Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (Penguin Classics)

At one time the most popular of Melville's works, Typee was known as a travelogue that idealized and romanticized a mysterious South Sea island for readers in the ruthless, industrial, "civilized" world of the nineteenth century. But Melville's story of Tommo, the Yankee sailor who enters the flawed Pacific paradise of Nuku Hiva, is also a fast-moving adventure tale, an autobiographical account of the author's own Polynesian stay, an examination of the nature of good and evil, and a frank exploration of sensuality and exotic ritual. This edition of Typee, which reproduces the definitive text and the complete, never-before-published manuscript reading text, includes invaluable explanatory commentary by John Bryant.
Customer Review: Contaminating contact with the white man
1841. A young man of 23 is looking for adventure, he signs a contract on a New England whaler and travels to the South Pacific. Life on the ship is not what he expected, the captain is a tyrant, the life is a bore, food is terrible. The ship reaches the Marquesas after 15 months, with no commercial success so far and the prospect of another few years of the same. The islands have just been occupied and claimed by the French. What one knows of the locals is full of horror: cannibals! But also of delight: the women! On arrival in the harbour, a fantastic party with the best orgy since 15 months is happening. But nothing can distract our hero from his plan: jump ship, wait for its departure, then look for another way home. He finds a companion for the desertion and does it. Then follows an account of 4 months among the cannibals -- while in reality it lasted only 1 month. This is a fictionally embellished travel and adventure story. 5 years later, a book is published. It will be Melville's first and most successful book during his lifetime. From here on, it went down for him. The book lets us observe one of the great American writers in his initiation phase. A future ancestor of Conrad and O'Brian, two of my addictions. I wonder why I bypassed him for so long, with the exception of the Whale, which I read 30 years ago. And loved. Typee gives you an adventure account in exotic surroundings, told in often surprisingly fresh language, but totally free of any scientific pretension: few observations on flora, fauna or geology, but a lot of romantic landscaping. Young Melville was no Maturin. There is a lot of ethnology, the description of the people, their village and life takes a lot of space, so does the process of miscommunicating between the two white runaways and the tribe. As a matter of fact, not much verbal communication happened, the hero spent most of his time in a kind of fog: what was his status? was he a guest? a captive? a friend? was he destined for BBQ? Only half way through the story does he meet briefly a man who speaks some English, and it becomes clear that he is indeed a captive, but to what purpose is not clear. He does reflect on the religion of the tribe, as observed by him in the practices of rituals, and concludes that the information spread by missionaries in the US is exaggerating wildly as far as the practices of paganism are concerned. Self-serving, obviously. He takes a strong position against the morality of our civilization as opposed to the noble naked savages that he gets to know: the white civilized man is the most ferocious animal on the face of the earth, he concludes. He was a bit in love with fair Fayaway, no doubt. More Melville to follow here!
Customer Review: "Too Romantic to Be True"
Melville's famed magnus opus, "Moby Dick" should not be tackled without this adequate introduction to his work and dazzling literary adroitness. Do not have any apprehensions animated by a seemingly simplistic or bromide plot, for once a reader foreign to Melville's work grasps the exquisite prose and sincere romanticism ingrained in all of his novels, you're soon to become a captive of it's pages bound by an aroused imagination. Soon to learn the fame and notoriety surrounding Herman Melville is certainly not without reason and like many noble literary giants that have gone before us, his masterpieces withstand the test of time deservingly of the title, "Classic." The quixotic idea of emerging as a castaway on a dissolute tropical island hidden from the world, deep in paradise with only the company of an exotic but mysterious native people should not deter you from believing "Typee" is of any similarity to other inferior postdating stories of the like. Melville combines a brilliantly adventurous travelogue accompanied by earnest philosophical reflections balancing it all out with anthropological observations of the Island's primitive peoples, as well as recollections of his own home. This famed novel was an ebullient endeavor during it's day which hints the emprise of such modern films as "Castaway" while engrossing the empathy of multiculturalism found in "Dances With Wolves." It is feasibly the first accurate portrait painted of South Pacific life through the eyes of a Westerner, influencing many travelogues to follow focusing on the region in the same fashion of Stevenson and Becke. Numerous editions have been published since the original. The Penguin Classics Edition provides an introduction by author John Bryant who puts the story into context and Melville's conclusion of the supporting character's fate, written two years prior to the first edition in "Sequel: The Story of Toby." When first published in 1846, "Typee" was an immediate hit. Readers of the era in the US and even in Europe already knew to expect stupendous things from the then obscure author. This is exemplified by the book's quantum leap to stardom. The original draft was submitted to be published in New York but was rejected supposedly because it was "too fantastic" to be true. The apparent fact that after more than a century and a half of being published readers still have an appetite for Melville's original work, must persuade even the most discriminating of literary tastes of the caliber of his writing. Do not be deceived by the age of "Typee." You needn't be a diehard classical literature enthusiast nor scholar to appreciate this very readable, gracefully written novel. Which is contrary to the sometimes unfathomable rhetoric of the bygone antebellum era. It remains still just as amusing and captivating to readers today. "Typee" was the first of a trilogy of autobiographical novels set in the South Pacific dealing with Polynesian life. Readers of the author's lifetime couldn't get enough of his masterpieces still acclaimed today. Although not quite as well known as "Moby Dick" is to modern day readers, "Typee" is no less gripping or eloquent.

Ipods are a type of portable media player or method of listening to music that are made by the company Apple Inc. and first burst onto the electronic market on October 23, 2001. Ipods quickly became popular with the listening public because they are sleek, slim, easy to carry and can hold many songs. These portable media players must be plugged into a computer by way of a USB drive and from there songs are downloaded onto the interface.

The line up of Ipod products to date includes the Ipod classic, the video-capable Ipod nano, the touchscreen Ipod touch and the screen less Ipod shuffle. Math modeling is possible on the newer versions of Ipods and the Apple company is looking at ways to help those who are hearing impaired to enjoy this form of technology to the best of their ability. Some of the former products of the Ipod include the compact Ipod mini and the spin-off from that, the Ipod photo. The Ipod photo has since merged into the classic Ipod design.

As of the date January 2008, there have been over 141 million Ipods sold throughout the globe. The older model Ipods could play music and that is about all. The newer more sophisticated models can be used for a variety of learning lessons on language, math, art, literature, architecture and music.

Media is not stored the same way in all of the Ipod products. For example the classic versions of the Ipod store the information for the player on an internal hard drive while the Ipods that are smaller in size make use of flash memory. With the exception of the Ipod touch, these digital players for songs can also be used as a method of storing external data. The amount of storage each Ipod contain varies depending on which model you are talking about.

What are iPods?

Feel free to stop by. You may republish this article as long as the resource box an live link remains. Cheers!!