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INTRODUCTION
So guess this is my first ever short stories review on hive book club and I plan on making it a regular thing you know... cause I have to diversify the content I put out here. I’ve always said that I don’t fancy myself a writer at least I don’t consider myself a natural and hence I struggle a lot to with communicating through writing. However I realize that I need it as it helps slow down my thought process and it helps me pick and frame my words and my thoughts more carefully and clearly. And yes before you guys begin to criticize me by going Osaruese what about the ongoing three chapters per week series you promised to give us every week.. well yes, I’m still going to be putting that out, it’s just that, that’s some intensive writing for me and it won’t be so easy for me to consistently put out that level of writing while shuffling that with my other articles and my day job. This series on the other hand is more layback, structured and contains for less words so y’all are going to be seeing it quite often.
Alright now that that’s out of the way let’s talk about the book and the author I’ll be starting of these series with. Let’s talk about one of my favorite writers of all time Edgar Allen Poe and the short story of his titled ‘A Decent into the Maelstrom’
- Author: Edgar Allan Poe
- Title: A Descent into the Maelstrom
- Year: May 1841
- Genre: Science fiction (surprisingly)
PLOT
The story follows or unnamed lead who ventures into the mountain sides of Norway to get a firsthand view of the famous great whirlpool of the maelstrom in Norway also known as Moskoestrom by the locals. In the story he arrives the mountain top to see the beauty of the land and hills that surround the maelstrom and the awe of the maelstrom itself, describing it as ‘A panorama more deplorable and desolate, no human imagination can conceive’. Our lead goes further to describe in further details the landscape he sees trying to paint the perfect picture in our minds of what the area looks like. He describes the land, the nature of the waves, the islands surrounding the whirlpools and even the terror he feels when there is a severe change in the weather and the waves as he puts it
‘To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high up against it its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking forever………
The edge of the whirl was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray; but no particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel, whose interior, as far as the eye could fathom it, was a smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water, inclined to the horizon at an angle of some forty-five degrees, speeding dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion, and sending forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar, such as not even the mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to Heaven. The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. I threw myself upon my face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation.’
After these descriptions his guide further tells us the story of how he survived a hurricane in the middle of the maelstrom. "You suppose me a very old man," he says, "but I am not. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves". The man recounts the incidents that lead to he and his two brothers finding themselves in the middle of the maelstrom. From their brave but foolish fishing expeditions in those parts to the events that lead to them encountering to storm which finally leads them into the maelstrom. The narrator being the one who escapes the storm and the waves by quickly observing how cylindrical objects sank slower and safer than other shapes and quickly holding unto a barrel until the end of the storm where he is eventually saved by other fishermen who do not believe his story.
SETTING
The story is set around the real life Moskstraumen a system of tidal waves and whirlpools, one of the strongest in the world. It is located in Norway and it forms at the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland County, between the Norwegian Sea and the Vestfjorden. It’s peculiarity and fascination by most is that it is a whirlpool that forms at open sea where as others usually happen in rivers.
CHARACTERS
The major characters of the story are our lead who observes the maelstrom from the top of the mountain and his guide, the ‘old’ man who recounts the events of his survival into his decent into the maelstrom. It is a story within a story and the first half does the job of verbally painting the picturesque of the scenery and the landscape where the maelstrom is located. The next half then tells us the story of the decent into it. Each character serve as vital parts of the story with one giving us the introduction to the story and the setting up of the scenery while the other gives us the details of events in the story and the eventual central theme of the story the theme of acceptance of the supreme and the surprising benefits that come with understanding instead of fighting
PURPOSE
The central purpose of this story I believe like I said in the last subtitle is the acceptance. And then it is the acceptance of different things, the acceptance of one’s weakness as a human, acceptance of the state of one’s reality and finally the acceptance of what is to come, most importantly, the peace and clarity that comes with this kind of acceptance. It is made clear to the old man the severity and helplessness of his situation and when he faced with loss of his younger brother at the hands of the storm and the threat to his life, at the hands of the turbulent waters ahead of him, he resolves to accept his fate and in a moment his mind is flooded with clarity. So much so that he begins to notice the beauty of the night and the seas and the storm as well. He also begins to notice the beauty of the maelstrom, the impending doom ahead of him. In an instant he realizes a way of escape, something he would have been unable to do if he continued struggling and he takes a chance at this discovery which eventually leads him to his rescue by his fellow fishermen at shore.
CONCLUSION
Well I’ve got some things to say. First of I liked this story despite how difficult it was to picture in my head. Even now I don’t think I truly have a full picture of the story in my head. Poe is the kind of write who’s highly descriptive in his writing opting to use a lot of complex words to describe the scenarios in his stories. There’s a way he takes the most mundane of scenes and describes it in such details that a short three minute scene is stretched out into a short story of over five thousand words and I really like that about him. Maybe it’s just how the writers of his time wrote but from the few stories of his I have read this seems to be a common trait in almost all his writing. Like I said earlier this story teaches us the clarity and peace of mind that comes with acceptance over the situations we have no control over and how in such moments of peace and clarity we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So this is where I’m going to end It here on this post, I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it and I will see you guys next week.