σύγχρονα κείμενα, καθώς συνδυάζεται ευκολότερα με υφολογικές καινοτομίες που επιτρέπουν με τη σειρά τους αυτού του είδους την ενεργητική ανάγνωση.
Αποτελεί λοιπόν αξιοθαύμαστη καινοτομία το γεγονός ότι ένας συγγραφέας του 19ου αιώνα πέτυχε αυτό ακριβώς το αποτέλεσμα με εκφραστικά μέσα της εποχής του. Συγκεκριμένα, ο Μέλβιλ εκ πρώτης κινείται σε παραδοσιακά μοτίβα, παρουσιάζοντας έναν σχεδόν ανεπίληπτο και άρτιο θετικό χαρακτήρα, εν συνεχεία εισαγάγοντας το δίπολο καλού-κακού σε σχέση με τον οπλονόμο αλλά και τον εξισορροπητικό παράγοντα του Καπετάνιου που εκπροσωπεί τον Νόμο, τον πολιτισμό, αλλά και άλλους χαρακτήρες που διαθέτουν συμβολικό βάρος. Θα μπορούσε να παραμείνει σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, προσφέροντάς μας ένα εντυπωσιακό έργο όπου οι μελλοντικές γενιές θα απολάμβαναν εξίσου με τους συγκαιρινούς του. Ο μέγας συγγραφέας όμως δεν αρκέστηκε σ� αυτή τη δόξα. Επέλεξε την ασάφεια σε κομβικά σημεία της υπόθεσης: Ο καπετάνιος τελικά έχασε τα λογικά του; Τι διημείφθη στην καμπίνα μεταξύ του καπετάνιου και του Μπίλλυ μετά την καταδικαστική απόφαση; Ποιο το νόημα των τελευταίων λέξεων του ναύτη; Σε ποιον απευθυνόταν το μουρμουρητό του πληρώματος και τι σήμαινε, κατά τη στιγμή της εκτέλεσης; Και άλλα πολλά που οι αναλυτές ανασκάπτουν εκ νέου σε κάθε ανάγνωση.
Θέλω να καταλήξω στο αυταπόδεικτο γεγονός ότι στην τέχνη -συχνά, αν και όχι πάντα- τα ερωτήματα έχουν μεγαλύτερη αξία από τις απαντήσεις. Ο ενορχηστρωτής, ο δημιουργός, φιλοτεχνεί ένα αεροστεγές, συμπαγές, ολοκληρωμένο κύκλωμα (το μυθιστόρημα), το οποίο ταυτόχρονα μπορεί να είναι ανοιχτό, ευέλικτο και διαμπερές. Εκ πρώτης ακούγεται ως αντινομία, αλλά δεν είναι τελικά. Συγκολλητικό στοιχείο αποτελεί η ισορροπία των επιμέρους στοιχείων, η οποία βασίζεται στον απόλυτο έλεγχο του αφηγηματικού στιλ, των εκφραστικών μέσων από τον συγγραφέα. Συνέπεια αυτού είναι ότι το έργο αποτελεί ταυτόχρονα ερώτηση και απάντηση.
Ο «Μπίλλυ Μπαντ» παραμένει ερωτηματικό, ένα δυσεπίλυτο ίσως πρόβλημα για εκείνους που αναζητούν ερμηνείες, οριστικές απαντήσεις που θα δώσουν δια παντός τη λύση στο αίνιγμα. Για όλους εμάς όμως που η τελική απάντηση δεν έχει κανένα νόημα, όπως εξάλλου άπαντα τα σημαντικά στη ζωή, το αίνιγμα της ανάγνωσης αποτελεί και την αφορμή της. Γι� αυτό επιστρέφουμε στον Μέλβιλ, επιβιβαζόμαστε και ανανεώνουμε εκ νέου τα ερωτήματά μας.
May 5, 2018
Billy Budd, able seaman
«we do not deal with justice here but with the law»
Billy Budd è l’ultima opera di Melville e verrà pubblicata nel 1924, trentacinque anni dopo la sua morte. Come accade in Benito Cereno, anche in questo caso, Melville trae spunto per la creazione di questo piccolo, struggente capolavoro, dal presunto ammutinamento del Somers del 1842. All’epoca, la giuria condannò all’impiccagione Philip Spencer, figlio diciottenne dell’allora Ministro della Guerra (!). Molti anni dopo, nel 1989, Abigail R. Dodge, così descrive lo sfortunato diciottenne: � � l’anima eroica che era nato per essere glorificato dalla luce che lo illuminava attraverso la porta socchiusa della morte�.
In questa “inside narrative�, Melville caratterizza così il suo Avvenente Marinaio nero, ventuno anni, gabbiere di parrocchetto. Forza e bellezza imbarcata a forza da un mercantile, sulla H.M.S. Bellipotent, una settantaquattro di Sua Maestà Britannica in partenza dal porto di Liverpool. Durante la navigazione, Billy, seppur amato dai suoi compagni e dal Capitano, sarà costretto a difendere la propria innocenza.
«� egli possedeva quel genere e grado di intelligenza che s’accompagnano all’anticonvenzionale rettitudine di una creatura umana sana, una alla quale non sia ancora stato presentato il discutibile pomo della conoscenza.»
Sarà che amo il mare, sarà che amo le storie sul mare, ma ho navigato anch’io con Billy ed è stata una fantastica avventura.
E per coloro che non litigano con la lingua della pallida Albione �
«we do not deal with justice here but with the law»
Billy Budd è l’ultima opera di Melville e verrà pubblicata nel 1924, trentacinque anni dopo la sua morte. Come accade in Benito Cereno, anche in questo caso, Melville trae spunto per la creazione di questo piccolo, struggente capolavoro, dal presunto ammutinamento del Somers del 1842. All’epoca, la giuria condannò all’impiccagione Philip Spencer, figlio diciottenne dell’allora Ministro della Guerra (!). Molti anni dopo, nel 1989, Abigail R. Dodge, così descrive lo sfortunato diciottenne: � � l’anima eroica che era nato per essere glorificato dalla luce che lo illuminava attraverso la porta socchiusa della morte�.
In questa “inside narrative�, Melville caratterizza così il suo Avvenente Marinaio nero, ventuno anni, gabbiere di parrocchetto. Forza e bellezza imbarcata a forza da un mercantile, sulla H.M.S. Bellipotent, una settantaquattro di Sua Maestà Britannica in partenza dal porto di Liverpool. Durante la navigazione, Billy, seppur amato dai suoi compagni e dal Capitano, sarà costretto a difendere la propria innocenza.
«� egli possedeva quel genere e grado di intelligenza che s’accompagnano all’anticonvenzionale rettitudine di una creatura umana sana, una alla quale non sia ancora stato presentato il discutibile pomo della conoscenza.»
Sarà che amo il mare, sarà che amo le storie sul mare, ma ho navigato anch’io con Billy ed è stata una fantastica avventura.
E per coloro che non litigano con la lingua della pallida Albione �
August 2, 2017
Boring and meandering - the writing style too, is not to my taste. Why is this a classic and on the 1001 book you need to read list?
March 23, 2011
I admit it, I'm an English literature geek. I was one of those people who actually looked forward to the summer reading lists and book assignments for my high school English classes.
With one glaring exception, that is.
This is the only book I was ever assigned for an English class where I wanted to throw it against the wall. Repeatedly and with gusto. Melville took a perfectly good short story about a sailor and larded it with so much verbal diarrhea that I wanted to create a time machine just so I could go back to 1886 and whack him with a rolled-up newspaper. Then I wanted to go forward to 1924, find Raymond Weaver (the man responsible for publishing it), and whack him a few times as well.
If you haven't read this, please don't waste your time. If you have, you have my sincere sympathy.
With one glaring exception, that is.
This is the only book I was ever assigned for an English class where I wanted to throw it against the wall. Repeatedly and with gusto. Melville took a perfectly good short story about a sailor and larded it with so much verbal diarrhea that I wanted to create a time machine just so I could go back to 1886 and whack him with a rolled-up newspaper. Then I wanted to go forward to 1924, find Raymond Weaver (the man responsible for publishing it), and whack him a few times as well.
If you haven't read this, please don't waste your time. If you have, you have my sincere sympathy.
February 6, 2013
Melville, what are you about man? That's just too much telling for the story's own good!
In Billy Budd, Sailor we have what could've been a grand, character-driven swashbuckling adventure. However, Melville apparently wanted to write about sailing and the early navy, and must have felt he needed to throw in a story to justify the book. The two subjects needed to merge more seamlessly for this to work. Otherwise two separate books should have been published, a treatise and a tale, for they are two entirely different ships passing in the night.
In Billy Budd, Sailor we have what could've been a grand, character-driven swashbuckling adventure. However, Melville apparently wanted to write about sailing and the early navy, and must have felt he needed to throw in a story to justify the book. The two subjects needed to merge more seamlessly for this to work. Otherwise two separate books should have been published, a treatise and a tale, for they are two entirely different ships passing in the night.
May 5, 2022
Είναι ο Χέρμαν Μέλβιλ ο σπουδαιότερος συγγραφέας;
Ο Μέλβιλ θαλασσογραφεί μέσα στο στοιχείο του· αλμύρα, ατελείωτο μπλε και καράβια, καθώς μας αφήνει με το τελευταίο του έργο, το οποίο θεωρούσε ημιτελές. Πρόκειται για το ‘Μπίλλυ Μπαντ�, τον εντυπωσιακά όμορφο ναύτη, ο οποίος στρατολογείται σε ένα αγγλικό πολεμικό πλοίο στο τέλος της Γαλλικής Επανάστασης.
Προσωπικά, το βίωσα σαν λογοτεχνικό μυστήριο και επαναλάμβανα σελίδες συχνά, αλλά και πάλι, δεν μπορώ να μιλήσω με αυτοπεποίθηση. Λίγο η ναυτική ορολογία, λίγο η πένα του Μέλβιλ με τη φυσικότητα λόγου, αναδύεται η αγωνία για την πορεία του Μπίλλυ Μπαντ, όπως κάποιος τρίτος θα παρακολουθούσε τα γεγονότα σαν ξένος, σαν φάντασμα στο κατάστρωμα. Για την ακρίβεια, η οπτική της νουβέλας είναι ένα σημαντικό εργαλείο, γιατί ένα από τα ταλέντα της αφήγησης του Μέλβιλ είναι τα αναρίθμητα διαφορετικά ψυχογραφήματα, έστω και σύντομα, από μούτσο σε κυβερνήτη. Βλέπει μέσα στη ψυχή που μόλις δημιούργησε και μάλιστα έχει τις λέξεις να πείσει τα μάτια που τρέχουν στις σελίδες του, πως όσα έγραψε πριν πεθάνει, πράγματι συνέβησαν και απλά έτυχε να μην γραφτούν αλλού.
Το έργο ασχολείται με τη σημασία της δικαιοσύνης, την ελευθερία και την εξουσία, φέρνοντας καφκικές νότες στην επιφάνεια. Όπως και στο σύμπαν του Κάφκα, όπως και στον Μπάρτλμπυ, δεν υπάρχει Θεός, πέρα από την θεσμική μηχανή που ανατροφοδοτεί μόνο τον εαυτό της και οι δεσμοφύλακές της είναι θύματα, όπως και τα κρεμασμένα θύματα από τα χέρια τους. Η κρατική μηχανή, αποκτά σχεδόν υπερφυσικά χαρακτηριστικά, γιατί το ανθρώπινο μυαλό περιορίζεται στο να συμπεριλάβει όλη την διαφθορά που έχει γεννήσει από την αρχή του είδους του μέχρι σήμερα.
Ο ναύτης ενσαρκώνει την ομορφιά, την πηγαία πνευματική έλξη και την καλοσύνη, μέσα σε ένα ήδη υπάρχον διεφθαρμένο θαλασσινό μικρόκοσμο, σαν τον Ιησού των ναυτικών, προκαλώντας αντιπαλότητα και διλήμματα ηθικής και ταξικής φύσης. Για τον Μέλβιλ ίσως είμαστε ακόμα πρωτόγονοι και δεν ενδέχεται το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο να ‘κλείσει�, νομίζω πως είναι φτιαγμένο για να χάσκει πάντοτε, σαν την κραυγή του Μουνκ, θυμίζοντάς μας μερικές πολύ συγκεκριμένες ασχήμιες.
Ο Μέλβιλ θαλασσογραφεί μέσα στο στοιχείο του· αλμύρα, ατελείωτο μπλε και καράβια, καθώς μας αφήνει με το τελευταίο του έργο, το οποίο θεωρούσε ημιτελές. Πρόκειται για το ‘Μπίλλυ Μπαντ�, τον εντυπωσιακά όμορφο ναύτη, ο οποίος στρατολογείται σε ένα αγγλικό πολεμικό πλοίο στο τέλος της Γαλλικής Επανάστασης.
Προσωπικά, το βίωσα σαν λογοτεχνικό μυστήριο και επαναλάμβανα σελίδες συχνά, αλλά και πάλι, δεν μπορώ να μιλήσω με αυτοπεποίθηση. Λίγο η ναυτική ορολογία, λίγο η πένα του Μέλβιλ με τη φυσικότητα λόγου, αναδύεται η αγωνία για την πορεία του Μπίλλυ Μπαντ, όπως κάποιος τρίτος θα παρακολουθούσε τα γεγονότα σαν ξένος, σαν φάντασμα στο κατάστρωμα. Για την ακρίβεια, η οπτική της νουβέλας είναι ένα σημαντικό εργαλείο, γιατί ένα από τα ταλέντα της αφήγησης του Μέλβιλ είναι τα αναρίθμητα διαφορετικά ψυχογραφήματα, έστω και σύντομα, από μούτσο σε κυβερνήτη. Βλέπει μέσα στη ψυχή που μόλις δημιούργησε και μάλιστα έχει τις λέξεις να πείσει τα μάτια που τρέχουν στις σελίδες του, πως όσα έγραψε πριν πεθάνει, πράγματι συνέβησαν και απλά έτυχε να μην γραφτούν αλλού.
Το έργο ασχολείται με τη σημασία της δικαιοσύνης, την ελευθερία και την εξουσία, φέρνοντας καφκικές νότες στην επιφάνεια. Όπως και στο σύμπαν του Κάφκα, όπως και στον Μπάρτλμπυ, δεν υπάρχει Θεός, πέρα από την θεσμική μηχανή που ανατροφοδοτεί μόνο τον εαυτό της και οι δεσμοφύλακές της είναι θύματα, όπως και τα κρεμασμένα θύματα από τα χέρια τους. Η κρατική μηχανή, αποκτά σχεδόν υπερφυσικά χαρακτηριστικά, γιατί το ανθρώπινο μυαλό περιορίζεται στο να συμπεριλάβει όλη την διαφθορά που έχει γεννήσει από την αρχή του είδους του μέχρι σήμερα.
Ο ναύτης ενσαρκώνει την ομορφιά, την πηγαία πνευματική έλξη και την καλοσύνη, μέσα σε ένα ήδη υπάρχον διεφθαρμένο θαλασσινό μικρόκοσμο, σαν τον Ιησού των ναυτικών, προκαλώντας αντιπαλότητα και διλήμματα ηθικής και ταξικής φύσης. Για τον Μέλβιλ ίσως είμαστε ακόμα πρωτόγονοι και δεν ενδέχεται το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο να ‘κλείσει�, νομίζω πως είναι φτιαγμένο για να χάσκει πάντοτε, σαν την κραυγή του Μουνκ, θυμίζοντάς μας μερικές πολύ συγκεκριμένες ασχήμιες.
January 8, 2021
Macie noworoczne postanowienia książkowe? 52 książki przeczytane w 2021 roku? A może powrót do dzieciństwa i ponowna lektura szkolnych fascynacji literackich? W tym roku z pewnością warto zastanowić się nad naszą pogonią za nowościami i znaleźć choć trochę czasu na lekturę książek starszych, z innych epok, po to by zobaczyć co w nich uniwersalne, zaskakujące, dlaczego przez lata fascynowały i do dziś są czytane, choć już przez nieliczne grono czytelników i czytelniczek.
Książką wręcz idealną dla kogoś, kto chce cofnąć się w czasie i pamięta dziecięce czy młodzieżowe książki marynistyczne, o wielkich statkach, bitwach i nieustraszonych morskich wilkach, będzie “Billy Budd. Opowieść wtajemniczonego � Hermana Melville’a w przekładzie Bronisława Zielińskiego i z kapitalnym posłowiem Adama Lipszyca.
To niewielka - licząca zaledwie 150 stron powieść o Billy’m, “Urodziwym Marynarzu�, który pod koniec XVIII wieku, a więc prawie 90 lat przed powstaniem książki, zostaje przymusowo wcielony na okręt Jego Królewskiej Mości, “Bellipotent�.
Całość tutaj -
Książką wręcz idealną dla kogoś, kto chce cofnąć się w czasie i pamięta dziecięce czy młodzieżowe książki marynistyczne, o wielkich statkach, bitwach i nieustraszonych morskich wilkach, będzie “Billy Budd. Opowieść wtajemniczonego � Hermana Melville’a w przekładzie Bronisława Zielińskiego i z kapitalnym posłowiem Adama Lipszyca.
To niewielka - licząca zaledwie 150 stron powieść o Billy’m, “Urodziwym Marynarzu�, który pod koniec XVIII wieku, a więc prawie 90 lat przed powstaniem książki, zostaje przymusowo wcielony na okręt Jego Królewskiej Mości, “Bellipotent�.
Całość tutaj -
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