The Imaginary Sea Voyage: Sailing Away in Literature, Legend and Lore James J.Bloom. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.

Abstract

The Imaginary Sea Voyage: Sailing Away in Literature, Legend and Lore James J. Bloom. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.James Bloom takes us on a journey to legendary locales as varied as Atlantis, Avalon, Moore's Utopia, the Northwest Passage, Stevenson's Treasure Island, Verne's Nautilus, Gilligan's Island, and the Starship Enterprise. They comprise what he calls the genre of the imaginary voyage, a hybrid between outright fantasy and authentic seaman's yarns (16).His book is charmingly desultory. It gives us a miscellany of observations, opinions, encyclopedic summaries, and surveys of research about explorations that may or may not have happened. Bloom's approach organizes material by association: one instance of a sea voyage of the mind suggests another, and another, and so on. If readers are looking for a tidy critical principle with which to analysis this messy genre, they will be disappointed. But if they are looking for considered appreciations by a scholar who has read thoroughly in the field and has plenty to say about culture, literary highlights, and the topography of fantasy, then they've picked the right book.Bloom begins with a survey of how others have attempted to define the genre. He is especially fond of using John Kirkland Wright's term geo sophy to explain the meaning of imaginary voyages. According to Wright, geo sophy (which includes the study of geography from all points of view) is to geography what historiography is to history.This all-embracing word gives Bloom the license to wander happily amid wide-ranging works. Chapters of unequal length take us on magical mystery tours of sea voyages, tall tales, and seldom-visited places. Like any self-confident traveler, he enjoys taking fascinating detours along the way. His digressions are always instructive. For instance, he compares the earlier flood story in the Gilgamesh with the later flood story in Genesis. Both are woven from remarkably similar details: divine intervention via a worldwide flood; instructing a righteous man to build a large-roofed multi-deck boat to save his family and earth's creatures; the boat's coming to rest on a mountain; releasing a series of birds from the boat; leaving the boat when the last bird fails to return; offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving; receiving divine blessing and a special promise made to the progeny of the righteous man.Bloom also pays particular attention to legendary constructs like Hy-Bras il and Atlantis. …