Lesson 21 What’s So Big about Moby Dick?白鲸记

A pretty, young lady goes swimming alone off the coast of New England in twilight. She is an agile swimmer, full of grace and speed. Without warning, though, she disappears from sight, only to reappear a moment later, screaming in pain. A few shocking moments later, she is again dragged under the water, this time only to reappear the next morning in pieces of the shore.

Sound familiar? By now nearly everyone has seen or heard the story of a killer Great White Shark in Jaws, a hit novel turned into a blockbuster movie. Few people realize, however, that the story broadly follows the events depicted in what many people consider one of the best of American novels. Published in 1851, Moby Dick has been making waves ever since.

The author, Herman Melville, was born in New York on August 1 1819. As a youth in a large family he suffered many insecurities due to the family’s constantly changing fortunes. As a young man he worked as a farmer and seaman, the latter providing most of the material for several of his later novels and essays. In his 20s Melville found fame with two novels based on imaginary happenings in the South Pacific. Moby Dick, ironically, was not well received. Afterwards, Melville produced another masterpiece, Billy Budd. He continued writing until his death in 1891.

Why has Moby Dick since become such a classic despite its initial lukewarm reception? Melville had a keen eye for not only the human condition but for the tenor of his times： the Unites States was in his day a country of disadvantaged and mistreated immigrants(many of whom became sailors and laborers), with untrammeled capitalism crushing both nature and man underneath its new country exuberance. His stress on the individual and fate-often pessimistically, or at least realistically——were harbingers of the future of literature.

Why does the story of Moby Dick continue to enthrall generation after generation? The story line is simple enough： a mad sea captain vows revenge against a white whale shich, on a previous expedition, bit off one of his legs. In his vain attempt at “justice” against nature, the captain meets the ultimate tragedy. This was no documentary, however; the characters and setting become vehicles for far larger and more universal themes of the setbacks and successes of the human spirit as well as its darker urges. So accurately does Melville depict the whaling scenes and sea voyages that the reader is taken on an exhilarating ride. Coupled with the absorbing, mad Captain Bhab, the book is “a good read” even by 20th century standards.

Earlier in this century, the Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway penned the Old Man and the Sea, another story of a man’s struggle with nature on the open ocean. This theme strikes a chord in Americans, whose culture developed along the Atlantic coast of North America and whose seaward passage from the Old World took them to the colonies of the 18th century or the young country of the 19th century by the millions. This fascination with the maritime still holds today： over half the population of the United States lives in counties touching the Atlantic, Pacific, or Gulf coasts. Perhaps some future writer will once again use the metaphor of sailors and the sea to create yet another Great American Novel.

Lesson 22 Hearth of American Culture

波士顿：美国文化重镇

When people think of “American culture and values”, they are unconsciously referring to a set of principles, a world view, and a lifestyle which can best be found in Boston, capital of the state of Massachusetts and the major city in all of New England, those six relatively small states tucked away in the northeastern corner of the US. Although Boston is perhaps the seventh or eighth largest city in the US, no other city in America can compare with the influence which Boston has had on teh development of government, education, medicine, and the arts.

This influence is due in no small part to Boston’s central role in the building of a new nation. Many people think that the Unites States was established in 1776; however, that was the year of the Declaration of Independence, a revolutionary document claiming self-rule from its mother country, England. Actual independence——the formation of a government with an acting president (George Washington)——did not begin until 1789. Boston was nearly middle-aged then, as it had had its beginnings a century and a half earlier, in 1630. It maintained its position as the colonies’ pre-eminent center for politics, education, and commerce until the mid-18th century, when both New York and Philadelphia (the young nation’s first and second capitals, respectively) overtook Boston in size.

Boston was settled by religious immigrants from the Church or England. It was with these early settlers that the first outlines of an American culture began： a strict adherence to religious dicta, diligence in work, educational aspirations, and a conservative lifestyle. Because Boston is closer to Europe than any other city in the US, it was the point of entry to the colonies until the 19th century, when New York became the new magnet for the “poor, tired, and huddled masses” who were to become the backbone of the new American economy. Boston remained, however, an important commercial center until the 20th century.

Today Boston caters to finance and banking, education, and medicine, with some of the top international mutual fund and insurance companies, world-renowned educational institutes, and state-of-the-art medical centers and schools. The city has also managed to preserve much of its earlier identity as the home of the American Revolution; thus, tourism is an important sector in the economy of Boston as well. Like San Francisco or New Orleans, Boston has a reputation for being a pleasant city to admire while walking around it.

What can one do in Boston? Important historic sites, well-preserved examples of architecture from the 17-20th centuries, and spacious parks invite the tourist or resident to “smell the roses” while in Boston. Its unhurried but sophisticated citizens boast not only high incomes but also high levels of education. Music flourishes here： the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Boston Pops Orchestra offer first-class musical entertainment in both public and private venues. The Museum of Fine Arts is a major world gallery. Scince Park, situated midway between Boston and its major satellite city, Cambridge, offers the Museum of Science. Had enough of “high-brow culture”? Boston affords its citizens and visitors many first-class restaurants and shopping dockside in Faneuil Hall. Historic walking tours are a must for the tourist, especially Boston Commons, a city park, and Beacon Hill, with its roads still paved with the original stones from the 17th century. Admirers of university campuses steeped in tradition should see Harvard, the nation’s oldest university (1636), as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, Boston College, and Boston University, all in the metropolitan area.

In short, no matter one’s interest is, any visitor is sure to enjoy his stay in Boston, hearth of American culture and still a leader in education, medicine, and music.