Steve Mentz

THE BOOKFISH

THALASSOLOGY, SHAKESPEARE, AND SWIMMING

  • Home
  • Steve Mentz
  • Humanities Commons
  • Public Writing
  • The sea! the sea!
  • The Bookfish
  • St. Johns

Far Tortuga

March 28, 2011 by Steve Mentz 1 Comment

Lots of time to read in between swims at Jost van Dyke, & one highlight was returning after many years — the late 1980s? — to Peter Matthiessen’s turtling epic Far Tortuga.  Just great stuff, with an island lilt that I also almost heard in taxis & around the island.

He a wind coptin, dass de trouble.  He a sailin mon, and he used to de old-time way.  All his life he been ziggin and zaggin, he don’t know how to go straight. (121)

There’s a modern Moby-Dick in the story of Copm Raib’s rag-tag crew of failed turtle fishers rousting about the southwest Caribbean, from home on Grand Cayman to the coasts of Honduras & Nicaragua to “Misteriosa Cay,” the legendary Far Tortuga.

The climactic scene, in which Raib sails the Lillias Eden, a former schooner now fitted out with deisels but still flying canvas from stumps of masts, out through the reefs at night to escape a murderous band of Jamaican cut-throats, is thrilling & gorgeous.  He’s up in the rigging, stearing by moonlight, Speedy’s at “the blind helm” (360), they make it most of the way through “white wraiths of reef” (361), & “the Captain flings his free arm wide, exalted.  SHE CLEAR, SHE CLEAR! WE IN DE CLEAR! (361).

The ship strikes.

Only one, of course, is left to tell the tale.  As Speedy has already said

Wind is de enemy of mon.  Learn dat from school days (220).

Filed Under: Blue Humanities, Books

Comments

  1. jack miles says

    April 18, 2021 at 3:26 pm

    This in the finest novel of the 20th Century and, like Moby Dick, will be discovered
    some day. A bit of a mystery why that hasn’t already happened. And PM is possibly the most remarkable man of his time, defending various causes, traveling like back
    time explorers, and writing trillions of words, both fiction and non-fiction. And concludes his life as a Buddhist priest. Finally, just a good guy.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About Steve

Steve Mentz
Professor of English
St. John’s University
Read Bio

Twitter Feed

Steve Mentz Follow

Shakespearean. Ecocritic. Swimmer. New book Ocean #objectsobjects Professor at St. John's in NYC. #bluehumanities #pluralizetheanthropocene

stevermentz
stevermentz Steve Mentz @stevermentz ·
24 Mar

Day-after thoughts on Red Bull's Arden, up through April 1! https://stevementz.com/red-bulls-arden-of-faversham/

Reply on Twitter 1639266501109727235 Retweet on Twitter 1639266501109727235 Like on Twitter 1639266501109727235 2 Twitter 1639266501109727235
stevermentz Steve Mentz @stevermentz ·
21 Mar

I bought my ticket to this play a day before @SAAupdates secured this discount - but you should take advantage of it now!

Reply on Twitter 1638264709878099970 Retweet on Twitter 1638264709878099970 Like on Twitter 1638264709878099970 6 Twitter 1638264709878099970
Load More

Pages

  • #shax2022 s31: Rethinking the Early Modern Literary Caribbbean
  • OCEAN Publicity
  • #SAA 2020: Watery Thinking
  • Creating Nature: May 2019 at the Folger
  • Audio and Video Recordings
  • Oceanic New York
  • Public Writing
  • Published Work
  • #pluralizetheanthropocene

Recent Posts

  • Red Bull’s Arden of Faversham
  • Endgame at Irish Rep (NYC)
  • Responses to the NYer’s Doomcast
  • Water in the Desert
  • F22 at the Landhaus!

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in