Challenge 8: The first novel of any author

The purpose of this blog is and has always been an excuse to get out of our comfort zones. We all get comfortable with ourselves and our lives, and we’re all familiar with how difficult it can be to push ourselves and face the great unknown.

The name Edgar Allan Poe evokes all sorts of imagery, from chatty ravens at window sills to deep, dark pits with doom descending from above.  Poe was talented at writing both poetry and short stories, publishing over one hundred, from the diabolical Cask of Amontillado to the world renowned The Raven.  If you were put on the spot, though, and asked to name more than ten or so of the over one hundred poems and short stories he wrote, would you be able to?  If the overwhelming majority of his work has been forgotten by all but his biggest fans, could he have written stories that are even better than those he is best known for?  Aside from his heart pounding thrillers, aside from his gloomy poems, did he try his hand at comedy?   Or romance? The subject of this challenge is The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the first, and unfortunately, only full length novel Poe wrote.

This novel starts as one thing and ends as another, changing midway through from an adventure on the high seas into a quest to reach the south pole.  Young Arthur gets a taste for the sea life when he and his friend Augustus go sailing, and a near death experience only serves to elevate his desire to return to open water.  Augustus' father happens to be the captain of a whaler, Grampus, that is readying for another voyage, and they hatch a plan for Arthur to stow away in the ship's hold.  This section of the book held my attention the best, a thrilling Gothic survival story in the dark hold with minimal light and dwindling supplies.  When he is freed by Augustus he has to contend with mutineers that took the vessel over.  After dealing with the mutineers a violent storm leaves Pym, Augustus, their friend Dirk Peters and a captive mutineer left as the ship drifts aimless, with little food or water left.  Eventually rescued by an exploring vessel, Pym's journey continues as they explore several islands in the south Atlantic, attempting to reach the South Pole.  What follows feels much like a fictional explorer's journal, as Pym records the sights on their journey southward, including their search for a group of islands called the Auroras, rumored to exist somewhere in the south Atlantic. Eventually they discover a group of islands, inhabited by natives that are initially friendly and helpful.  When a measure of trust seems to be reached, the explorers begin plans to load their ship with supplies.  The friendly nature of the natives turns out to be a ruse, and they bury the crew in an avalanche, kill the few remaining sentries and destroy the ship.  Pym and Peters narrowly avoid an untimely death and escape on a canoe, with no other option but to continue their journey to the South Pole.  The water gets cloudier and warmer the farther south they go, even getting so hot it can't be touched.  The mist they see to the distant south gets bigger and higher, forming a “cataract” that opens as they approach it, where they are met by an enormous, pure white figure rising from the sea. And then....and then...

That's it.

A post script follows, saying Pym survived the encounter and managed to return home.  His recent untimely death prevented the publication of the final two or three chapters.  If they were ever found they would be published, and Peters still lived, residing in Illinois, but was unreachable.

What.  A.  Cop-out.

Writing a seventy-two thousand word story takes focus, commitment and effort, and it seems strange that anyone would slam on the brakes after putting in that much work.  Was this Poe's attempt at a cliffhanger?  It seems doubtful because the post script ruins any suspense.  Was the post script a way for him to simply move on to other projects, and return to write the final few chapters if his story received enough positive attention?

Being a fan of some of his best known work, I was expecting a personal and emotional story. Instead, when it was time to drive home feeling and emotion, he quickly glossed over key moments in the story.  Whether he was trapped in the hold of the Grampus, or drifting aimlessly as the agony of hunger and thirst lead to cannibalism, or the betrayal of the explorers by the natives, even at one point getting a bolt driven through his neck, again and again there were opportunities for Poe to really paint a picture.  However, all we are treated to is “This is really terrible, believe me.”  There was also a tendency to meander, branching off on topics that had nothing to do with the story.  At one point he spends a page and a half explaining how to properly arrange stowage in a vessel's hold in order to keep it stable in rolling seas.  Another page or so was spent explaining how they observed albatross and penguin coexisting in island rookeries. Interesting these facts may be, but waylaying the story in order to tell them became tiresome.

While I can't honestly say I was happy with this book, I respect what I feel like Poe was doing, trying push out of his comfort zone, which is the focus of this entire series of challenges.  Like so many people in his time he lived a hard life, and it's easy to believe he may have been planning on coming back to this story later.  Dying at forty or even younger was all too common in the nineteenth century, though.  His tragic death robbed us of any sequel to this story, as well as maybe another hundred or more short stories and poems for us to enjoy from the comfort of our twenty-first century lives.

D.G. Raymond