Trusting the Narrator Pym

Poe urges us to mistrust the narrator Pym.  On the one hand Poe uses "the potent magic of verisimilitude," making the book believable to the ignorant public.  Yet on the other he slips in multiple occurrences of contrasting observation and questionable memory.  We mentioned in class the deliriousness brought on by liquor that allowed Pym to appear as a real ghost to the mutineers.  When the boat they see turns around it is mentioned that Augustus in particular thought the boat was still coming and that seaweed was a boat to take him away.  We only have Pym to rely on to know that there was even a boat, not just a fragment of imagination brought on by suggestion and desperation.  After Pym and Peters were rescued, change in memory brought on by time and change in situation is brought up.  "I have since found that this species of partial oblivion is usually brought about by sudden transition, whether from joy to sorrow or from sorrow to joy-the degree of forgetfulness being proportioned to the degree of difference in the exchange. Throughout the book he flip-flops between intense sorrow & joy, even marking the extremes with fainting fits.  The fact that he mentions his faults in memory do not make them any more authentic.

The Truth in the Form of Fiction

     Poe’s novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pynn, seems to highlight some of the pros and cons of fiction versus nonfiction narratives. We have discussed in class that nonfiction books tend to be more susceptible to criticism by readers on accuracy and choices made. We have, ourselves, criticized several aspects of the nonfiction books we have read thus far (i.e. validity of facts, decisions made by leaders etc).  In the preface, we see that Pym (an extension of Poe) is struggling with this particular decision as he was urged to share his narrative to the public. Pym is afraid to do so because he did not keep a journal and might be unable to write from “mere memory.” He states that he could “only hope for belief among my family, and those of my friends who have had reason, through life, to put faith in my veracity”(2). This indicates that not only do we enjoy communicating our adventures for validation but also have a fear of being discredited. A “dishonest” narrative can be seen worse than not having shared the adventure story and thus Pym felt initially reluctant to "recount" his adventure. Even as a fiction novel, it can't help but contain several elements of truth by shedding light on aspects of human nature.

Piracy and Adventure

One of the things that I find most interesting in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is the tension between the two parties of mutineers between turning to piracy and seeking adventure in the Pacific Ocean. We have yet to encounter an adventure in a non-arctic climate so we have not yet examined whether open water piracy represents an adventure or not. Clearly many of the mutineers view piracy as a more appealing adventure than sailing the Pacific to explore as we constantly hear of crew members ditching Peters' party for the first mate.

I am struggling with whether piracy is an adventure because, to my knowledge, pirates don't set specific goals when they set sail. Yes, they want to plunder and find treasure, but their seafaring adventures are nothing like the trans-arctic and antarctic epics of endurance that we have studied so far. In many ways pirates view adventure the same way that Earnest Shackleton did pre-Endurance, as a means to a financial goal. However, I think that the lack of specific goals makes piracy not an adventure based on the definition that we have been using.

Idealized Boyhood Bond

The adventure constructed in this novel is centered around the bond between to young men. Poe refers to their indelible, unsullied bond as something that allows these boys to escape from the mundane and domesticated regularity of life into an epic adventure. This ideal is certainly reflective of a caricature drawn in many young adult stories of steadfast male friendship. But I really despise its implied dismissive regard for an equivalent female bond. This character structure made me think about my favorite childhood book series, the Bloody Jack books. These stories follow a young female orphan from industrial era England who disguises herself as a young boy to become a deckhand aboard a merchant ship. She eventually becomes a badass pirate, but that's really besides the point. The connection really lies in her need to impersonate a young man in order to experience this deeply altruistic bond with another boy. What is it about this concept that seems so tantalizing to writers and why can't I think of a single example of a similarly epic tale that involves two adventure thirsty girls?

The Deliverance of Tragedy

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe is a distinctly unique blend of adventure narrative. Poe masterfully employs his flair for depravity to create an adventure story about adventure narratives, similar to The Voyage of the Narwhal, which is imbibed with the theme of human corruption. One literary device that I found particularly antagonizing was Poe’s use of a reticent narrator. Pym narrates from a similar perspective as Arlene Blum did, in that he was “convinced” to write about his adventures out of a perceived duty to others. The difference, obviously, is that this story is fiction, and was designed to be written. Beginning at the preface, I am not reading out of a desire to see Pym through his adventures safely. I know he’s safe. Instead, my satisfaction is derived from Poe’s continuous deliverance of tragedy. This is Poe’s forte, and by guaranteeing that his narrator survives the events to follow, he relieves his reader of a responsibility to empathize with him. I am fully aware that this book is actively manipulating me, but as opposed to feeling cheated, I feel freed by its fictive nature to dive into Poe’s depraved world.

Why sail?

Far from answering the question, I felt as though the narrative of Arthur and Augustus’ near-death experience on the Ariel while drunk really made me wonder, why sail? You would think that such a terrifying, almost ridiculous experience would deter someone from pursuing similar adventures, however, it only motivates Pym to seek maritime journeys obsessively. At the beginning of the semester we discussed the fact that maybe the appealing side of adventure lies in the fact that it pushes people’s boundaries. That being taken to the brink of death is somehow invigorating, exciting, and appealing. I wonder if in this horizontal adventure, the motivation is the same. Pym is potentially seeking to escape the mundane of everyday life for the unpredictable life at sea.

I also enjoyed the fact that there was sort of an adventure within the larger maritime adventure. An adventure that, unlike what we have read so far, is less focused on the actual being at sea aspect. Much of this first section focused instead on the mutiny and Pym’s entrapment rather than on the actual difficulties and challenges of being at sea like Albanov or Lansing.

Many Narratives in a Narrative

One significant difference between The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and the other adventure narratives we have read is the main agents level of unpreparedness.  In other stories we have read the main agents knowingly engage in activities they understand to be dangerous. Mountain climbers know the danger associated with mountains and arctic expeditions understand there is risk of getting stranded.  Considering this knowledge the adventurers can adequately prepare.  On the other hand, Augustus and Pym seem highly unprepared.            Augustus and Pym are armchair adventurers who devise a plan to go out on a whaling ship.  However, despite their knowledge of adventures they do not seem to consider the risks. As a result of the mutiny and subsequent events Augustus, Pym, Peters, and Parker are left truly ill equipped for survival in the ocean.  In other stories the crews have had sufficient supplies to last their journey or offer the adventurers a good chance of survival.  On the other hand, those aboard the Grampus are so desperate for food that they turn to cannibalism and sacrifice Parker.            This story also differs from many other adventure narratives in that it details many adventures that are part of a larger adventure rather than a single-minded adventure.  In vertical adventures the goal is to reach the summit. In the arctic adventures we have read the goal of the characters was to escape and survive.  In this narrative Pym’s goal changes numerous times.  First Pym is a stowaway, then he is trying to retake a ship, then he attempts to sail through storms.  All of these adventures have an isolated feel but also contribute to the overall narrative. The narrative could easily have ended when the Jane Guy rescues Pym and Peters however Poe chose to continue and extend the narrative.