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Sonia
Hernandez February
26, 2002
Narrowing Parameters
When asked to explain what distinguishes one literary genre from
another, aficionados of a particular genre sometimes answer, “I know
it when I see it.” It may be true that some devotees develop a sixth sense
in identifying a literary work as belonging to a specific genre. However,
uncommunicated intuitive knowledge does little to either define
fledgling genres or distinguish a breakaway genre, such as exploration from
the similar or closely related “parent” genres of travel and adventure.
Genres provide an interpretive framework for readers. The better
defined a genre, the less likely a reader will mistake one genre for another
and the more likely a selection will match a person’s expectations. In order
for literature of exploration to be considered a distinct genre or field of
study, boundaries or ideal parameters must exist that define what constitutes
literature of exploration and excludes what does not (Mann 3). The provisional
distinctions made in the syllabus for the course on Literature of Space and
Exploration include a journey, which is usually arduous or prohibited, to a
distant place unlikely to be visited by individuals like the author. The
traveler will need to overcome a change in environment and various challenges
to comfort, progress or survival. These provisional distinctions afford a
broad foundation from which to begin to differentiate between exploration and
other closely related genres. In
an attempt to distinguish exploration literature from adventure and travel
literature, I propose that two additional guidelines be added: The journey
should have a purpose or goal which is stated at the onset and, the intent of
the author should be a consideration in genre designation.
According to Webster’s Dictionary to explore is “ to examine
carefully; investigate” or “to travel in order to learn...”
Since it is difficult to learn without examining carefully, the two
definitions are not mutually exclusive. Implicit in this definition is that
the traveler will have at least
one goal or purpose for the excursion. The
purpose need not be of a scientific nature, although personally that is what I
would prefer. Christopher Columbus’ aim was to discover another route to the
Orient in order to facilitate trade. At a minimum, one goal would include
discovery and investigation.
In adventure literature, exciting events are more important than
character development and sometimes theme. Rather than embarking on a journey
with a “let’s see what happens” attitude, a explorer focuses on his
goal. The explorer’s
experiences with the environment may become the reader’s primary focus, but
for the explorer, these occurrence are secondary and occur in pursuit of the
goal. In Alone, Richard Byrd recounts his solitary stay in an
underground station in the Arctic. While most of the class discussion of
Byrd’s experiences focused on his personal comments, his evaluation of his
changes in personal habits and state of mind, it is clear from Byrd’s
journal entries, that his primary focus is his work. The purpose of the
journey rather than the experiences or events which occur in pursuit of the
goal is the end in itself.
In contrast, Pym, the protagonist in Edgar Allen Poe’s only novel The
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, has an ardent longing
for the wild adventures incident to the life of a navigator” (18).
Pym’s visions are of “ ship wreck and famine; of death or
captivity...” (18). He stows away on the whaling ship the Grampus in
the hopes of fulfilling his “long-cherished visions of travel”(20).
Pym travels because he seeks action and adventure. Because Pym
has no purpose or goal other than fantasy fulfillment for his pilgrimage, the
focus of the narrative becomes almost exclusively a series of the incredible
events. The novel could be read as a collection of short stories given the
cohesiveness of a novel through the use of the same main character.
The additional criteria of a purposeful goal would not reduce the
exploration genre to historical accounts or fictionalized narratives of
past expeditions. In Edgar Rice Burrough’s Princess of Mars,
Carter’s initial purpose was to discover gold (1). In Red Mars,
a team of colonists blasts off into space with the goal of terraforming Mars.
Ursula Le Guin’s protagonist in The Left Hand of
Darkness, wants to understanding the exercise of power on another
planet (7). Whether the work is
one of fiction or non-fiction, a purposeful, planned journey distinguishes the
account as exploration literature rather than action or adventure literature
in which the journey occurs through accident, for thrills or excitement or
merely for a change of pace.
One function of travel, adventure, and exploration literature is to
allow the reader to enjoy vicariously the wonders of distant places and the
events and circumstances which occur during the trek. In American, lifestyles
are, on the average, much more sedentary and comfortable than that of people
in the past and in many parts of today’s world. The popularity of extreme
sports, extreme diversions and extreme television programs seems to indicate
that passive reading of the
exploits of others may no longer be satisfactory entertainment.
A vacationer can experience the hardships and physical rigors of an
arctic expedition, or take a “bare-foot cruise” duplicating, for a short
time, the life of a sailor of Poe’s era aboard a sailing ship.
Even a vacation in outer space is within reach of someone willing to
pay twenty million dollars. Granted, the dangers of these excursions are well
anticipated and highly
controlled, a luxury past travelers did not enjoy.
In addition, “reality” based television programs
which challenge the stamina of physically fit and extremely photogenic
individuals have become extremely popular. Each major network now carries one
such program in which a group of contestants is placed in a situation which
falls within the original parameters defining literature of exploration and
parallels Pym’s circumstances. A group is stranded in a remote, isolated,
primitive setting reminiscent of Pym aboard the Grampus or on the
island. More recent contests provide participants with an insufficient amount
of food, water and shelter similar to Pym experiences. In order to avoid being
eliminated from the contest, hardships must be overcome, endurance proven and
political and survival strategies devised as Pym was forced to do aboard the Grampus.
Should an account written by any of these individuals, the space
tourist, the television contestant, the bare foot cruiser, or the arctic
vacationer be considered literature of exploration?
Would the story of an athlete who decides to scale a Himalayan mountain
peak simply for the experience because “it is there”, also fall within the
genre of exploration? Without a
stated meaningful purpose, without discovery and investigation, the story
could become, at worst, simply a personal travelogue, the literary equivalent
of a picture postcard or home movies of summer vacation or a rehash of
personal exploits; at best, an action adventure tale.
Texts frequently overlap several genres. It is not unusual for a book
or short story to be labeled, for example, as an historical romance, a gothic
mystery or fantasy-adventure. The author, through the use of language and
emphasis on words and narrated incidents signals his intent and preference for
how the work should be categorized.
In the anthology Ice, several authors including Apsley
Cherry-Gerrard, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Francis Spufford all describe
journeys which are dangerous and have situations which are similar to events
in Poe’s novel. In I May be
Some Time, Spufford describes a night in which the ship, Terra Nova,
is a floating plank surrounded by an air bubble in a hurricane force wind
(Willis, 286). Shackleton in South, recounts drifting without sail or
rudder for months on an ice sheet which vibrates and cracks with each impact
from another passing floe (258-259). Shackelton also describes a night
in which the ice cracked leaving him standing astride two pieces of separating
ice and watching a nearby tent being pulled apart by the same process (266).
All these accounts are similar to
Pym’s being adrift in a hurricane tossed sea on the remains of the
brig which he describes as a floating log (91).
But
it is Cherry-Gerrard’s account of his experiences in search of the
Emperor penguin which has the most in common with Pym. In The Worst
Journey in the World, Cherry-Gerrard repeatedly refers to being
surrounded by darkness ,toiling in the dark, being unable to distinguish day
from night (64), the effects of darkness alone (65) and compounded by fog (80)
terror, fear and despair coupled with the anxiety of falling into one of the
many crevasses in the area. When
describing the experience of falling into the a crevasse (71), Cherry- Gerrard
actually borrows a favorite Poe description, referring to crevasses as
bottomless pits (81).
Yet, despite Cherry-Gerrard’s use of the same dark imagery as Poe
uses in describing similar events, only Poe’s novel is described in the
syllabus as falling within the gothic genre. After reading the two accounts,
there was no doubt in my mind, that Pym belongs in the gothic genre
while The Worst Journey in the World does not. The difference in style
accounts for the different genre classification. The choice of style signals
each author’s intent and preference for how the text should be classified.
Cherry-Gerrard’s intent is to recount and inform the reader of events
which occurred on his hunt for penguin eggs. He admits the journey was ghastly
made pleasurable only by the company of his companions (75). He reassures the
reader he is not “trying to exaggerate” (74).
Matter-of-factly, Cherry-Gerrard describes events which are truly
horrific, but rather than dwell on the emotional upheaval which was
experienced, he chooses to focus the reader’s attention on the practices he
developed to overcome both fear and pain. What he directs his and the
reader’s attention to is the completion of the mission (70).
The reader bears the responsibility for any emotional interpretation
which occurs.
Poe intends to tell a tale which plays on the readers darker emotions
by describing, emphasizing and exaggerating horrific events in order to
heighten emotional sensations. Poe takes the reader on an emotional roller
coaster by alternating descriptions of traumatic events with scenes of
relative calm. His accounts of being buried alive(25), the dangerous politics
of mutiny (50-57) ,killings (74) and the destruction of his ship are
alternated with periods of sleep (25) or unconsciousness or journal style
entrees detailing events in a relatively straight-forward manner (69-72).
Poe, as well as the several authors in Ice, refer frequently to
horror, fear, terror or despair, death or dying.
The authors in Ice concentrate on the events which give rise to
these feelings and dwell only minimally upon the emotion itself., Cherry-Gerrard
describes a treacherous climb “that would have tried Job’s patience” in
an area surrounded by deep crevasses as “exciting” (91-94) He says “And
always we got toward the Emperor penguins...” (94). Spufford explains that
although the men had “perfect comprehension of their peril...”, the words
death and drowning we banished and relaced with “interesting” and
“exciting” (291).
In contrast Poe focuses the readers attention on Pym’s emotions. A
conversation is enough to fill Pym “with
incredible dread” (8). A scream is filled with the “intense agony of
terror” (11). Others around him are completely filled with feelings of
terror and despair and excruciating dismay (16-17) All this before the true
journey starts. Poe’s extensive use of superlatives, prolonged account of
traumatic events and high-charged feelings, has
the effect, at least on me, of minimizing
the journey. The feelings of terror, and horror are what I remember about the
novel. The author uses this novel
as an opportunity to capitalizes on the public’s interest in the experiences
of recent Polar expeditions while at the same time doing what he does best;
tell a fantastic yarn filled with the horror and gothic trappings. Poe’s
intent is to tell a scary, spooky story that would sell. He was after horror
and gothic adventure, not exploration.
As he does in so many of his works, Poe uses supernatural events,
devices familiar to the gothic genre. But the use the paranormal or
supernatural alone in a story is not sufficient evidence to believe an author
intended the story to fall in the gothic genre. Surreal events, ghosts,
animated corpses upon which carrion feeding birds alight can be incorporated
into exploration literature. The important distinction is how the elements of
horror or fantasy are presented within the story.
Supernatural events and distortions when presented as dreams, illusions
caused by the environment, such as a mirage, or hallucinations as effects of
physical stressors such as starvation or drugs could be considered as a
realistic, or at least plausible reaction to the exploration experience.
In Ice, several authors describe a situations which could have
easily been considered standard gothic material. The authors remain firmly in
the exploration genre because of their explanation for these events.
Although Cherry-Gerrard feels as though he is surrounded by ghosts as
he approaches fog-bound Terror Point one night (82), he does not say ghosts
are actually there. Shackleton explains the waxing and waning of icebergs and
mountains as illusions caused by a combination of wind, fog and light (258).
Cherry-Gerrard describes “optical delusions” in which depressions in the
snow appeared to be elevations (68). Spufford tells of dog encampments which
shrink to biscuit tins as one approaches because of the effects of light
(300). Poe’s novel leaves exploration and lands firmly in gothic country Poe
presents surreal events such as the ghost ship (99-103) with animated corpses
which serve as carrion for feasting birds, as actually having occurred.
Theoretically, the genre of exploration could encompass such
diverse texts as Homer’s The Odyssey ,Spencer’s
The Faerie Queen, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, the
anthology Ice and Ursula
Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Newcomers to the genre, both
readers and contributors, may feel exploration is a catch-all genre and simply
lose interest. Adding additional criteria to differentiate exploration from
travel and adventure while the parameters for this new field of study are
still fluid would help better define the genre and guide interested readers
and contributors. Works
Cited Byrd,
Richard. “Alone.” Willis, Clint, ed. Ice.
NY: Thunder Mouth’s
Press, 1999 Burroughs,
Edgar Rice. A Princess of Mars. 1912. NY: The
Ballantine Publishing Group, 1963. Cherry-Gerrard,
Apsley. “The Worst Journey in the World.” Willis,
Clint, ed. Ice. NY:
Thunder Mouth’s Press, 1999 Le
Guin, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness. NY: Berkeley
Publishing, 1969. Mann,George,
ed. The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction.NY:Carroll and Graf Publishers,2001. Poe,
Edgar Allan. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.
1838. NY,NY: Penguin Books, 1999. Robinson,
Kim Stanley. Red Mars. NY:
Bantam Books, 1993. Shackleton,
Ernest Sir. “South.” Willis, Clint, ed. Ice.
NY: Thunder
Mouth’s Press, 1999. Spufford,
Francis. “I May Be Some .” Willis, Clint, ed. Ice.
NY:
Thunder Mouth’s Press, 1999. Willis,
Clint, ed. Ice. NY:
Thunder Mouth’s Press, 1999.
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