The literary remix trend comes for Moby-Dick — and it's a triumph

“Call maine Ishmael.”

Considered 1 of the top opening lines successful each of literate history, it indispensable person been astir irresistible for the acclaimed novelist Xiaolu Guo to defy utilizing it for the rubric of her 2025 retelling of the world’s astir celebrated whale tale, “Moby-Dick”. But Guo makes a large change; for successful her story, the young and sometimes gloomy antheral protagonist has been transformed into an adventurous young woman.

This has been specified a large fewer years for retellings of the classics — from Barbara Kingsolver’s updated David Copperfield to Salman Rushdie’s zany Don Quixote. And Percival Everett’s caller “James,” a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, took the lion’s stock of the literate prizes successful 2024, including the Pulitzer. There is truthful overmuch pleasance to beryllium had successful rereading aged favorites — and portion of the joyousness is gathering beloved characters, who person been updated oregon someway get successful a caller signifier to defy aged tropes and types.

Guo’s recasting of Ishmaelle is nary exception. Orphaned arsenic a teen successful an impoverished sportfishing colony successful Kent, Ishmaelle takes to the seas, disguising herself arsenic a lad to bash so. This is not arsenic improbable arsenic it mightiness seem, arsenic determination is simply a agelong past of women masquerading arsenic men to spell journeying into the world. As explained successful the enactment astatine the extremity of the book, Guo based her novel’s protagonist connected the existent diaries of a fig of 19th period pistillate sailors. And arsenic it turns out, the writer herself hails from a mediocre sportfishing colony successful confederate China, where, arsenic it was successful England and America during Melville’s day, it was considered atrocious luck for a pistillate to spell connected committee a ship. Guo’s ain grandma ne'er erstwhile stepped connected committee the boats connected which her gramps toiled.

Not truthful dissimilar the protagonist successful her novel, Guo besides flung herself retired of a hard puerility successful a colony with fewer opportunities for women, launching into the wider satellite successful hunt of contented and adventure. First moving to Beijing wherever she studied film, and past uncovering her mode to London wherever she became a palmy filmmaker and novelist. Somewhere on the line, she besides became highly adept astatine penning successful English, arsenic her novels are not written successful her autochthonal tongue.

Author Xiaolu Guo

(Cristobal Vivar)

Returning backmost to the opening enactment of Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” novelist Ta-Nehisi Coates insisted successful a 2021 effort successful the Atlantic that successful his sentiment (and it is my sentiment arsenic well) that the full archetypal paragraph, not conscionable the celebrated opening line, was “the top paragraph successful immoderate enactment of fabrication astatine immoderate point, successful each of history. And not conscionable quality history, but galactic and extraterrestrial past too…”

You astir apt retrieve it:

“Some years agone — ne'er caput however agelong precisely — having small oregon nary wealth successful my purse, and thing peculiar to involvement maine connected shore, I thought I would sail astir a small and spot the watery portion of the world. It is simply a mode I person of driving disconnected the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself increasing grim astir the mouth; whenever it is simply a damp, drizzly November successful my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing earlier coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of each ceremonial I meet; and particularly whenever my hypos get specified an precocious manus of me, that it requires a beardown motivation rule to forestall maine from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I relationship it precocious clip to get to oversea arsenic soon arsenic I can.”

Nowadays radical suggest that Ishmael was depressed — and possibly adjacent suicidal — during that acheronian and drizzly November of his soul. But what if what Melville meant was much akin to however Guo interprets it? A idiosyncratic feels themselves trapped by what is demanded by society.

In Ishmaelle’s lawsuit that meant toiling distant successful poorness for the remainder of her beingness backmost successful Kent. And what if the young pistillate had a curiosity to spot the world? A tendency to unrecorded large and person adventures?

As Melville writes:

“By crushed of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the large flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and successful the chaotic conceits that swayed maine to my purpose, 2 and 2 determination floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, astir of them all, 1 expansive hooded phantom, similar a snowfall elevation successful the air. “

To re-read a favourite book: Is it not 1 of life’s large pleasures? Especially if decades, not conscionable years, person passed betwixt one’s archetypal speechmaking and the next; erstwhile the scholar can’t assistance but wonder: Is this adjacent the aforesaid book? Or is it the satellite with myself successful it that has not changed?

In Guo’s re-reading, it is not conscionable Ishmael that was recast, arsenic Ahab present appears successful the signifier of a freed achromatic antheral named Seneca. This is besides a alteration that Melville himself mightiness person recognized arsenic a imaginable alteration, arsenic by Melville’s day, determination were erstwhile enslaved men who recovered themselves connected committee whaling ships, immoderate adjacent serving arsenic captains. And it is from Seneca’s rima wherever immoderate of the champion penning successful Guo’s caller appears. Like a Chinese emperor who spends his days and nights re-cataloguing the bronzes successful his collection, contempt the information that invaders are astatine the gross and the state connected the brink of war, Seneca excessively feels that, if helium could conscionable termination the achromatic whale, then, well, yes, helium would beryllium doing his portion successful warring evil. That is, if helium could lone benignant retired the occupation of the achromatic whale, past helium would beryllium sorting retired the full world.

“O however galore times [my father] told maine astir his oversea voyage from Africa and however helium had travel to the caller onshore with whipped bleeding backmost and starved similar a dying ostrich and sold from 1 workplace to different … perceive maine whale this is the satellite of america men not the mindless beingness of food … Fish what would you cognize of rage …”

Like Guo’s mentation of Ishmael, Ahab, and the “cannibal” Queequeg, each who support beautifully to the tone of Melville’s characters, Guo’s inclusion of a Chinese sage to the communicative is different fascinating innovation. Muzi, a Taoist monk and sailmaker, joins the unit partway done the caller and guides the skipper utilizing divinations from the “I Ching,” thing which the remainder of the unit finds understandably strange.

As their perilous and yet futile travel continues, Ishmaelle and the monk go closer, someway uncovering the words to talk to each different crossed the water of linguistic quality betwixt English and Chinese. Ishmaelle finds this man’s beingness a comfortableness and his otherness to beryllium reassuring successful the mode it mirrors her ain exile from home, her sex and from onshore itself.

When the sage tells her that a omniscient antheral possesses 3 treasures, compassion, frugality and humility, Ishmaelle wonders if she has those qualities. “As I looked retired astatine the distant lights glimmering connected the horizon, I thought, we tin lone cognize ourselves by acting successful the world. It is our conduct, the mode we dainty others, their men, whales, oregon fish, that our quality volition amusement itself. And I had not yet been afloat tested.”

Cast into the satellite successful disguise, she struggles to refashion herself aboard that vessel arsenic she strives to go existent to the calling of exile and sailor. Traveling betwixt worlds, similar the writer herself, she not lone survives but thrives. But connected committee that ill-fated ship, it is successful her relationship with the sage, arsenic good arsenic successful her deepening transportation to the whale and the wonders of the earthy satellite that volition transport readers backmost to Melville and his glorious “Moby-Dick.”

Ogasawara is the translation exertion for the Kyoto Journal and a writer successful Pasadena. She antecedently lived successful Japan, wherever she worked arsenic a translator for 2 decades.