A cloud of unknowing
June 28, 2019 7:47 PM Subscribe
Once upon a time, I read a book in which the protagonist is described as traveling (by land or sea, I'm not sure, but not flying) and passing into some kind of great dazzling, blinding whiteness.
It wasn't smoke, but rather some other kind of atmospheric condition. It was a disquieting experience, with sinister undertones, rather than a positive one. I really thought this was some non-Moby Dick Melville, but, looking for it this evening, Googling is not turning anything up. I believe it was literary fiction, or fiction with literary aspirations, rather than genre, but am not completely sure. (It's most definitely not "The Whiteness of the Whale.") Help me find this, Mefi!
It wasn't smoke, but rather some other kind of atmospheric condition. It was a disquieting experience, with sinister undertones, rather than a positive one. I really thought this was some non-Moby Dick Melville, but, looking for it this evening, Googling is not turning anything up. I believe it was literary fiction, or fiction with literary aspirations, rather than genre, but am not completely sure. (It's most definitely not "The Whiteness of the Whale.") Help me find this, Mefi!
Response by poster: No, this was definitely a book for adults.
posted by praemunire at 8:08 PM on June 28, 2019
posted by praemunire at 8:08 PM on June 28, 2019
The Left Hand of Darkness?
posted by matildaben at 8:13 PM on June 28, 2019
posted by matildaben at 8:13 PM on June 28, 2019
Response by poster: (Not to thread-sit, but it would be helpful if people could link, quote, or describe the passage they're thinking of, because just the name, even of a book I've read, is probably not going to call a descriptive passage clearly to mind.)
posted by praemunire at 8:16 PM on June 28, 2019
posted by praemunire at 8:16 PM on June 28, 2019
Was it Lovecraftian? Was some of the travel through caves? If so it could be Basil Copper’s The Great White Space. I’m sorry, I don’t have a link for you.
posted by doctor tough love at 9:02 PM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by doctor tough love at 9:02 PM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Is it Lanark? I don't remember the scene with perfect clarity, but I believe two people are walking together through a completely obscuring fog, and one perceives the road going uphill while the other perceives it going downhill. It is definitely disquieting.
posted by aws17576 at 9:05 PM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by aws17576 at 9:05 PM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Ah...I think I've found it. It's James recalling Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym in The Golden Bowl:
posted by praemunire at 9:09 PM on June 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
He remembered to have read, as a boy, a wonderful tale by Allan Poe, his prospective wife's countryman—which was a thing to show, by the way, what imagination Americans COULD have: the story of the shipwrecked Gordon Pym, who, drifting in a small boat further toward the North Pole—or was it the South?—than anyone had ever done, found at a given moment before him a thickness of white air that was like a dazzling curtain of light, concealing as darkness conceals, yet of the colour of milk or of snow.Not 100% sure, but I think that's it. I must've thought Melville because of the American Renaissance. Would still be happy to hear of other examples, though!
posted by praemunire at 9:09 PM on June 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
Ah, OK. Just in case you want to check my answer, I found the full text of Lanark; the scene I was remembering starts at the sentence "They walked into the mist guided by the yellow line on the road between them."
posted by aws17576 at 9:12 PM on June 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by aws17576 at 9:12 PM on June 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
A Wrinkle in Time?
posted by humboldt32 at 12:04 AM on June 29, 2019
posted by humboldt32 at 12:04 AM on June 29, 2019
The Incredible Shrinking Man begins with his sailing his boat through a strange white cloud.
posted by Rash at 9:29 AM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 9:29 AM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
There's the early morning fog scene on Arthur's Seat in Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner where George Colwan is marvelling at the sparkling cloud and turns just in time to prevent himself being thrown off the cliff by his pious/jealous/possessed brother Robert who appears magnified by the brockenspectre into a horrible apparition.
Gutenberg's copy has no chapters or metadata, but the scene starts “George was, from infancy, of a stirring active disposition …”
(ms scruss is currently hopping up and down with glee in the background because there's an Ask that's a reference to her expertise in mystical theological literature …)
posted by scruss at 11:16 AM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Gutenberg's copy has no chapters or metadata, but the scene starts “George was, from infancy, of a stirring active disposition …”
(ms scruss is currently hopping up and down with glee in the background because there's an Ask that's a reference to her expertise in mystical theological literature …)
posted by scruss at 11:16 AM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
I was going to say it's probably Arthur Gordon Pym, but you beat it to me myself... and then I was going to mention Confessions and scruss beat me to it! What is this life?
But I have to say, it's nice to see that someone else has read and appreciated Confessions. I recommend it to everyone!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:27 PM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
But I have to say, it's nice to see that someone else has read and appreciated Confessions. I recommend it to everyone!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:27 PM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Weeping_angel at 8:06 PM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]