Preparing the Ghost
An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer
Seiten
2014
Liveright Publishing Corporation (Verlag)
978-0-87140-283-7 (ISBN)
Liveright Publishing Corporation (Verlag)
978-0-87140-283-7 (ISBN)
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2014
Memory, mythology, and obsession collide in this strikingly original and enigmatic account of the first man to photograph a giant squid.
Moses Harvey was the eccentric Newfoundland reverend and amateur naturalist who first photographed the near-mythic giant squid in 1874, draping it over a shower curtain rod to display its magnitude. In Preparing the Ghost, what begins as Moses’s story becomes much more, as fellow squid-enthusiast Matthew Gavin Frank boldly winds his narrative tentacles around history, creative nonfiction, science, memoir, and meditations about the interrelated nature of them all. In a full-hearted, lyrical style reminiscent of Geoff Dyer, Frank weaves in playful forays about his research trip to Moses’s Newfoundland home, Frank’s own childhood and family history, and a catalog of bizarre facts and lists that recall Melville’s story of obsession with another deep-sea dwelling leviathan. Though Frank is armed with impressive research, what he can’t know about Harvey he fictionalizes, quite explicitly, as a way of both illuminating the scene and exploring his central theme: the big, beautiful human impulse to obsess.
Memory, mythology, and obsession collide in this strikingly original and enigmatic account of the first man to photograph a giant squid.
Moses Harvey was the eccentric Newfoundland reverend and amateur naturalist who first photographed the near-mythic giant squid in 1874, draping it over a shower curtain rod to display its magnitude. In Preparing the Ghost, what begins as Moses’s story becomes much more, as fellow squid-enthusiast Matthew Gavin Frank boldly winds his narrative tentacles around history, creative nonfiction, science, memoir, and meditations about the interrelated nature of them all. In a full-hearted, lyrical style reminiscent of Geoff Dyer, Frank weaves in playful forays about his research trip to Moses’s Newfoundland home, Frank’s own childhood and family history, and a catalog of bizarre facts and lists that recall Melville’s story of obsession with another deep-sea dwelling leviathan. Though Frank is armed with impressive research, what he can’t know about Harvey he fictionalizes, quite explicitly, as a way of both illuminating the scene and exploring his central theme: the big, beautiful human impulse to obsess.
Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of Preparing the Ghost and The Mad Feast. He teaches creative writing and lives in Marquette, Michigan.
| Zusatzinfo | 15 drawings |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | London |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 124 x 193 mm |
| Gewicht | 355 g |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton |
| Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Naturführer | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-87140-283-1 / 0871402831 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-87140-283-7 / 9780871402837 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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