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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
A caminho do norte pela costa do Chile, em uma certa manhã o navio caça-focas, "Bachelor's Delight", conduzido pelo capitão norte-americano Amasa Delano, avista um navio avariado e aparentemente sob os caprichos da ausência de ventos, o San Dominick. Capitão Delano vai ao outro navio, de origem espanhola, e faz contato com o seu capitão, Benito Cereno, alquebrado, embora de aspecto jovem, e sempre acompanhado pelo fiel ajudante negro, Baboo.
Aos poucos, durante o avançar do dia, capitão Delano fica sabendo dos infortúnios da viagem ao sair de Buenos Aires com destino a Lima, que dizimou quase toda a tripulação espanhola, bem como considerável número de negros escravos. No entanto, as histórias que ouve lhe causam sentimentos de desconfiança do Capitão Cereno, bem como arrependimento de sua própria desconfiança.
Em linhas gerais, este é o plot principal desse pequeno livro cheio de mistérios, embora seja possível perceber já pela metade do livro o que se passa a bordo do navio espanhol. Não se compara aos outros livros de Melville que li no decorrer deste ano, "Moby Dick" e "Bartleby, o escrivão", mas ainda sim é uma leitura prazerosa.
Mas o livro não é apenas uma interessante história cheia de mistério, pois também coloca os questionamentos acerca de questões raciais, da procura da liberdade (e se vale a pena tudo para alcançá-la), do erro humano de sempre tentar avaliar o caráter dos outros quando há poucas informações à disposição! Aqui, de certa forma todos são bandidos e mocinhos. E não o somos?
Aos poucos, durante o avançar do dia, capitão Delano fica sabendo dos infortúnios da viagem ao sair de Buenos Aires com destino a Lima, que dizimou quase toda a tripulação espanhola, bem como considerável número de negros escravos. No entanto, as histórias que ouve lhe causam sentimentos de desconfiança do Capitão Cereno, bem como arrependimento de sua própria desconfiança.
Em linhas gerais, este é o plot principal desse pequeno livro cheio de mistérios, embora seja possível perceber já pela metade do livro o que se passa a bordo do navio espanhol. Não se compara aos outros livros de Melville que li no decorrer deste ano, "Moby Dick" e "Bartleby, o escrivão", mas ainda sim é uma leitura prazerosa.
Mas o livro não é apenas uma interessante história cheia de mistério, pois também coloca os questionamentos acerca de questões raciais, da procura da liberdade (e se vale a pena tudo para alcançá-la), do erro humano de sempre tentar avaliar o caráter dos outros quando há poucas informações à disposição! Aqui, de certa forma todos são bandidos e mocinhos. E não o somos?
An American ship captain encounters a lame Spanish ship in disrepair. Most of the passengers and crew have been lost to a calamity at sea, leaving only a group of slaves and a handful of crew aboard. In a manner of loquacious verbosity, meandering descriptions consisting of minute details and supportive clauses, not disincluding double negatives, the reader is gradually but eventually brought about to a tale of deception and intrigue. This could have been a very short story, but Melville gets quite wordy, I suppose in an attempt to build suspense. However, the plot twist can be surmised early on, leaving the reader to plod through extraneous narrative, while the protagonist turns a blind and naive eye on the clues given him, be they acute or obtuse. The perspective of the white captains is unsurprisingly one-sided and painfully racist, portraying the whites as victims- conveniently overlooking the fact that the blacks are on the ship because they were forced into slavery by the whites.
This novella was my first taste of Melville and I can confidently say that unless my grade depends on it, I will not be reading his work again. The language was just really hard to follow and I found myself having to reread sentences three or four times to even get an idea of what he was saying. I don't know if the writing style of this story is unique to him or if that was the general style of 1855, but I found half of the things in each sentence useless and unimportant to the overarching idea. The only reason I gave it three stars was for the plot twist.
Slow narrative focusing on interplay between the captain of a derelict ship and the captain from a second ship who wants to save him. Disturbing level of “the black guys are the bad guys and the white guys are the good guys, although they are the slave holders”
Pretty good. Not what I was expecting but a bit confusing in terms of how it is abolitionist. I think it’s really not.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Very interesting and nuanced (if a bit overly descriptive for my taste at times which definitely slows the pace). My perspective changes on this the more I sit with it. This is a fragile text; the racism at first struck me as upholding the malicious stereotypes of Melville’s time but upon closer inspection it is racism that ultimately leads to Delano’s inability to figure out the mystery of the San Dominick. Is Delano really meant to be an admirable protagonist, or is he a characterization of his America’s illogical institution of slavery? What is the significance of Babo’s silence at the end? Cereno and Delano refer to the enslaved Africans’ takeover of the ship as mutiny, but is it really? Reminds me a lot of Conrad (I assume Melville was likely an influence).
A very tricky piece of writing, and though well composed, as you would expect, it’s nonetheless a very different deal to Moby Dick, which Melville wrote in a highly experimental way. This lends the great work its casual genius. Benito Cereno is not the same because it’s very much of its time and more conventional. It deals with a difficult subject (slavery) and though it espouses a negative view of that abominable practice, it nonetheless has that uncomfortable lens through which it describes the associated ideas and concepts. This is readable but not a great work.
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced