In the Wake of the Novel: The Oriental Tale as National Allegory

Abstract

A small dugout canoe named the Novel was sighted off the coast of San Juan Fernandez island, in the balmy waters of the Caribbean, during the year 1719. Brought back by intrepid English explorers, it was a machine and an organism; in fact, an alien creature that grew in size and scope, reproducing itself promiscuously through the next few centuries. Its progeny went everywhere, and were dubbed loose and baggy monsters. These creatures carried much,freight, in the manner of today's spaceships on interplanetary voyages. However, while the Novel's descendants had become capacious, like deepwater ocean liners which had mastered the sea, carrying much of and concerning humankind in their bellies, these iron dragons had also become long in the tooth, weak in the jaw, and dull of claw.