The
next short story in Lovecraft's Dream Cycle that I chose to read was
“The
White Ship.” I
skipped “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” for now because it had a lame
rating on Goodreads, which does not mean it is objectively bad, but I
don't know if I would be able to write as interesting material on it
as on this next one.
Recurring themes in “The White Ship” were "all that glitters is not gold", and “the grass is
always greener." The narrator, Basil Elton, departs his life as a watcher in a
lighthouse, a job passed down by his father and grandfather, on
the mysterious White Ship captained by a bearded man. As he sails
into the mysterious South, he passes many islands: Zar, the land of
dreams and thoughts of beauty; Thalarion,
City of a Thousand Wonders, land of all unfathomable mysteries; and
Xura, Land of Pleasures Unattained. Basil yearned to land on each of
these islands, desiring their beauty and pleasing sights, as anything more than sitting in a lighthouse all day looked extremely desirable. However, each
time the bearded man refused. Soon after, Basil realized that their
beauty was a disguise, their flowery scents turning to rotting
stenches, and their beautiful white roads being realized as the
chalky remains of the fools who disembarked there, turned insane.
They
finally landed on Sona-Nyl, Land of Fancy, a land without suffering,
death, time, or space, and with unparalleled beauty and grandeur.
Basil soon yearned for adventure, and departed on the White Ship for
the unknown land of Cathuria, “which no man hath seen.” Basil is
leaving this utopia for some unknown land, which seems like a stupid
decision, but symbolizes humanity's tendency to take things for
granted and yearn for that which we do not have. An important
quotation is when he is on the ship, fantasizing about this new
utopia:
Cathuria … is the abode of Gods and the land of unnumbered cities of gold. Its forests are of aloe and sandalwood …. On the green and flowery mountains … stand temples of pink marbles, rich with carven and painted glories …. the cities of Cathuria are cinctured with golden walls …. And the houses of the cities of Cathuria are all palaces.
These are just a few excerpts from a long monologue in which Basil completely assumes that this place is a utopia somehow even more perfect than the one he had, despite no one having ever seen it. In fact, he has nothing to gain, and everything to lose, as the waters past the "basalt pillars of the West" are uncharted and perilous. He is literally risking everything for greener grass. Again, I don't want to spoil anything because it's a really good short story, but Cathuria's obviously not going to be everything it's cracked up to be. And of course, expect a typical Lovecraftian plot twist to leave you thinking.
I really enjoyed this story because I think I actually understood its themes (unless I'm just putting words in his mouth), and I think he presented them in a really neat way. The extreme way Basil committed to the themes completely made the consequences stand out more, with help from Lovecraft's weird, dark language. I did find it difficult to identify with Basil's particular situation, despite Lovecraft's use of absorbing imagery. However, I was able to identify with the general theme of taking things for granted and the beauty of the unattainable.
 |
| An artist's rendition of the "bird of heaven" guiding the White Ship. |
No comments:
Post a Comment