Accuracy, Actuality, and Interpretation: The Question of Typee A Rejoinder to Critics

Fig 13. Map of Nuku Hiva by J. V. Barbier, after G. Winter's descriptions of 1&43~47- From Barbier, Les voyageurs inconnus . . . ,published in Bulletin de la Société de géographie de 1' Est (Nancy, 1882). This is the earliest known map of Nuku Hiva showing any valid terrain details. The outline ofthe island and the si&s and relationships ofthe various valleys and other terrain features are somewhat distorted, although elevations are close to modern measurements. Note that the "Plateau de TovU" is depicted as a marsh)! area u>Ã-th dendritic drainage but without waterfalls. The map shows only one waterfall emptyingfrom the plateau into Taipi; this is the waterfall currently known as Vai'ahu, in the southwest end of Taipi valley, near the route Melville took when descending to Te Ivi 0 Hou. The map further shows no falls in Taipi itself. Accuracy, Actuality, and Interpretation: The Question of Typee A Rejoinder to Critics ROBERT C. SUGGS It's incumbent upon me to begin with an expression of deepest gratitude to Dick Thompson for his remarkable efforts in making this publication possible as well as for his continual encouragement along the way, from concept to publication. His introduction to this symposium, detailing many ofthe notalways -charitable reviews of Melville's Typee and Omoo, is an important complement to the symposium since it demonstrates quite clearly that doubt over Melville's veracity has been with us for a long time and raises the valid question: given this background of criticism, why should anyone, at this late date, maintain that Typee is an accurate account of Nuku Hiva, Melville's residence thereon, or the Marquesan culture ofthat era? The accuracy of Melville's description has been and remains the only issue for me. Other considerations, such as the issue of where Typee might fit in the various classificatory schemes used by literary scholars, are not relevant to my concerns. Also irrelevant to me personally are academic ruminations on the varieties of truth and reality (if there is no such thing as truth and factual investigation, then the academy had better shut its doors), or ritual condemnation ofthe evils of imperialism and the related subtle bashing ofthe United States. These, as well as the specific conjectures about Melville's psychological profile and the depth of his understanding of Marquesan culture, distract from the main concern of my paper: assessing Melville's FSQ I Ii 53 I 1ST-3RD QUARTERS | 2005 187 ROEfRl" C. SUGGS accuracy. But in some cases "interpretative" have been the sole reason for raising the issues of this symposium . I will return to the question of accuracy at some length, but first I feel it important to address some of these other matters . PRELIMINARIES—LANGUAGE MATTERS—BEING IN TAIPI To begin with, let me offer some comments on language. In the symposium are several references by contributors to a paper by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards presented at the Melville Society Conference in Hawai'i in June 2003, and elsewhere, and currently scheduled for publication in another collection on Melville's time in the Marquesas. Some time ago, she sent me for comment a version of this paper titled "No Cannibals at His Heels: Was Herman Melville Ever in Taipi Valley?" The title perhaps unintentionally implies that, if Melville was not in Taipi, he had nothing to fear from Marquesan cannibals.1 Despite the current politically correct revisionary interpretations of historical and ethnographic sources concerning anthropophagy , Europeans and Eurocentric peoples, Melville included, were potential targets anywhere in the Marquesas, including in Taioha'e. Cannibalism was a fact of life in the Marquesas: the last official case took place in 1887, but there is very reliable information of a case in 1898, and I personally documented a 1925 case. Bercaw Edwards's argument is based on three linguistically related assertions: (l) the fact that there is a waterfall in Haka'ui (Melville's "Tior"—Tai'oa); (2) the appearance in Melville's Mardi of a name, Mohi, which Bercaw Edwards believes is similar to, if not identical with, the name of a Haka'ui chief; and finally (3) the supposed lack of any known Taipi names in Typee. Whatever the ultimate interpretative...