Chasing The Great White Whale
A while ago, I reviewed Hermann Melville’s “Moby Dick” on GR. It’s a great novel and well worth reading, but it had the same effect on Melville’s career that the great white whale had on Ahab and the Pequod.
Melville had early success as a writer, drawing on his experiences at sea for popular adventures like “Typee” and “Omoo”. With success came money, an advantageous marriage, and acquaintance with the leading New England literati of his day. Good fortune spurred the young writer’s ambition. He would write a book that would make a big splash in the literary sea. Drawing on folklore, his own experiences, and a real event, the ramming and sinking of the whaler Essex by a great sperm whale, the ambitious young writer produced what he hoped and believed would be The Great American Novel. But things did not turn out as he hoped. The following is from my review:
“Published in 1851, the original printing of 3,000 did not sell in Melville's lifetime (He died in 1891).
Prior to writing Moby Dick, Melville was the successful author of South Seas adventures (Typee and Omoo) based on his experiences in the merchant marine and whaling. That's what his publisher and the public wanted. Instead, Melville gave them the story of Captain Ahab's vengeful pursuit of the Great White Whale that ends in death and destruction, with only one among the crew (Ishmael) left to tell the cautionary tale. That might have worked in a book half the length. But I believe Melville wanted much more than another best-seller; he wanted to write the "Great American Novel," a book for the ages, something to rival Homer, Shakespeare, and the King James Bible.
Melville filled the novel with powerful imagery; gorgeous, poetic, quasi-biblical prose; allegories, digressions, and obscure metaphysical allusions. In the process, Melville morphed into Ahab, and the novel became his "White Whale." As a result, he produced a masterpiece that few wanted to read.
He paid the price. His publisher dropped him; other publishers ran from his manuscripts as if they carried the plague; his wife's family urged her to leave him; he drank; his eldest son killed himself. Melville died a lonely, forgotten old man living on a civil servant's pension. Another cautionary tale. To quote Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry: "A man's got to know his limitations."
Moby Dick is indeed a cautionary tale, and so is the author’s biography. I think about both every time I start work on a new book. I also think of another novel, Zola’s “The Masterpiece,” the story of a talented artist whose vision of a “masterpiece” drives him to destruction. Anyone who works in the creative arts must deal with a certain amount of insecurity, a lack of confidence that he or she has the ability to realize a great artistic vision. For some, that insecurity can become mentally, emotionally and physically debilitating.
Here’s some good advice from the late, great Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus:
''Let me tell you,'' he said, ''I know singers who are in terror before they perform, because their technique is not secure, they are singing beyond themselves, they do not know what will happen, any little thing can throw them into a disaster. If I am well, I have no problem at all to sing. I have a natural tension because I know I am going before the public, but this is very easy to control. Why should I change and give myself trouble?''
Singing beyond oneself. The same goes for writers. Don’t write beyond yourself. If you’re secure in your technique and have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, go ahead with confidence. With persistence and effort, you can produce something good, maybe even great if the stars align correctly. But beware the Great White Whale; it might sink your ship, and you with it.
Melville had early success as a writer, drawing on his experiences at sea for popular adventures like “Typee” and “Omoo”. With success came money, an advantageous marriage, and acquaintance with the leading New England literati of his day. Good fortune spurred the young writer’s ambition. He would write a book that would make a big splash in the literary sea. Drawing on folklore, his own experiences, and a real event, the ramming and sinking of the whaler Essex by a great sperm whale, the ambitious young writer produced what he hoped and believed would be The Great American Novel. But things did not turn out as he hoped. The following is from my review:
“Published in 1851, the original printing of 3,000 did not sell in Melville's lifetime (He died in 1891).
Prior to writing Moby Dick, Melville was the successful author of South Seas adventures (Typee and Omoo) based on his experiences in the merchant marine and whaling. That's what his publisher and the public wanted. Instead, Melville gave them the story of Captain Ahab's vengeful pursuit of the Great White Whale that ends in death and destruction, with only one among the crew (Ishmael) left to tell the cautionary tale. That might have worked in a book half the length. But I believe Melville wanted much more than another best-seller; he wanted to write the "Great American Novel," a book for the ages, something to rival Homer, Shakespeare, and the King James Bible.
Melville filled the novel with powerful imagery; gorgeous, poetic, quasi-biblical prose; allegories, digressions, and obscure metaphysical allusions. In the process, Melville morphed into Ahab, and the novel became his "White Whale." As a result, he produced a masterpiece that few wanted to read.
He paid the price. His publisher dropped him; other publishers ran from his manuscripts as if they carried the plague; his wife's family urged her to leave him; he drank; his eldest son killed himself. Melville died a lonely, forgotten old man living on a civil servant's pension. Another cautionary tale. To quote Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry: "A man's got to know his limitations."
Moby Dick is indeed a cautionary tale, and so is the author’s biography. I think about both every time I start work on a new book. I also think of another novel, Zola’s “The Masterpiece,” the story of a talented artist whose vision of a “masterpiece” drives him to destruction. Anyone who works in the creative arts must deal with a certain amount of insecurity, a lack of confidence that he or she has the ability to realize a great artistic vision. For some, that insecurity can become mentally, emotionally and physically debilitating.
Here’s some good advice from the late, great Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus:
''Let me tell you,'' he said, ''I know singers who are in terror before they perform, because their technique is not secure, they are singing beyond themselves, they do not know what will happen, any little thing can throw them into a disaster. If I am well, I have no problem at all to sing. I have a natural tension because I know I am going before the public, but this is very easy to control. Why should I change and give myself trouble?''
Singing beyond oneself. The same goes for writers. Don’t write beyond yourself. If you’re secure in your technique and have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, go ahead with confidence. With persistence and effort, you can produce something good, maybe even great if the stars align correctly. But beware the Great White Whale; it might sink your ship, and you with it.
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