In this version of the story, the only official one given us, Billy Budd is depicted as the ringleader of a genuine mutiny, who "vindictively stabbed" Claggart for exposing him. In an "authorized weekly publication" quoted at some length in Chapter 29, the events of Melville's tale are briefly recounted. There is another story with which Melville's narrative is contrasted so sharply that it might well be described as its opposite, in the sense that it is an inverted version of his tale. In this case, mercifully, he does not leave us entirely in the dark. In Melville's writings, questions like these are often genuine ones, and ones without clear or simple answers. Inside what? Are we supposed to contrast it with an outside narrative? And what sort of story would that be? Of course, this immediately raises the question of what an inside narrative is.
For the title of Melville's narrative, or more exactly its subtitle, tells quite literally what sort of story it is.
A sensible place to begin trying to understand how we should take the story, Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative), is to begin at its very beginning, which is its title.
0 kommentar(er)
