The Curse of Literature
By: Derek Dyson
I can read Moby Dick once and get the gist of the story. I can read it one hundred times and fully understand the words and phrases found between the first and the last page. But, if I wish to understand the full story of Moby Dick; its symbolic undercurrents and the thoughts of its author, would I not have to look deep into the life and times of Herman Melville? Would I not need to understand heroic and romantic novels of the 19th century? Would I not need to understand the makings of fishing communities and the men who work within them? Would I not need to understand the role that sea creatures, fables and heroes play in the oceans of which these men would draw their livelihood? I could read Moby Dick one hundred times and never truly understand the context of which it was meant to be read. I could read it one-hundred times and never know the kind of man that it's author was or even what thoughts he meant the story to invoke in the readers mind. I could read it one hundred times and never truly understand the story.
Would doing so make me an expert on Moby Dick or literature in general? Would I be qualified to teach others on the passions of Herman Melville or the basics of American Romanticism, solely because I had read Moby Dick, even if it were one hundred times? The answer to this question is obviously no. I would need to expand my knowledge far beyond that of this single book and into many other fields if I were truly passionate about the subject. In doing so, I would probably come across other authors and novels of this period that were equally as entertaining to read, which may lead me to the conclusion that there are better novels out there; books that may mean more to me than my former favorite book, Moby Dick.
There is an old saying in Catholic circles that says "Seminary leads you to the cemetery", implying that the study of religion will eventually kill your faith. This belief is widely held throughout the Christian community as seen in its obvious disdain of Academia or the "Liberal" educational system. This Anti-intellectualism is seen as a virtue of faith in that the less you know, the more faith you will have.
I find it interesting that even the most learned theologians, the men who have spent their entire lives studying their particular religion, hold beliefs that would be unnoticeable by most if not all of the fundamentalists of that same religion. The men who know the most about the texts, the authors and their context, actually hold the most liberal views concerning the divinity of those texts and the stories held within them. Yet, the majority of the followers of these same texts know nothing of them, other than the words found within their first and last page. They can quote favorites from Genesis to Revelation, but they know nothing of the authors, the culture of which they lived or the context of which it was meant for its readers. They know nothing of missing texts, deleted phrases or the political influences that combined these stories, yet they are content. They read the same chapters over and over, hoping to find new meaning, but never look beyond these pages for any real insight.
Why is this? Is it because knowledge leads to unbelief? Is it because learning that your faith may have been unfounded is hard to accept? Is it because it is easier to believe what you are told than to look for yourself? Is it because you are apathetic and don't really seek the truth in your belief system? I think that each of these scenario's hold some truth for all of us.
It would be foolish for me to read Moby Dick and say that it is the most meaningful work of literature in the world, undoubtedly inspired by god and transcribed by Herman Melville in an attempt to give my life meaning. It would seem even more foolish if all of this time I had thought that the book was purely about hunting for whales and had apathetically overlooked the literary metaphor describing mans struggle for meaning...............which is ironically the very meaning to life that I had been seeking the whole time.