Hello everyone – at the risk of sounding too much like an English student, I have decided to return way back to our days with The Lima Reader. The reason I risk sounding too much like an English student is that I wish to do this to draw on Herman Melville’s words about Lima. I read his short story “Benito Cereno” in a class this past year and I’d like to draw on certain things I remember about it in comparison.
“For Lima has taken the white veil; and there is a higher horror in this whiteness of her woe,” Melville says. The use of colour (or shade?) is what strikes me here, and makes me believe that Melville is using shades or colours differently than he did in Benito Cereno. Although I don’t remember Benito Cereno down to its last detail, I remember the opening pages that more than once talked about grayness- gray sky, gray smoke. In a story that does not clearly label which of the white or black guys are “good” or “bad” (that is up to the reader’s interpretation) grayness represents confusion – a mixture of the good or bad regardless of which group the “good”guys supposedly are. If this is the case, then what does it mean, for Melville, if Lima carries a white veil? My first assumption about white in this scenario is that it has to do with some lighter clouds – perhaps clouds that appear non-threatening in the beginning, because they offer less of a chance of rain, but conceal the sun nevertheless. The clouds’ concealment of the sun metaphorically correspond to the veil – something that covers. Is Melville saying that Lima’s “whiteness” covers something else, and that that is scary? If so, does “whiteness” represent people, perhaps those of a higher percentage of Spanish descent? Does this cover the city’s long Indigenous history? I’m probably going too far. Given that I don’t know much about Melville himself and how much any of this would have mattered to him, I am purely making the assumptions any good English student would. Maybe I should stop looking for metaphors where there aren’t any significant ones. Maybe “whiteness” does only represent clouds, if that.
In an attempt to continue using this metaphor myself, there are far fewer clouds in Cusco and Pisac. There are some, but they don’t quite manage to obstruct the blue skies. I guess, if you think about it, that a veil cannot fully obstruct anything either- it just makes things a little bit more difficult to see, which I suppose is the case in Lima.
I apologize for my heavy metaphor usage today. I hope my blog manages to get its point across regardless 🙂
2 replies on “What is “Whiteness” to Herman Melville?”
“I guess, if you think about it, that a veil cannot fully obstruct anything either- it just makes things a little bit more difficult to see, which I suppose is the case in Lima.” You don’t have to apologize for using metaphors in your blogpost. In fact, as a student of Hispanic Literature, I’m going to double down on some others. We have all noticed the difference in the way the light bathes each of the places we have been. Of course, the strongest contrast was between Lima and Cusco. After being there, I perfectly understand why the Incas thought that hills or rivers had a supernatural aura – while still being natural, of course. I am sure that surfaces are important. (Also, the best way to disguise ourselves to avoid being recognized is to pretend to be ourselves.) Lima is a contrasting city, where in certain parts we see the intention to inscribe in a past and in others we see an effort to hide it. Furthermore, in other cases, there is the intention to create a “deep” past where it does not exist.
Hi Yasmin,
Thank you for this super insightful post! You apologize too much! Who cares what Melville intended? I don’t. This is your interpretation and why should it be any less valuable than any other interpretation. I personally believe that, as an author, if you have put something out into the world, whatever your intentions are, you must be prepared for it to be interpreted in every which way. I think there’s a term out there for this, but I believe there’s no One True Meaning, rather that the beauty of writing lies in its ability to be constantly re-interpreted. I love that people’s backgrounds and experiences will lead them to focus on different parts of an author’s writing. Your interpretation of Melville’s words has added a lot to my understanding of the contrast between Lima, Cusco, and Pisac, and to my understanding of the intuition of the natural world. Thank you again for your beautiful words!
Take care,
Cissy