Billy Budd

I will spend several hours tomorrow at an outpatient surgery center waiting to bring my husband home...he turned 50 in May. For some bizarre reason, when physicians perform an invasive procedure on males, they anesthetize them.

During my wait, I will continue reading Luther's De Servo Arbitrio, commonly known as The Bondage of the Will, which I began this evening. I had thought to begin We Were One (the battle for Fallujah) tomorrow, but decided to save that for next week. So far so good on Bondage...I've wanted to read this for a long time.

Anyway, I finished Billy Budd this afternoon. I commend it to you as a brief but thought-provoking read. It is likely to evoke extended meditations on many fronts...authority, military life, innocence, justice, law, etc.

I discovered this evening that Focus on the Family has produced a Radio Theater version of this book...I think I'll try to get my hands on it for my youngest...FOF usually does a good job with these book adaptations. This is a story that shouldn't be missed, but is not accessible to younger readers in its unabridged form.

Melville (I spelled it right this time!) inserts "asides" to the story on matters political, military and philosophical - much like Victor Hugo does in Les Miserables...not to nearly the same extent, but in a similar vein - these asides greatly elevate the level of understanding needed to absorb his ideas. The story itself, however, along with much of its symbolism is certainly appropriate for and understandable by a younger audience.

Here is Melville's description of one colorful character:

"...the Bellipotent's lieutenant, burly and bluff...was one of those sea dogs in whom all the hardship and peril of naval life in the great prolonged wars of his time never impaired the natural instinct for sensuous enjoyment. His duty he always faithfully did; but duty is sometimes a dry obligation, and he was for irrigating its aridity, whensoever possible, with a fertilizing decoction of strong waters." :)

When Billy Budd is taken from his merchant ship and forced into the king's service, his former captain laments his departure thus:

"'Lieutenant, you are going to take my best man from me, the jewel of 'em. Before I shipped that young fellow, my forecastle was a rat-pit of quarrels. It was black times...But Billy came; and it was like a Catholic priest striking peace in an Irish shindy. Not that he preached to them or said or did anything in particular; but a virtue went out of him, sugaring the sour ones. ...they all love him...anybody will do anything for Billy Budd'

'Well,' said the lieutenant, who was now waxing merry with his tipple; 'well, blessed are the peacemakers, especially the fighting peacemakers. Ah, here he comes lugging along his chest - Apollo with his portmanteau!'"

Melville carefully develops the caricatures of 3 men - Billy, Captain Vere, and Master-at-arms Claggart - actually he reveals and describes their character more than he develops it. The plot ultimately centers around a singular event which follows its tragic course as a result of each man's character.

This was my first reading of Melville...I look forward to expanding my experience!