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South Sea Tales
LONDON, Jack. South Sea Tales. NuVision Publications, LLC, 2008. 124 p. ISBN 1-59547-594-X, $9.93. Acid-Free.
I reviewed a collection of short stories by Jack London, collectively called South Sea Tales. My overall impression of the collection was something along the lines of “wow, these stories are pretty blatantly racist”. The native islanders in most of the stories are referred to as “savages” and “heathens”, and many times a point is made to contrast the “brown-skinned men” from the “white-skinned men” with whom they are interacting. A good example of this treatment is found the short story, The Whale Tooth.
The Whale Tooth follows an English-speaking Caucasian missionary named John Starhurst (we are never explicitly told his nationality but my assumption was American). Starhurst is stationed in Fiji with 2 other missionaries who are trying to convert the local Fijians to Christianity. The missionaries meet with mixed success, with some local chiefs becoming ”Lotu” (“converted” in the native tongue) but most of the natives seem more interested in fighting and eating each other (lengths are taken to highlight the fact that the natives are ravenous cannibals).
The author, Jack London, was born in 1876, and grew up around San Francisco, California, during the later 1800s. In 1897 he traveled with many others to Alaska to join the Klondike Gold Rush. This trip was short lived, but it gave him a backdrop for many successful stories. London did also spend some time traveling in the South Pacific. It is doubtful, however, that he actually witnessed cannibalism, or any of the other violent/belligerent behavior he depicts in his tales. It is possible the he was simply captivated by the idea and thought it would make for a compelling story backdrop. It does serve as a very different atmosphere to most of his popular works, which take place in the frozen north of Alaska (i.e. White Fang, Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire).
I believe that two things save this collection of short stories. The first is its age. It is obviously from another era, and the overt racism is so out-dated that I think it loses some of its vehemence. However, I do acknowledge that ethnic Pacific Islanders may not be so quick to forgive London, and it may well be the fact that the racism is not pointed in my direction (being a white American) that dulls its effect on me. The second facet is that these stories are rather short and quite easy to read. This makes them accessible to a wide range of reading levels.
This collection of work (South Sea Tales) was originally copyrighted in 1911, however several new editions can be found today. A search on Amazon revealed at least five physical editions, as well as audio book, a Kindle edition, Google books, and various other free download sites (i.e. free-ebooks.net). A recent edition was published by NuVision Publications, LLC in 2008. This paperback edition is 124 pages. The book costs $9.93 from Amazon.com and is printed on Acid-Free paper. I especially liked this edition because there was no forward or preface by another author. It was just a reprinting of Jack London’s book, which I prefer. Public libraries with an “American classics” collection, a Jack London collection, or even a short story collection should include this book. It is quite affordable, and Jack London is considered by many to be a “classic” American author. That said, it may not be a good selection for a library located in the South Pacific, or with a recent influx of immigrants from the region (this due to its questionable depiction of local populations). These stories are obviously dated and, given that their author is a celebrated American fiction writer, it is likely that these could be safely included in most libraries without stirring up too much social unrest. However, it would fall to the library in question to judge the sensitivity of its service community to such works.
Submitted October, 2009 by Ryan Lammers, LIS student, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
I reviewed a collection of short stories by Jack London, collectively called South Sea Tales. My overall impression of the collection was something along the lines of “wow, these stories are pretty blatantly racist”. The native islanders in most of the stories are referred to as “savages” and “heathens”, and many times a point is made to contrast the “brown-skinned men” from the “white-skinned men” with whom they are interacting. A good example of this treatment is found the short story, The Whale Tooth.
The Whale Tooth follows an English-speaking Caucasian missionary named John Starhurst (we are never explicitly told his nationality but my assumption was American). Starhurst is stationed in Fiji with 2 other missionaries who are trying to convert the local Fijians to Christianity. The missionaries meet with mixed success, with some local chiefs becoming ”Lotu” (“converted” in the native tongue) but most of the natives seem more interested in fighting and eating each other (lengths are taken to highlight the fact that the natives are ravenous cannibals).
The author, Jack London, was born in 1876, and grew up around San Francisco, California, during the later 1800s. In 1897 he traveled with many others to Alaska to join the Klondike Gold Rush. This trip was short lived, but it gave him a backdrop for many successful stories. London did also spend some time traveling in the South Pacific. It is doubtful, however, that he actually witnessed cannibalism, or any of the other violent/belligerent behavior he depicts in his tales. It is possible the he was simply captivated by the idea and thought it would make for a compelling story backdrop. It does serve as a very different atmosphere to most of his popular works, which take place in the frozen north of Alaska (i.e. White Fang, Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire).
I believe that two things save this collection of short stories. The first is its age. It is obviously from another era, and the overt racism is so out-dated that I think it loses some of its vehemence. However, I do acknowledge that ethnic Pacific Islanders may not be so quick to forgive London, and it may well be the fact that the racism is not pointed in my direction (being a white American) that dulls its effect on me. The second facet is that these stories are rather short and quite easy to read. This makes them accessible to a wide range of reading levels.
This collection of work (South Sea Tales) was originally copyrighted in 1911, however several new editions can be found today. A search on Amazon revealed at least five physical editions, as well as audio book, a Kindle edition, Google books, and various other free download sites (i.e. free-ebooks.net). A recent edition was published by NuVision Publications, LLC in 2008. This paperback edition is 124 pages. The book costs $9.93 from Amazon.com and is printed on Acid-Free paper. I especially liked this edition because there was no forward or preface by another author. It was just a reprinting of Jack London’s book, which I prefer. Public libraries with an “American classics” collection, a Jack London collection, or even a short story collection should include this book. It is quite affordable, and Jack London is considered by many to be a “classic” American author. That said, it may not be a good selection for a library located in the South Pacific, or with a recent influx of immigrants from the region (this due to its questionable depiction of local populations). These stories are obviously dated and, given that their author is a celebrated American fiction writer, it is likely that these could be safely included in most libraries without stirring up too much social unrest. However, it would fall to the library in question to judge the sensitivity of its service community to such works.
Submitted October, 2009 by Ryan Lammers, LIS student, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
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