While reading this article, my jaw was on the floor the entire time. What do you mean Melville was inspired by that? He was inpsired by someone’s trauma and wrote a whole 800 page book about it, my gosh. What that man had gone through for Melville to be inspired by that to write Moby Dick must be something. What George Pollard went through was something he definetly won’t forget ever and would be haunted by his actions which he had to make to stay alive.
I would never wish for that whole situation that Pollard went through on anyone. Having to restort to cannibalism to stay alive, eating his crewmates, and even HIS OWN COUSIN. Like what the heck that is insane. Then for the author of this article to say that a scholar had written that Pollard commited “gastronomic incest.” That was a sentence I never thought I would read in my entire life. I know that that guilt must have haunted him daily and if I could, I would want to sit down with him and ask what his thoughts must have been like after commiting that act to stay alive.
The whole cannibal part was shocking to me and it reminded me of that one movie that was based on a real life situation where in 1972 a plane that had a rugby team had crashed in the Andes Mountains which had left them stranded and resulted in them becoming cannibals to stay alive. This traumatic situation also became a movie called “Alive” (1993) and even a show too which I found to be like how Melville was inspired by the trauma which Pollard had went through to create a novel on a this killer whale. I guess when aspiring authors hear a very traumatic situation, they decide to write a whole book on it.
Melville has a creative mind and I am very interested now having read this article to see what we have in store for us in this book. Again I haven’t read this book before and I am ready to be confused, shocked, and probably cry over what is going to be happening within this really long book.
Hi Zoe, I was wondering that too. Maybe it’s just elements and not the whole novel being around cannibalism, but based on previous classes I don’t think it’s an overarching arc.
I agree Melville has a creative mind, and I like that you added the movie of the incident that reminded you of it. I think it’s funny how writers, usually journalists from what I’ve seen, feel compelled to write a survivor’s story, but without this urge most of us wouldn’t have known about these events.
Hi Zoe. Melville writing 800 pages is already insane but the backstory is even crazier! I also felt terrible for Pollard and the entire crew as I read this especially imagining the era this happened in. If this were to happen now, there are so much more resources we have for rescue but back then there is really no telling. I find it so interesting that we are extremely fascinated with tragedy because I remember hearing everyone talk about the show based on the plane crash you bought up, the artistic inspiration is not unique to Melville when it comes to hearing these types of stories.