JML On Robinson Crusoe
November 19, 2014
Crusoe possesses an overwhelming sense of mortal sin in having rebelled against his parents’ wishes;
He becomes a slave-holder and slave-trader, however, and never thinks that it is a sin.
Colonialism contained in ONE MAN: WASP civilization contained in one man….
Protestantism in England vs. the span of the Catholic empire—global civil war.
Privateer ships received “letter of mark”
Alexander Selkirk, a Scot, marooned himself.
Crusoe does not need a priest or church—he has the KJV of the Bible.
The novel is about Re3ligion and Technology.
Caliban: “Burn but his books, for without them he is nought but a sot, as I am….”
Europeans bring ALCOHOL to the new world.
The “bottle” sets up a slave trade.
CONQUEST: Religion, rum, Gunpowder, Disease.
Compare to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: “[Kurtz] came to them with fire and lightning and they made him a god” [Gunpowder].
Cortez conquered the Aztec Empire with 50 men.
Indigenous people were impressed by Spaniards.
Britain ruled through ships: “Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves….”
Unlike the Fatherlands of Germany and France, England was ONE SHIP beautifully organized which flew the Union Jack.
Pathological drive and ethos kept the ship afloat.
“Where there is tea, there is hope.”
The Black Myth of Spain—National Sin:
-That the Spanish were an inherently cruel people;
-Tainted by the Moors, and by Islam; crazy for gold;
-The Brits had remained Nordic;
-The Brits liked to see their imperialist mission as opposite to Spain’s;
-Cortez set himself up as a god;
-Kurtz forgot about England set himself up as a god; he forgot when to have tea;
-Robinson Crusoe teaches Friday how to use the gun [natives will go
on to become colonial shock troops].
RC cannot shoot all the cannibals, much as he hates them, because he is BRITISH—Spaniards would simply shoot them.
“By the bitter road the younger son must tread”—Primogeniture means that the British Empire will be built by second and third sons; younger sons become knights errant.
Winston Churchill: “We will defend our island home at any cost—we will fight them on the beaches, etc….”
But if it come to pass that we are conquered, England will ENDURE because it is EVERYWHERE.
RC’S VALUES ARE THE STAID VALUES OF THE BOURGEOISIE. He is NOT a knight errant of the sea. He is middle class and very regular.
Adventure lit? he recreates the comfy villages of York without a TACE of romance or sex or art.
He watches the savages dance, that’s it.
He creates only for pure utility.
Cannibalism is compared to Catholicism, which eats communion.
RC’s Protestants live by the word alone.
Kurtz’s guys go crazy because they over reach.
RC metes out textbook justice, and is not crazy.
Crusoe practices paternalistic racism [Gungadin style].
Kipling: African people may be good people, but they have not the faculties to rule.
Spain: conquer, kill, and overpower.
Colonialism is epic and mythic.
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