Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Seas of Words

I'm into the third of the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian. This has been interesting getting a sense of what makes his books work. Very soon after reading the first one, I saw that the friendship between Lucky Jack Aubrey and his surgeon Stephen Maturin was a big draw. That had featured prominently in the movie. They are like a bit like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, only in this case, Basil Rathbone would more likely play the doctor part than the other. Also as with Sherlock Holmes stories, general atmosphere and personality are a much greater factor in the enjoyment than plot. I am not a huge mystery fan, but I have enjoyed some, for example Caleb Carr's The Alienist, for their plots. I was relieved to read that O'Brian himself admitted to not being very interested in plot. Now I cannot imagine writing in this fashion myself. But I am very glad that O'Brian did, anyway. I just have to figure out how to adjust my expectations accordingly.

There is also some "novel of manners" element to the book. I am alternately hot or cold to this. In some cases this reveals interesting differences between the culture of that time and ours, differences that do appeal to me to read about. In others, it just looks like characters calculating in a way that I have little interest in reading about. It is funny to find a writer, though, whose interests are alternately so close to and then so far from my own. I can be very bored by the book for a spell, get to having low expectations, and then suddenly be swept into the greatest enjoyment. Only unlime many books where this has happened, it is not generally a picking up of action or a revelation that does it, but a conversation.

I checked out a couple of books related to the series. One was on the making of the movie Master and Commander. Wonderful. I am very jealous of those who went to the school to find out how to man an early 19th century ship. I have no idea how I would do at such a task, but it would be interesting to find out.

Other sea novels I have enjoyed include the first 300 pages of Moby Dick and The Mutiny on the Bounty. I bogged down after 300 pages of Moby Dick in high school and switched books for a paper. I tried the book again a few years ago and found it got boring at about the same point as I remembered, and didn't pick up much. There were a few good sections, but not many. Mutiny on the Bounty I read in junior high, after hearing my brother talk about the book at the dinner table. Grandma Ritchie had read it serialized in the Saturday Evening Post years before, and still seemed to feel strongly about how terrible it was that the men had to leave their wives behind. Any book that worked that strongly over half a century had to be worth looking into. I was not disappointed. Then there is The Odyssey, probably my favorite thing I have ever read. Oh, great stuff.

11:36 am Pacific Standard Time

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