OPENING SALVO // Tender Our Amber Waves of Grain
Americans Adrift
Let’s stop pulling up the ladder behind us
by Heather Shayne Blakeslee
EXCERPT //
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is the quintessential American novel; Jaws is our forever summer blockbuster.
In Moby-Dick, single-minded purpose is personified in Captain Ahab: His nemesis, a white whale, has taken his leg and now he will make it pay by whatever means necessary—he’s even willing to risk the lives of his crew to achieve his retribution-fueled goal. Solitary figures with epic visions may be inspiring, but the dark side is dangerous, just as it is with big wave surfing, deep sea exploration, or freediving.
In Jaws, the flawed authority figure, motivated by capitalist instincts rather than concern for public safety (shut down that beach, Mayor Vaughn!), instigates others to step in. There is a juicy antagonism between the grizzled sailor and townie cop vs. the nerdy science interloper. But they lay down their arms when they realize that the biggest problem they all have is a psychotic apex predator.
We, they decide, are going to accomplish something difficult together—that shark that has been hunting us? We’re going to hunt it instead. (When they finally get a glimpse of the size of the fins they face, they realize they need to reassess tactics. The movie’s signature phrase—You’re going to need a bigger boat, was apparently ad-libbed.)
I think a lot about cultural and political tribes in America and wonder sometimes if a country this big, with so many different cultures of people, is capable of mustering a “We the people” anymore. We’re much more likely to throw one another out of the boat than pull a fellow American in. Even Covid didn’t bring us together—we cleaved. //
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