TLC--Can we count old writers like Herman Melville?
He did write in English and the stories were really cool with white whales, harpoons, and all. You know that story with that guy with just one leg.
Of course there is the side claiming that the story is an allegory about man's struggle against God and death. That Melville sets the scene for this struggle from the very beginning with names such as the innkeeper Peter Coffin. Through the entire story Melville arrays a group of characters who are united under the defiant Ahab, including both modern and primitive men, and seek to slay the representative figure of the white whale.
This is a big crock though, if you had a name like Herman Melville you would want your characters to have cool names like Peter Coffin too. Melville wrote books about cannibals and nobody runs their mouth about allegory when part of the plot is someone chowing down on a human rump roast.
You have to remember too, 'Jaws' which Peter Benchley kind of ripped off from Melville with the white shark that sinks the boat in the end just like the whale did. But in Benchley's book the white shark is killed. So if the allegory story idea is right then maybe God is dead like some of the atheists claim and Peter Benchley did it.
So anyway does Melville count as an Old English writer?
All the Best
Druss
PHarris--The cosine of 8.37 is .9893. |
