Message: a central thematic statement a narrative conveys. What's the message? is an underlying if not a foreground, yet subconscious central suspense question a narrative and readers ask in parts and parcels.
Take Mickey Spillane's pulp mystery novels, not generally recognized as literary works of art, they nonetheless have central messages. Spillane's breakout novel I, the Jury was purportedly written in nineteen days and sold six and a half million copies. Spillane's villains are frequently confident, intelligent, strong, attractive female authority figures who've been corrupted by power. What's the message there?
A short manuscript I evaluated awhile back for a burgeoning writer was mostly as taut as an underway ship. It wasn't quite there for lack of a consistent central message. The mixed message was one of reluctance versus eagerness to become an adult. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, per se. It was just apparent to me that the writer hadn't fully realized the direction the narrative went and perhaps hadn't realized the subconscious intent behind the narrative. I recommended considering the transition from reluctance to eagerness or vice versa or back and forth as the main transformation the protagonist undergoes, and for the crises, rising action, and falling action scenes' discoveries, reversals, setbacks, and letdowns. And therein bringing the deeply subtended message into the foreground. Growing up is a tough life process that brooks no debate. Balking, maybe.
Another short manuscript insouciantly parodied The Horse Whisperer. The writer of the advertised-as-a-meaningless-knock-off narrative driven by frustration with the film's popularity was stunned and flattered that I thought it had legs on it and had a theme and a message that transcended the original's. A central message of whispering to horses being their spirits don't have to be broken. The message of the parody is broken spirits need a good listener to help them through, even the protagonist who didn't realize personal needs met from being a good listener until the ending. Singling that out for the writer gave a direction to consider for rewriting and revisions and building greater audience rapport and, consequently, audience appeal.
I struggled for years to figure out how baseball connected to the message in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. I'd connected everything else. Of course, Joe Dimaggio was in similar straights at the time of Santiago's dilemma. Cuban passion for baseball is strong. Santiago's passion for baseball lends roundness to his character and lends verisimilitude to the narrative. Are baseball and DiMaggio intrinsic to the plot, though, or MacGuffins? Why not something and someone else? It's the baseball phenomena of three strikes you're out that firmly satisfied me DiMaggio and baseball are intrinsic to the plot. Twice in Santiago's backstory he went almost three months without catching a fish.
Okay, so figuring out a message from the subconscious isn't easy for a writer who's closely lived and breathed a manuscript without one. It's in conscious, subconscious, or nonconscious motif meanings that find their way into an evolving narrative that a writer can extract and evaluate for unity and derive a message from. Motifs can be thematically consistent, recognizable objects with unifying characteristics, but not exclusively so. They can be characters, goals, stands taken, settings, personalities, behaviors, emotions, thoughts, tag lines, and just about everything whatsoever in a narrative. Ideally, all the motifs connect up to a unifying theme.
In contradiction of a conventional writing principle proscribing repetition, motifs are best judiciously repeated. "What I tell you three times is true." Aristotle Poetics. Motif repetition is sort of like the prepositioning form of foreshadowing postulated by Checkov's Gun. If there's a gun in the first act, it better be fired by the third. Same with a central message, it ought to be introduced in an opening.
What's the message in your manuscript?
What's the Message?
What's the Message?
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Re: What's the Message?
I am struggling with this in my own work at the moment. A reader provided me with some editorial comments on my manuscript and one of the problems he/she saw in the novel was the lack of development of some secondary themes. The main theme the reader identified was something I had not even considered. I thought I was writing about something else entirely. Unfortunately, I don't have the option of going to that person for more specific direction so I'm having to go back on my own and attempt to identify the places/ideas/characters/plot points (and the underlying meaning) that I have introduced into the narrative without fully developing them.
You are incredible, Polymath.
You are incredible, Polymath.
Re: What's the Message?
The best I can come up with, and this applies to most of my writing, is that it is worthwhile to live by some sort of a moral code. The underlying message of my writing is about morality. It is about one's struggle to practice upstandingness.
I do try to keep this message subliminal as I know morality is something to avoid hitting people over the head with, and by that I mean my characters as well as my readers.
I do try to keep this message subliminal as I know morality is something to avoid hitting people over the head with, and by that I mean my characters as well as my readers.
Re: What's the Message?
This is my biggest problem. When I write, I think: "what am I trying to tell?". The clearer the answer, the better the writing. And the opposite: if I don't know what I'm trying to tell, I start to ramble and digress, and go nowhere.
That's why I'm starting to put effort in outlining. I hope that gives me a strong foundation, something that I can look at when I feel lost. High hopes? Maybe, but you gotta start with something :-)
That's why I'm starting to put effort in outlining. I hope that gives me a strong foundation, something that I can look at when I feel lost. High hopes? Maybe, but you gotta start with something :-)
Re: What's the Message?
Thanks, GeeGee55. I'm as embarrassed by praise as much as I secretly crave it. My real satisifaction comes from contributing to and sharing meaningful insights with fellow travelers on our poets' progresses.
The concept of theme and associated motif, moral, and message seem at first blush simple in terms of narrative devices. What's a story about?
It's about this puppet who wants to be a real boy. Simple enough. A teaching fable where a thing is embued with human desires and self-serving failings. What's its one-word theme? Initiation, in the sense of apprenticeship to a coming of age life stage. An apron-stringless puppet is an exquisite motif for the life stage transition between middle grade and young adult when children begin to develop independent self-identities. Carnival attractions draw boys in and capture them for their servient adult-like labors. Exquisite motif after motif.
Carnival attractions and adult labors. I'm reminded of an occasion when I bought comic books and blue magazines at the same time. The older female clerk giggled at the contradiction and remarked, "Can't make up your mind?" I refused to be embarrassed. "I don't have to, yet," I replied. She blushed. I assumed she was abruptly reminded of her age and its associated obligations and hardships.
Say I wanted to write a story about intolerance. I'd take a stand for or against, perhaps appeasing or accommodating. Would I want to say racism is intolerance? Or xenophobia? Would I want to say racism is beneficial for society? Or harmful? The bug-eyed monster paradigm has at its roots intolerance of the stranger. Give them motifs of self-serving intentions and unpleasant countenances. Wild pop-eyed people are perceived as zealous fanatics, crazed deviants, mad scientists, evildoers, bug-eyed monsters with self-serving causes. Ugly character traits and personality motifs of the self-serving kind then portray a lack of consideration for others' sensibilities, needs, values, and mores. Of course, the protagonist will struggle with self-identity, self-sacrificing to come to a timely, socially relevant, morally appropriate, new self-identity. Racists are villains in many of today's social consciousnesses. They've not always been so, nor is racism extinct. The protagonist's main transformation might then be a transcendence of racism. Message derived from motifs: Intolerance is evil; tolerance should be rewarded.
In an alternative, from a time and place past, present, or future where racism self-servingly justifies dominance, the protagonist might be a member of an isolated society where racial intolerance is unknown and has it thrust upon them by intruders. The protagonist's struggle might then be resistance to change. In my world view, in that scenario the protagonist would have to fail and likely die in order for a statement about the harms of intolerance to ring through. A tragedy, potentially an all too rare beautifully tragic narrative. Naturally, for the sake of audience affinity with the protagonist, the protagonist would have to be depicted as honorable and empathy-worthy through motifs of self-sacrificing nobility and noble struggles, nobly surmounting the self's self-serving failings and frailties.
I don't find theme, et al to be simple concepts at all. It's taken a while since I started investigating them to come to a working knowledge of their parameters and contributions. I envy writers who seem to naturally or second-naturedly grasp theme, et al.
The concept of theme and associated motif, moral, and message seem at first blush simple in terms of narrative devices. What's a story about?
It's about this puppet who wants to be a real boy. Simple enough. A teaching fable where a thing is embued with human desires and self-serving failings. What's its one-word theme? Initiation, in the sense of apprenticeship to a coming of age life stage. An apron-stringless puppet is an exquisite motif for the life stage transition between middle grade and young adult when children begin to develop independent self-identities. Carnival attractions draw boys in and capture them for their servient adult-like labors. Exquisite motif after motif.
Carnival attractions and adult labors. I'm reminded of an occasion when I bought comic books and blue magazines at the same time. The older female clerk giggled at the contradiction and remarked, "Can't make up your mind?" I refused to be embarrassed. "I don't have to, yet," I replied. She blushed. I assumed she was abruptly reminded of her age and its associated obligations and hardships.
Say I wanted to write a story about intolerance. I'd take a stand for or against, perhaps appeasing or accommodating. Would I want to say racism is intolerance? Or xenophobia? Would I want to say racism is beneficial for society? Or harmful? The bug-eyed monster paradigm has at its roots intolerance of the stranger. Give them motifs of self-serving intentions and unpleasant countenances. Wild pop-eyed people are perceived as zealous fanatics, crazed deviants, mad scientists, evildoers, bug-eyed monsters with self-serving causes. Ugly character traits and personality motifs of the self-serving kind then portray a lack of consideration for others' sensibilities, needs, values, and mores. Of course, the protagonist will struggle with self-identity, self-sacrificing to come to a timely, socially relevant, morally appropriate, new self-identity. Racists are villains in many of today's social consciousnesses. They've not always been so, nor is racism extinct. The protagonist's main transformation might then be a transcendence of racism. Message derived from motifs: Intolerance is evil; tolerance should be rewarded.
In an alternative, from a time and place past, present, or future where racism self-servingly justifies dominance, the protagonist might be a member of an isolated society where racial intolerance is unknown and has it thrust upon them by intruders. The protagonist's struggle might then be resistance to change. In my world view, in that scenario the protagonist would have to fail and likely die in order for a statement about the harms of intolerance to ring through. A tragedy, potentially an all too rare beautifully tragic narrative. Naturally, for the sake of audience affinity with the protagonist, the protagonist would have to be depicted as honorable and empathy-worthy through motifs of self-sacrificing nobility and noble struggles, nobly surmounting the self's self-serving failings and frailties.
I don't find theme, et al to be simple concepts at all. It's taken a while since I started investigating them to come to a working knowledge of their parameters and contributions. I envy writers who seem to naturally or second-naturedly grasp theme, et al.
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Re: What's the Message?
Interesting question, Polymath. Thank you for this thoughtful topic.
In my own work and process, I find it difficult to answer, at least at the onset. My own process seems to just lift off and let the work tell me. An act of art will find its own form.
Of course, after a work is completed or in editing stage, this is a most important question then anyway.
There are so many motifs that shimmer through a work that make it rich (hopefully) that to pinpoint one message is almost too simplistic. Is it love? Is it transformation? Maturation? Many great works have multiple messages woven. But say, for example, that the overriding one is Love or Love Leads or Love Heals, seems too brief to encompass the whole meaning of these things.
A good exercise to consider though.
Once, in a playwriting class, the teacher asked us to attempt to begin from the premise, but I found, (after struggling with the exercise) that in my own process, that just leaping into the feel of the work, it will be revealed eventually, and although I work with outlines, there is much that is mysterious in the creative process that I just trust will lead me if I am honest with myself and follow and allow the leading intrigue that I am am feeling–the thing that compels me to create the work–to take the lead.
Close, perhaps, is that often a poem or an image will be my jumping off place. From there, sometimes the whole journey begins: the characters, the plot, the need. Thus, I find myself often using a poem or phrase at the beginning of a novel or at interludes. And also, I must add, that I think the title of a piece often holds that function. It draws in the work, titles it, holds that placemark of intention.
In my own work and process, I find it difficult to answer, at least at the onset. My own process seems to just lift off and let the work tell me. An act of art will find its own form.
Of course, after a work is completed or in editing stage, this is a most important question then anyway.
There are so many motifs that shimmer through a work that make it rich (hopefully) that to pinpoint one message is almost too simplistic. Is it love? Is it transformation? Maturation? Many great works have multiple messages woven. But say, for example, that the overriding one is Love or Love Leads or Love Heals, seems too brief to encompass the whole meaning of these things.
A good exercise to consider though.
Once, in a playwriting class, the teacher asked us to attempt to begin from the premise, but I found, (after struggling with the exercise) that in my own process, that just leaping into the feel of the work, it will be revealed eventually, and although I work with outlines, there is much that is mysterious in the creative process that I just trust will lead me if I am honest with myself and follow and allow the leading intrigue that I am am feeling–the thing that compels me to create the work–to take the lead.
Close, perhaps, is that often a poem or an image will be my jumping off place. From there, sometimes the whole journey begins: the characters, the plot, the need. Thus, I find myself often using a poem or phrase at the beginning of a novel or at interludes. And also, I must add, that I think the title of a piece often holds that function. It draws in the work, titles it, holds that placemark of intention.
Re: What's the Message?
You're welcome, bcomet.
I too have difficulty answering the questions of theme and message at the outset. That's currently my main struggle, so much so that I'm creatively paralyzed for beginning new projects. Several months ago I had a world-shaking epiphany and it's taking me some time to acclimate to and assimilate its ramifications. The epiphany was incited in part by investigating theme, et al, and Free Indirect Discourse and existential philosophies.
Meanwhile, I've reviewed my stories I'm unsatisfied with--all but one of a plethora--reviewed my story inspiration files to see if I can make any headway based on the epiphany. I've reexamined the published works I admire most, read new stuff, read stuff I couldn't access before and now can from having a better understanding because of the epiphany. My reading experiences are more enjoyable than ever before. Writing, I'm not stalled though. I see the way forward as if a blazed trail were marked before me. A journey of a thousand leagues interrrupted begins again with the next first step.
One thing I've noted is secondary themes that seemed digressive I can now connect up to a central theme. Critics panned Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons for digressive themes, mixed messages, unconnected subplots, and unresolved storylines. I didn't agree that any of that was valid, but it was an aesthetic hunch. Rereading the novel, I came to understand how the variant themes and plots connected to a central message. It's not a feel good warm and wooly novel by any means. The novel is cited as one of the top ten all-time marketplace fiascoes. It sold 750,000 copies but hasn't earned out its $8.5 million advance. I'd settle for either or both, but be somewhat chagrined to find myself on the marketplace outs from being labeled a publisher's albatross.
I too have difficulty answering the questions of theme and message at the outset. That's currently my main struggle, so much so that I'm creatively paralyzed for beginning new projects. Several months ago I had a world-shaking epiphany and it's taking me some time to acclimate to and assimilate its ramifications. The epiphany was incited in part by investigating theme, et al, and Free Indirect Discourse and existential philosophies.
Meanwhile, I've reviewed my stories I'm unsatisfied with--all but one of a plethora--reviewed my story inspiration files to see if I can make any headway based on the epiphany. I've reexamined the published works I admire most, read new stuff, read stuff I couldn't access before and now can from having a better understanding because of the epiphany. My reading experiences are more enjoyable than ever before. Writing, I'm not stalled though. I see the way forward as if a blazed trail were marked before me. A journey of a thousand leagues interrrupted begins again with the next first step.
One thing I've noted is secondary themes that seemed digressive I can now connect up to a central theme. Critics panned Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons for digressive themes, mixed messages, unconnected subplots, and unresolved storylines. I didn't agree that any of that was valid, but it was an aesthetic hunch. Rereading the novel, I came to understand how the variant themes and plots connected to a central message. It's not a feel good warm and wooly novel by any means. The novel is cited as one of the top ten all-time marketplace fiascoes. It sold 750,000 copies but hasn't earned out its $8.5 million advance. I'd settle for either or both, but be somewhat chagrined to find myself on the marketplace outs from being labeled a publisher's albatross.
Last edited by polymath on May 16th, 2010, 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What's the Message?
I'd suggest the key message in my first book is "Together, we thrive; alone, we die".
The current work-in-progress doesn't yet have a message: I'm still writing it, with no plans or plot outlines, clueless as to what's going to happen next. Once the first draft is complete I'll be able to sit back and think about what I've written and - when I've worked out the sorts of messages I want to send out through this story - start redrafting to weave the message in, alongside everything else that needs to be fixed.
The current work-in-progress doesn't yet have a message: I'm still writing it, with no plans or plot outlines, clueless as to what's going to happen next. Once the first draft is complete I'll be able to sit back and think about what I've written and - when I've worked out the sorts of messages I want to send out through this story - start redrafting to weave the message in, alongside everything else that needs to be fixed.
To Posterity - the latest chapbook of poems from Rik Roots ($free)
Re: What's the Message?
Polymath,
I loved (truly loved) Frasier's Thirteen Moons. I think it is an extraordinary work.
I would take a walk with him any day.
He understands love and how it can shape and change a person.
I also think he understands how to deeply love and appreciate a woman, (even when he can't take her quite off the pedestal and let her become fully human).
The book is a humbling and emotionally honest journey an innocent man with an open heart(and not any clues but the ones he discovers and half-discovers along the way) takes.
I think the man, the writer, is a goodness in our literature.
I loved (truly loved) Frasier's Thirteen Moons. I think it is an extraordinary work.
I would take a walk with him any day.
He understands love and how it can shape and change a person.
I also think he understands how to deeply love and appreciate a woman, (even when he can't take her quite off the pedestal and let her become fully human).
The book is a humbling and emotionally honest journey an innocent man with an open heart(and not any clues but the ones he discovers and half-discovers along the way) takes.
I think the man, the writer, is a goodness in our literature.
Re: What's the Message?
bcomet,
I love Thirteen Moons too. I'm disappointed, though, that others find it disappointing. I think it's a matter of audience resonance with the theme and message not getting through. Bear tells Cooper that he doesn't belong anywhere or with anyone meaningfully. I think that speaks to the core of what I interpret as the central message. Take the time to make a place for yourself or you won't belong anywhere or with anyone. That speaks profoundly to my life experiences. I guess, not as much as it might speak to others for their life experiences.
The novel's limited audience appeal is probably a result of deeply subtended low-concept premises. Artful low-concept premises are nearly impossible to meaningfully depict in film, difficult in narrative, and still be easily accessible. Low-concept meaning subtext or figurative meaning, not low as in low-brow. Filmmakers changed the ending of Thomas Harris' Hannibal because the novel's ending was considered too low-concept for moviegoers to understand. I don't think they improved on it or succeeded in their intents.
On the other hand, though Thirteen Moons has parallels with Cold Mountain from being a reimagination of Frazier family folklore, I think it's a good example for investigating how background meaning can be easily accessible by and appeal deeply to a specific audience bracket but not to a broader one. Where Cold Mountain has a broader appeal from more universal audience life experiences. And its low-concept premises are readily translated to film.
I love Thirteen Moons too. I'm disappointed, though, that others find it disappointing. I think it's a matter of audience resonance with the theme and message not getting through. Bear tells Cooper that he doesn't belong anywhere or with anyone meaningfully. I think that speaks to the core of what I interpret as the central message. Take the time to make a place for yourself or you won't belong anywhere or with anyone. That speaks profoundly to my life experiences. I guess, not as much as it might speak to others for their life experiences.
The novel's limited audience appeal is probably a result of deeply subtended low-concept premises. Artful low-concept premises are nearly impossible to meaningfully depict in film, difficult in narrative, and still be easily accessible. Low-concept meaning subtext or figurative meaning, not low as in low-brow. Filmmakers changed the ending of Thomas Harris' Hannibal because the novel's ending was considered too low-concept for moviegoers to understand. I don't think they improved on it or succeeded in their intents.
On the other hand, though Thirteen Moons has parallels with Cold Mountain from being a reimagination of Frazier family folklore, I think it's a good example for investigating how background meaning can be easily accessible by and appeal deeply to a specific audience bracket but not to a broader one. Where Cold Mountain has a broader appeal from more universal audience life experiences. And its low-concept premises are readily translated to film.
Spread the love of written word.
Re: What's the Message?
Hi Polymath,polymath wrote: I love Thirteen Moons too. I'm disappointed, though, that others find it disappointing. I think it's a matter of audience resonance with the theme and message not getting through. Bear tells Cooper that he doesn't belong anywhere or with anyone meaningfully. I think that speaks to the core of what I interpret as the central message. Take the time to make a place for yourself or you won't belong anywhere or with anyone. That speaks profoundly to my life experiences. I guess, not as much as it might speak to others for their life experiences.
The novel's limited audience appeal is probably a result of deeply subtended low-concept premises. Artful low-concept premises are nearly impossible to meaningfully depict in film, difficult in narrative, and still be easily accessible. Low-concept meaning subtext or figurative meaning, not low as in low-brow. Filmmakers changed the ending of Thomas Harris' Hannibal because the novel's ending was considered too low-concept for moviegoers to understand. I don't think they improved on it or succeeded in their intents.
On the other hand, though Thirteen Moons has parallels with Cold Mountain from being a reimagination of Frazier family folklore, I think it's a good example for investigating how background meaning can be easily accessible by and appeal deeply to a specific audience bracket but not to a broader one. Where Cold Mountain has a broader appeal from more universal audience life experiences. And its low-concept premises are readily translated to film.
Can you explain, (a little more in layman's terms as opposed to academic terms) what "deeply subtended low-concept premises" or "artful low-concept premises" means.
I am always very glad to have read or experienced an amazing writer and/or piece of writing. Nothing about it disappoints me. I believe it is just more easily accessible to sensitive folk who already understand the writer's language. Others will too, hopefully, in time. The only lament is the author's possible sense of failure, when indeed they have succeeded and more.
Re: What's the Message?
There's considerable difference of opinion over what constitutes a high-concept premise or a low-concept premise. The terms are used disparagingly, ironically, or informatively, and interchangeably. They originated in filmmaking. A high-concept film has a literal premise, like Snakes on a Plane, Towering Inferno, Jaws, Die Hard, Titanic, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars. High-concept films have universal audience appeal from exploring broad themes and ideas. In filmmaking, low-concept premises are complex theme, idea, and character development, rich contexts and subtexts, figurative meaning, and artful cinematography that support high-concept film premises. Low-concept films are either small-scale or mundane and contrarily the so-called art films. Lolita, Heaven's Gate, The Bridges of Madison County are weighted heavier toward low-concept premises than high-concept premises.bcomet wrote:Hi Polymath,
Can you explain, (a little more in layman's terms as opposed to academic terms) what "deeply subtended low-concept premises" or "artful low-concept premises" means.
I am always very glad to have read or experienced an amazing writer and/or piece of writing. Nothing about it disappoints me. I believe it is just more easily accessible to sensitive folk who already understand the writer's language. Others will too, hopefully, in time. The only lament is the author's possible sense of failure, when indeed they have succeeded and more.
Dramatic arts disciplines co-opt terminology from each other when a term strengthens or clarifies a generic concept. Subtext has been a narrative arts term for some time. Subtext and low-concept premises mean pretty much the same thing, but subtext is kind of a generic term with broad connotations. Subtext meaning the meaning hidden between the actual literal meaning of words written or said, between, beneath, behind, above, whatever. Courtly intrigue conversations tend to be a form of high-brow subtext. Damning with faint praise is a classic of courtly intrigues. But subtext perhaps doesn't as precisely as might be desired denotatively refer to anything but text. I suppose high- and low-concept premises emerged to more precisely refer to proprietary audio-visual characteristics of film, but writers co-opted the low-concept premise term to mean background meaning shown in figurative and sensory contexts rather than told.
An example of subtext; a child pesters his mother while she's talking to her friend. What's the kid really saying? He doesn't want to share his mother? He's in need or want of attention, affection, assistance and can't or won't wait his turn? Context will tell.
An example of a low-concept premise; Captain Ahab's peg leg is made of a tooth taken from Moby Dick to replace the leg that Moby Dick took, showing not telling that the two adversaries are inextriably linked in life and death and in nature. A generic high-concept premise of the novel is a man goes on a whaling expedition.
Deeply subtended low-concept premises then are figurative meaning or subtext that are not readily accessible. Subtended: submerged.
Artful low-concept premises then are figurative meaning or subtext that are profound and readily accessible.
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Re: What's the Message?
My message is one of self-reliance and that "you make your own luck". The sub-theme would be "it's okay to be a little strange, so don't allow social customs to define you or erase your individual power".
Re: What's the Message?
An example of a low-concept premise; Captain Ahab's peg leg is made of a tooth taken from Moby Dick to replace the leg that Moby Dick took, showing not telling that the two adversaries are inextriably linked in life and death and in nature. A generic high-concept premise of the novel is a man goes on a whaling expedition.
I'm so thankful for this discussion. I can barely wrap my brain around it, but it's good to be challenged. Do you think the author would have added this detail about the peg leg during the revision stage when he realized what he was writing about, what his message was? I can imagine Melville pouring over his pages and having that aha moment, this will help bring it all together. Or perhaps he always knew. Or perhaps it was given to him, as it seems some writers are given ideas.
I'm so thankful for this discussion. I can barely wrap my brain around it, but it's good to be challenged. Do you think the author would have added this detail about the peg leg during the revision stage when he realized what he was writing about, what his message was? I can imagine Melville pouring over his pages and having that aha moment, this will help bring it all together. Or perhaps he always knew. Or perhaps it was given to him, as it seems some writers are given ideas.
Re: What's the Message?
I've read Melville and other authors I admire prospecting for answers to that very question. Where does it come from? Was it there in their foreminds while prewriting, sketching, drafting? Did it spring into their minds fully realized? Or did it come to them as they wrote, rewrote, revised?
Moby Dick is in my opinion part historical documentary, part nature documentary, part travelogue, part novel, and a few other parts wrapped up in one parcel. I believe he was trying hard to be as comprehensive as he could to appeal to the every-person reader in some way or part. I've had a tough time connecting all the parts to the whole. I'm not there yet. Many complex themes and ideas and messages.
I do suspect Melville came upon his subconscious joining in the creative process while he wrote. How much of it was upfront, during, or afterward is a matter of considerable conjecture. Melville did read accounts of whaling expeditions that inspired the work. A narrative account of a sperm whale ramming and sinking the whaling ship Essex, newspaper accounts of an infamous albino sperm whale's exploits, allegedly killed off Chile's coast named Mocha Dick, an explorer, Jeremiah Reynolds wrote a magazine article about Mocha Dick that Melville drew from, Melville was himself a whaler and a mariner.
My best answer is it's some from column A, some from column B, some from column C, all at once, picked and chosen, or none of the above at all, purely organic, and no certain way as a writer or a reader or a literary analyst to know for sure which came from where. I get hunches from time to time though, then dig for evidence to satisfy my curiosity or prospect for hidden meaning to solidify my fledgling creations.
Moby Dick is in my opinion part historical documentary, part nature documentary, part travelogue, part novel, and a few other parts wrapped up in one parcel. I believe he was trying hard to be as comprehensive as he could to appeal to the every-person reader in some way or part. I've had a tough time connecting all the parts to the whole. I'm not there yet. Many complex themes and ideas and messages.
I do suspect Melville came upon his subconscious joining in the creative process while he wrote. How much of it was upfront, during, or afterward is a matter of considerable conjecture. Melville did read accounts of whaling expeditions that inspired the work. A narrative account of a sperm whale ramming and sinking the whaling ship Essex, newspaper accounts of an infamous albino sperm whale's exploits, allegedly killed off Chile's coast named Mocha Dick, an explorer, Jeremiah Reynolds wrote a magazine article about Mocha Dick that Melville drew from, Melville was himself a whaler and a mariner.
My best answer is it's some from column A, some from column B, some from column C, all at once, picked and chosen, or none of the above at all, purely organic, and no certain way as a writer or a reader or a literary analyst to know for sure which came from where. I get hunches from time to time though, then dig for evidence to satisfy my curiosity or prospect for hidden meaning to solidify my fledgling creations.
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