Please use new list. Thank You. Ron S

Please use the latest listing. Thank You. Ron S

jwttrans, I think our two readings may be compatible--the ambiguously misread situation having to do with misread racial stereotypes, the captain's fixation on skin color blinding him to unrevealed dark designs. And with time the hidden darkness or "evil" is revealed--the desperate escaped slaves are truly murderous and do practically wipe out TWO ships--the one they are in at the beginning of the story and that captain's ship they attack near the end of the story. My only hesitation about our combined reading is that Benito Cereno, read by itself, would tend to solicit an allegorical reading associating innocence with whites and evil with blacks. However, that would be to overlook the blame Melville heaps on the "innocent" white captain whose self-willed "innocence" is not true "innocence," but rather a wilful refusal to see and acknowledge the evil lurking in the depths. He nearly makes himself an accessory to murder, as a result--equally culpable, in other words. That would not be white "innocence," but white culpability. And if anyone has read Melville's other sea fictions, they would know he often depicts the blackness/evil in all men's hearts. (I'm not sure if he includes women or not. Anyone remember any portraits of women in his works? Certainly, a half century later, Conrad writing on racial themes in Heart of Darkness exempted the lovely fiancee--the "intended" -- from the darkness in human hearts, for instance.) But you have a good point on ambiguity--probably works on anything Melville and Hawthorne wrote. That was the way they often set up their allegories as the reader moves from the literal to the figurative/spiritual. Just as Melville explores the ambiguity of whiteness in Moby Dick, so he does by depicting an "innocent" white captain whose innocence is just as ambiguous since he becomes the reason why they are all nearly murdered. That good and evil are NOT black and white, but quite ambiguous in nature, would seem to be Melville's point? Kate

Oh! Cassandra is one of my all-time favorite characters, and I Capture the Castle is in my Top 5 of all-time favorite novels. Long-timers here at RP have repeatedly read my paeans to ICTC, but I can't help myself for singing this refrain. I first read it almost fifty years ago; then I read it over and over for about ten years. But in the early 1970s I lost track of it and spent the next quarter of a century trying to find it again. In the mid 1990s a now-defunct bookseller with a glorious catalogue ran a question to its subscribers asking what out-of-print books they would most like to see back in print. My choice, of course, was I Capture the Castle and I wrote up a piece about why I liked it so much and why I thought it should be reissued. The bookseller printed my piece and the response was tremendous. All this was turned over to the publisher and voila! within a couple of years (1998, if I remember correctly) I Capture the Castle was back for new generations of readers to enjoy. I like to think I was instrumental in its return, but I figure it was bound to happen, with or without me...I Capture the Castle was fondly remembered by so many other readers. Well, as much as I like Cassandra, I do see how she could be a tad annoying sometimes. Just a couple of examples: 1) Stephen, the son of the Mortmains' deceased housekeeper, was sweet on Cassandra, but she was uncomfortable with his devotion to her. I still have the impression that she thought he was beneath her in social status, although she and her family were dependent on him, as he was the only one who knew how to work and make money. I have never liked this aspect of Cassandra. 2) Stephen worked and saved to buy Cassandra a wireless. She appreciated the gift, somewhat, until Simon gave her a fancier model that included a gramophone (no hardship for Simon). Now whose was the greater gift? It's so poignant and realistic, I'm afraid, and I'm not proud of Cassandra's reaction. Mortmain irked me, too, for being so lazy and languishing with his writer's block. But I think Cassandra's sister, Rose, annoyed me even more: she was so self-conscious, pretentious, and "willing to sacrifice" herself -- for the good of her family -- by marrying Simon. But in the end she was too self-centered, which I suppose was a good thing, in a way.