English 48A
Journal for Melville
September 29th, 2009
Herman Melville
1819-1891
"What I feel most moved to write, that is banned, -it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I can not. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches." (pg 2305 The Norton Anthology)
"He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great."
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In the first quote Melville speaks of his inability to write what he desires because there is no money in it, furthermore, he says that he can no longer write for the pleasure of the masses because his work becomes worthless in doing so. I think that Melville struggled quite a bit with this problem, especially after being alienated, and shunned as a lunatic. He starts his career with amazing success, only to lose it all when he becomes truly great. He was a man that dreamed of writing great books comparable to Shakespeare, but the public simply wanted entertainment. Don't give cake to monkeys, they won't appreciate it.
The last quote says rather plainly that if you haven't failed you haven't lived. I chose this quote because even though Melville went through so much failure in life, he never truly gave up. I admire this quality in him. This stubborn 'all or nothing' philosophy. Luckily he was in a situation, being the third of eight in a well off family, that he was never thrown into a state of poverty. Even though he was able to live comparatively comfortably however, he had many hardships, and throughout all the trials of his life, he stuck it out and followed his dreams and I find that to be something worth respecting. The road of virtue is never an easy one.
In a period of growth that would forever change the United States, Melville depicts some of the inherent problems of an industrialized society that has lost sight of the values of individuality in his novella 'Bartelby the Scrivener'. Rebellion, conformity, madness, alienation and the social morals that bind them, are just a few of the subjects that Melville touches upon in his short story. Bartelby, the protagonist, is a man who refuses to conform to the society that he has become a victim of. Representing the pre-industrial world of the past, he refuses to become an agent of the contemporary world of industry, and decides to give up working as a mindless scrivener. By refusing to work as a part of the system however, the narrator, a man who represents a world that has no use for individuality, doesn't know what do do him and the rest of the short story is devoted to society's response. Forced to treat him humanely because of Bartelby's respectably obtuse manner, and confused by his actions, they treat him like a madman, fear, alienate, and ultimately imprison him for not conforming to society's desires. In the end, Bartelby dies, a victim of the society that has killed him, and the individuality that he represents. We all become outdated eventually, it is the price of progress.
One of the things I admire most about Melville is his courage. Deciding to go out and work on a whaling boat, jumping ship, and joining the navy, were all amazingly courageous considering his upbringing. Then he comes back and has the ambition to up and write a book, and does it! Taking the most courage of all however, was his decision to continue writing as he wanted to write instead of conforming to the desires of his audience. Living the life he preferred, as apposed to the life he did not.
"It is not down on any map; true places never are."
"A whale ship was my Yale College, and my Harvard."
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