Wisdom and Woe

In The Age of Reason (1794-1807), Thomas Paine portrays the Bible as a human construct full of historical inaccuracies, moral contradictions, and "fabulous" myths. He critiques supernatural revelation and institutionalized religion as tools of manipulation, instead advocating a theology based on reason and observation of the natural world, where "man's mind is his own church."

He wrote the first part of the book while imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, hoping to provide a rational alternative to the total atheism then prevalent in revolutionary France. Nevertheless, by presenting his views in a popular and irreverent style, using lucid and often humorous prose, Paine earned a reputation as an agitator and blasphemer. His commentary on the Book of Jonah is representative: "The story of the whale swallowing Jonah... borders greatly on the marvelous; but it would have approached nearer to the idea of a miracle, if Jonah had swallowed the whale."

Paine narrowly escaped execution in Jacobin France, where his views were perceived as not radical enough. But the British government, fearing that his influence was too radical, prosecuted printers and publishers of his book. Meanwhile, in the United States The Age of Reason became a best-seller, spurring a brief revival of Deism, but damaging his legacy over the long term.

Schedule:

• Week 1: Part 1
• Week 2 (April 5): Parts 2-3

The Age of Reason:

It is tempting to interpret Israel Potter (1855) as Melville described it: "very little reflective writing in it; nothing weighty. It is adventure." That is, in many ways it is conventionally picaresque.

The titular character, loosely based on a real-life 18th century figure, is chased from one situation to the next, changing clothes with the circumstances, demonstrating a survivor resourcefulness, and (like an American Revolutionary-era Forrest Gump) episodically meeting an array of conspicuously famous figures, including Ben Franklin, King George, John Paul Jones, and Ethan Allen.

But Brian Rosenberg calls it "more than it merely appears to be": an "anti-history" and "one of the most thoroughly overlooked full-length works by any major writer of the last two centuries." Comparing it to a slave narrative, Stephen Matterson calls it "an ironic bildungsroman" centred on "someone for whom an identity framework and contexts for self-understanding are disrupted."

Indeed, from the opening dedication--a satirical paean to "His Highness, the Bunker Hill Monument"--to the last chapter--where our hero returns home, only to die anonymously near the very monument intended to remember him--the book offers ironic commentary on the nature of history and memory. Israel experiences imprisonment and escape (without truly being free), entombment and "resurrection" (without truly being alive), and sacrifice and veneration (without truly being honored). Through the sharp contrast between fame and forbearance, Melville draws attention to the ways in which lives are fragmented, and the many are relegated by the few.

Note: This meetup will be recorded for private use.

Week 1 (April 12): Chapters 1 - XIII
Week 2: Chapters XIV - XXVII

Israel Potter:

It is tempting to interpret Israel Potter (1855) as Melville described it: "very little reflective writing in it; nothing weighty. It is adventure." That is, in many ways it is conventionally picaresque.

The titular character, loosely based on a real-life 18th century figure, is chased from one situation to the next, changing clothes with the circumstances, demonstrating a survivor resourcefulness, and (like an American Revolutionary-era Forrest Gump) episodically meeting an array of conspicuously famous figures, including Ben Franklin, King George, John Paul Jones, and Ethan Allen.

But Brian Rosenberg calls it "more than it merely appears to be": an "anti-history" and "one of the most thoroughly overlooked full-length works by any major writer of the last two centuries." Comparing it to a slave narrative, Stephen Matterson calls it "an ironic bildungsroman" centred on "someone for whom an identity framework and contexts for self-understanding are disrupted."

Indeed, from the opening dedication--a satirical paean to "His Highness, the Bunker Hill Monument"--to the last chapter--where our hero returns home, only to die anonymously near the very monument intended to remember him--the book offers ironic commentary on the nature of history and memory. Israel experiences imprisonment and escape (without truly being free), entombment and "resurrection" (without truly being alive), and sacrifice and veneration (without truly being honored). Through the sharp contrast between fame and forbearance, Melville draws attention to the ways in which lives are fragmented, and the many are relegated by the few.

Note: This meetup will be recorded for private use.

Week 1: Chapters 1 - XIII
Week 2 (April 19): Chapters XIV - XXVII

Israel Potter:

Peleg Nye first shipped out of New Bedford as a young whaler in 1834. By 1865, he was a veteran. As the first mate, he was responsible for firing an explosive lance to kill harpooned whales. It was dangerous work at the best of times, but on one particular trip, disaster struck. The whale hit the prow of Nye's small whaleboat, sending him over the side and into the animal's mouth. The dying whale slipped beneath the surface, Nye's legs protruding between its teeth.

Miraculously, he survived and returned home a celebrity, the "Jonah of Cape Cod." His story immediately reignited theological and scientific debates regarding the plausibility of the Biblical Jonah. But the next year, he was back at sea, commanding four more whaling voyages over the next five years.

Long known only through oral history, Nye's story is historical fact, revealed in Peleg Nye: The Jonah of Cape Cod (2015). Through Nils V. Böckmann's meticulous research, the intricate world of eighteenth-century whalers and the dangerous industry they served is (like another Peleg Nye) brought back to life.

Peleg Nye: The Jonah of Cape Cod: