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
