Billy Budd: Reflections and Connections by Jim Miller

Mutinies in 1797

millerjames01 — 2021-10-27 03:06:57 UTC

The two mutinies Melville details in the story are moments where the Royal Navy underwent internal strife during a prolonged war effort against France.

Dansker "Board-her-in-the-smoke"

millerjames01 — 2021-10-27 03:13:42 UTC

- Fond of Billy

While the old man's eccentricities... repelled the juniors, Billy,
undeterred thereby, revering him as a salt hero, would make advances,
never passing the old Agamemnon man without a salutation..." p. 272

Douglass & Billy

millerjames01 — 2021-10-27 03:15:29 UTC

Both are witness to horrid acts of physical abuse. Douglass, while hiding in a kitchen closet. Billy, his first day of impressment.

The death mask of Richard Parker, who was hanged for the 1797 mutiny.

2021-10-27 21:24:48 UTC

Flowery language to describe men/male presenting bodies?

2021-10-27 21:26:59 UTC

Present in both Howe's The Hermaphrodite and in phrases/sentences/descriptions of Billy.

Ship Names: Bellipotent

2021-10-27 21:29:35 UTC

Bellipotent comes from the Latin "bellum", meaning war, and "potens", meaning power.
Means "mighty in war."

Claggart, Billy, and Vere as one Individual

2021-10-27 21:30:02 UTC

From Shattuck's article: "The Bellipotent is a ship of war that represents not only a ship of state in crisis but also the ship of a divided and unified individual: Claggart as evil, Billy as good or innocence, Captain Vere as the authority of reason trying to maintain order."

The Rights of Man

2021-10-27 21:31:14 UTC

The name of the merchant ship that Billy is on is named after Thomas Paine's famous appeal to support the French Revolution

The Handsome Sailor

millerjames01 — 2021-10-27 21:31:27 UTC

Melville provides us with a way of thinking about desire in a completely masculine environment. On ships, there is the position of "The Handsome Sailor," who seems to be kept around as a kind of object of desire to keep all the other sailors in a bright and cheerful mood. On the Rites and the Indomitable.

Aggression at the site of affection

2021-10-27 21:32:32 UTC

This is a bit of stretch but...at moments of affections lurked violence against bodies. We see these with Laurence and with Harriet Jacobs.

1842 Mutiny

2021-10-27 21:32:41 UTC

Shattuck: "...partially based on a mutiny in 1842 aboard the U.S. Navy brig, Somers. Melville's much admired cousin... was First Lieutenant on the Somers at the time."

"his entire family was practically invested in himself" (253)

2021-10-27 21:33:02 UTC

In describing how most sailors "had wives and children left," the narrator goes on at length about how Billy Budd is without a form of normative family connections.

Billy Budd's looks have an affect on others

2021-10-27 21:33:53 UTC

"As the Handsome Sailor, Billy Budd's position aboard the seventy-four was something analogous to that of a rustic beauty transplanted from the provinces...But this change in circumstances he scarce noted. As little did he observe that something about him provoked an ambiguous smile in one or two harder faces among the bluejackets. Nor less unaware was he of the peculiar favorable effect his person and demeanour had upon the more intelligent gentlemen of the quarter-deck" (254)

Homosociality for Laurence and Billy

millerjames01 — 2021-10-27 21:34:11 UTC

I'm reminded of Laurence's schoolyards friends' appreciation of them when comparing to Billy Budd's relationship among the men on ship.

Character Names

2021-10-27 21:34:52 UTC

Billy Budd: youthful, naive, more unaware, less intelligent sounding
Claggart: sounds more intense, more dignified and negative, but educated
Vere: maybe similar to "veer," could potentially be implying deviance or variance
Squeak: implies weakness, subservient to Claggart?
Ratcliffe: literally rat (negative view in soceity) and cliff (a point of nervousness and fear)

Existentialism

2021-10-27 21:35:01 UTC

Shattuck: "The phrase 'mystery of iniquity' designates the problem of the existence of evil in a God-created world..." This is perhaps "Melville's Quarrel with God or Melville's Testament of Acceptance."

Billy Budd and the afterguardsman

2021-10-27 21:35:08 UTC

There is a very short scene with Billy Budd and the afterguardsman, where the afterguardsman confronts Billy Budd about being an impressed sailor and wanting help with something that would cause trouble for Billy Budd, a mutiny. This sailor is trying to include Billy Budd in a group, however troublesome, and Billy Budd chooses to distance himself and make a fuss about this. For Billy Budd, it seems that just the comraderie is not enough to make him accept the risk of getting in trouble. Billy Budd seems less concerned with his connections than with following the rules.

272-273, Billy & Claggart

2021-10-27 21:35:37 UTC

The interaction between Dansker and Billy Budd sets up a duality between the public and private spheres. The way Calggart is portrayed as antagonistic for outwardly kind words highlights an emphasis on emotion and feeling as a "closeted" action between men

Captain Vere

millerjames01 — 2021-10-27 21:36:05 UTC

The captain of the Indomitable, a bit odd for a sailor.
- Well read and always making references lost on his sailor
- Prone to getting lost in thought
- Nickname comes from a literary allusion

"rustic beauty" and "an ambiguous smile"

2021-10-27 21:36:13 UTC

Billy Budd is compared to a "rustic beauty transplanted" into a court scene and brought into competition with others; this inspires some of the "harder faces" to produce "an ambiguous smile"--how might this be a form of homosocial bonding or knowingness?

Long Sentences

2021-10-27 21:38:13 UTC

There is not a lot of sudden action in this novella. Instead, we are given long descriptions of seemingly mundane happenings. There's indeed something over the top about how the narrative seeks to delve into the inner life of the characters. The form, then, feels anti-action, seeking instead to delve into some form of a deeper question about motivation.

Language

2021-10-27 21:39:50 UTC

provocative language throughout, like "ejaculate," "handsome," "shapely mouth," "down on," "pleasant young fellow," "touching the more private career of Claggart," "deadly space between," Plato mentioned (Greece and homosexuality), "natural depravity"

Rejection of Feeling

2021-10-27 21:40:01 UTC

I think there's an interesting connection here with Disaffected. the idea of unfeeling as a form of resistance against societal oppression, but Claggart's aggression seems to be outwardly antagonistic of his own desire. He is not only refusing to feel but persecuting the object of his desire. I don't have much to say on this, but I'm interested in the way the refusal of feeling can be it's own form of desire to return to a social norm

wherefore art thou, Benito Cereno?

2021-10-27 21:40:21 UTC

It seems significant that this story is set in the same era as the story of "Benito Cereno." How does that story's disclosure of action parallel how things are disclosed here? Are there ways to bring both texts together? Or do we see something about how Melville has shifted his writing style between the 1850s and the 1880s/90s?

"Handsome is as handsome does"

2021-10-27 21:41:31 UTC

This is a proverb that means "character and behavior are more important than appearance." It's interesting to think that Claggart is the one who repeats this. What might be being said through that?

Envy and Antipathy

millerjames01 — 2021-10-27 21:41:50 UTC

Now envy and antipathy, passions irreconcilable in reason, nevertheless
in fact may spring conjoined like Chang and Eng in one birth. Is Envy
then such a monster? Well, though many an arraigned mortal has in hopes
of mitigated penalty pleaded guilty to horrible actions, did ever
anybody seriously confess to envy?

Billy's moral ignorance and brush with evil

2021-10-27 21:42:08 UTC

When the sailor offers Billy guineas to participate in a mutiny, he has a taste of what evil (or justice) might look and feel like. He nevertheless perceives what he encounters with the shipmate as evil, and contemplates its consequences: "And yet he was not without natural curiosity to see how such a visitor in the dark would look in broad day."

Impressment of Sailors

2021-10-27 21:42:24 UTC

"Impressment was strongly criticized by those who believed it to be contrary to the British constitution."

Impressment not seen as favorable, strongly criticized by many. Even non-sailors were sometimes impressed. It was seen as necessary for the British Navy.

Gay Sailors

2021-10-27 21:42:37 UTC

https://www.colorado.edu/gendersarchive1998-2013/2003/03/01/flesh-word-billy-budd-sailor-compulsory-homosociality-and-uses-queer-desire

Military Men and Prudence

2021-10-27 21:43:17 UTC

"Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, in the first" (261)
things that are considered selfish, in any manner, are seen as wrong. Desire, personal feelings, these are all things that would be frowned upon since it is not related to military virtue

The Battle of Camperdown

2021-10-27 21:44:34 UTC

The British fleet struggled during this battle due to the mutinies of 1797.

"Agamemnon man" (271)

2021-10-27 21:45:27 UTC

Person from the Trojan War.

"Board-Her-in-the-Smoke"

2021-10-27 21:47:16 UTC

When this older fellow meets Billy, he's described his way: "Now the first time that his small weasel eyes happened to light on Billy Budd, a certain grim internal merriment set all his ancient wrinkles into antic play" (271). Fascinating moment where feeling becomes so subtly expressive.

Making Waves: Gender and Sex in the History of Seafaring

2021-10-27 21:47:19 UTC

Desire Without Love

2021-10-27 21:47:39 UTC

"The avowal of such an imperfection in the Handsome Sailor should be evidence not alone that he is not presented as a conventional hero, but also that the story in which he is the main figure is no romance." (257)