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Read Pincher Martin (2002)

Pincher Martin (2002)

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Rating
3.62 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
015602781X (ISBN13: 9780156027816)
Language
English
Publisher
mariner books

Pincher Martin (2002) - Plot & Excerpts

So visceral it hurts, are the words another review on this page used to describe this novel. Especially the first chapters I was in awe at the way Golding described a man clinging to life after being thrown overboard and being washed up on an island that is nothing more than a big rock. Golding really inhabits the character, grounds us, the readers, in his subjective experience, and makes us wish with him to be able to survive his ordeal. But with the main character, Christopher Martin, we also inhabit his body, his mind, as his struggle to survive is starting to fail. His time on the island is turning out to be a purgatory-like experience, and old mistakes and sins claw their way to the surface of Martins mind. Is he ready to acknowledge them? Or not? And does it matter? As with Lord of the Flies I had the impression that there's a deep spiritual layer here, even though it does not translate easily to a christian expression thereof, and I think Goldings anthropology is pretty low. Even so, I heard him say in an interview that he really is not a pessimistic person and those who get that from his novels are misreading them. So I do think that Golding wants us to take a lesson from the opposite. If this is what defying ones conscience up to the end is like, we would be better off allowing ourselves to be cleansed - as, like a character states in one of Martins memories: we would have to change, as in our current state heaven would be nothing but a negation. But - C.S. Lewis suggests - there are those who close the gates of their own hell from the inside. And this seems to be one of them. Still, being inside of Martin as he does this, is a harrowing experience. We almost die ourselves. And the end is like a twist from a Shyamalan-movie. I did not think this book as good as Lord of the Flies, but I do think Golding is an author I'm going to read more of.

In my house growing up there were, I am glad to say, many books. Once I hit my early teens and began to seriously get a reading obsession, I would raid my parent's shelves for anything that might catch my eye. I was, I suspect, about 14 when this 1962 Penguin edition fell into my hands. Look at that cover. Just look at it for a second. How could I not want to read it? How could I not be already a little terrified? Reading it over the next few nights is one of the most profound early(ish) memories I have of being totally drowned within a narrative, of my heart pounding and something scarring itself deep down at the base of my brain. It scared the shit out of me, I think, to find myself inside a man's mind on that lonely little bird-shit splattered outcrop of rock. Death inevitable. Insanity inevitable. I sensed something of what it must be to have your self fracture and fail, and it terrified me. I aim to re-read this at some point, and am curious to see how it holds up. I have no doubt the man can write, so have little fear it will be anything less than spectacular. I can still remember reading that terrible, terrible ending, I can still see the image that was created in my mind's eye, exactly as I saw it all those years ago. This is a rare thing for me as, in general, my memory is pretty rubbish, so know that it must be something special. Anyway, I heartily recommend it, particularly if you can find an old paperback with that lovely stale-pages smell. It seems appropriate somehow.

What do You think about Pincher Martin (2002)?

A marvellous literary supplement to any reading of Spinoza, Descartes, Liebniz, even phenomenologists such as Merleau-Ponty. While, superficially, Pincher Martin is a survival story, its primary conflict is found not as man vs. environment but rather man vs. self. The novel is a meditation on the philosophical Theories of Substance. Golding chronicles the interactions of mind and body, iterating the enmeshment of their respective existences. The outer surface of the body (the skin) of main character Chris Martin symbolizes the phenomenological interface between inner and outer environments. Various cutaneous pathologies erupt as the character's perceptions disintegrate into madness. Golding also introduces various mythological and existentialist symbolisms, including the myths of Prometheus and Sisyphus (e.g. "Ideally, of course, the stone should be a sphere."). Readers who fail to miss Pincher Martin's structural richness will be sorely disappointed by the book. You must allow yourself to read beyond the text itself. Interact with this work of literature, and you will be rewarded with a goldmine.
—Carolyn

A few months back I had found out that William Golding had won the Nobel Prize in Literature. I was something of a nice surprise for me, having been exposed to his Lord of the Flies in high school like most students in the American Post Secondary Education System. Unlike many of these students I had actually read and enjoyed it. It seemed unjust to me that this Freshman effort of a recognized writer should be my only experience and callow to call it his magnum opus. Golding had obviously written more works of such a caliber to be nominated (and won) the prestigious Nobel, I should seek out more of his work!The world does not share my views, and for a while I could find nothing but Lord of the Flies in the book shops. I persevered and found six of his other books in various secondhand markets. Pincer Martin was the first I had found, so I decided it would be the first that I read.Pincer Martin is no where near as accessible as Lord of the Flies. It stars and centers mostly on a ship-wrecked sailor (Christopher Martin) and is set on a small rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. It is told in mostly through third-person stream of conscious that reflects the confused mental state of Martin. He is alone on the island, only joined by seagulls and the memories of his sins. His one goal is to survive, but nature and his own inimical, fragile psyche threaten this goal. Difficult in style and theme, the novel definitely delivers an interesting view on its subject matter. It is a thought provoking, and somewhat sleep-robbing, fable on the nature of man and the consequences of the actions we choose. To say anything more would be inconsequential for those who have not read it.
—Kevin

I know that the author was trying to capture the experience of being confused and feeling disconnected from the body, and I think he did a great job with that, but it made it hard to stay in the story. I think I'd have to read this book again to really get it. I did like how he wove the history leading to the event into the dreams and hallucinations, and I thought that the foreshadowing of the ending was subtle, but satisfying. It took me a LONG time to read this book, though, because I found it easy to set aside. I don't recall ever feeling that with "Lord of the Flies."I did think it was coincidentally appropriate that I was reading this book about a man stranded alone and tring to survive here at a time when I'm thinking about what those who volunteer for the possible one-way mission to Mars will experience. Reading it from that point of view really brought home why a good psychological profile will be important.
—Jay

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