Tag Archives: Riegel

Propaganda? Tangent Time!

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Reading the article “Melville Reborn, Again and Again,” nothing particularly stood out to me. I read the entire piece, reflected on the points that Wills made, and then moved on. However, the end made me curious:

“…O.W. Riegel (1903-1997) was renowned as an expert on propaganda who amassed a world-class collection of propaganda posters over his long life.”

Why was a renowned expert on propaganda focused on Moby Dick? Was there any aspect of the novel that leaned into propaganda or served as a vessel in some way?

The novel was written as a response to Emerson’s call for American national identity. Melville writes, in significant detail, about the dying art of the whaling industry. It is through Melville’s work that the American whaling industry and its success are encapsulated in time and can be meticulously recreated through his meticulous detailing. While propaganda experts obviously have other interests and topics they focus on, this made me wonder about the connections between Melville’s depiction of American identity and propaganda. As members of this course and students who closely read every single critique and subtle sociopolitical commentary, we understand the many radical positions that Melville took throughout the 624 pages of Moby Dick, but to others, who take this novel at face value or entirely miss the not-so-subtle jabs at the American political system, could the novel be taken as American propaganda?

Personally, I started by saying, “No way, it is not American propaganda,” but then I thought about it a little more. The Pequod represents American identity, with a strict hierarchy of order and authority. While one could argue that the hierarchy of the Pequod represents a democracy focused on diversity, propaganda doesn’t have to be accurate in any sense. Still, it does have to portray the primary focus in a positive light. This is a fantasy realm that stars a fake sense of American unity, both politically and socially. Additionally, Ahab’s complex character could portray the ideal American identity, one that prioritizes individuality and ambition over reason, almost a romanticization of transcendence and vision. He’s mythocal, he’s so unbelievable and mysterious that he seems made up, yet he exists entirely as himself.

Even after these reflections, I was still doubtful that it could function as American propaganda until I considered what propaganda truly is. Propaganda doesn’t have to end with a win for the intended country, but it’s based on the myth of the cultural ideals and suggestions. Moby Dick could be argued to be a piece of cultural propaganda just as much as someone could say that it isn’t. While I was initially quick to shut the idea down, the more I think about it, the more it grows.

American Patriotism

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In “The Anatomy of Melville’s Fame” it is surprising to read Riegel’s comments on how influential the British critics were in slowing Melville’s and Moby Dick’s rise to literary prestige. Although, thinking about it, it makes sense when considering “The American Scholar”. Emerson writes: “We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe.” It is now clear how necessary Emerson’s call for American scholarship and pride was. Scholarly, Americans were still under the tutelage of the British thinkers. Living an in overly patriotic America, it is hard to wrap a modern mind around the need for American pride. In fact, in Moby Dick it seemed that Melville was critiquing American patriotism. Using Ahab as an allegory for a patriotism that is blind to its own flaws. This is why it was unexpected to read: “Had Americans felt more cultural pride and less inclination to grovel before British oracles, Melville might have become then, as he is now, a great hero of American national consciousness.”  Melville was not only ahead of his time in his critique on religion and racial issues. He also saw the danger of America’s emerging patriotism. Melville saw how Manifest Destiny and expansionism was leading to a blind patriotism. The kind that ignores flaws and breeds dictators.

Riegel points out that the most recent revival of Melville started in 1919 and continues on today, today being 1931. Riegel says “that the recent revival of interest in Melville has been attributed by some to ‘the spirit of the age.” But in its truth the “term is difficult to define”. He goes on to ponder the spirit as the “appeal of Melville’s boldness and expansiveness” or as the decade’s “devotion to psychological history… to spiritual struggle… to the spectacle of man against the world.” Riegel even mentions “post-war psychosis of futility”. But I was shocked to find he didn’t mention post-war patriotism. 1919 marked the end of World War One and America’s entrance as a major world power both militarily and economically. Post-war American patriotism might be another reason Melville’s great American novel made yet another comeback into the literary world.