A quick post for the last day of my holiday - it's another quotation from Oppian's Halieutica and it describes the qualities that you need to fish successfully. All participants in the project must examine themselves carefully to see whether they have them:
First of all the fisher should have body and limbs both swift and strong, neither over fat nor lacking in flesh. For often he must fight with mighty fish in landing them — which have exceeding strength so long as they circle and wheel in the arms of their mother sea. And lightly he must leap from a rock; and, when the toil of the sea is at its height, he must swiftly travel a long way and dive into the deepest depths and abide amongst the waves and remain labouring at such works as men upon the sea toil at with enduring heart. Cunning of wit too and wise should the fisher be, since many and various are the devices that fishes contrive, when they chance upon unthought-of snares. Daring also should he be and dauntless and temperate and he must not love satiety of sleep but must be keen of sight,wakeful of heart and open-eyed. He must bear well the wintry weather and the thirsty season of Sirius; he must be fond of labour and must love the sea. So shall he be successful in his fishing and dear to Hermes.I'm quite good in the thirsty season of Sirius and could probably leap lightly from a rock. I don't know if I'm dauntless and temperate, though, and I do love a satiety of sleep.
In 'A Dream of Jewelled Fishes' the author describes the first person to teach him to fish. 'Ernest was a retired miner, toothless and kind; wore tired shiny suits and collarless shirts. Like all miners, he had hands prickled dark blue from subcutaneous coal dust, and in repose he would sit low, resting on his heels to enjoy his Player's Navy Cut. I loved their smell, and I loved to see the untipped cigarettes lined up like crisp white soldiers in the packet.' (p. 2)
ReplyDeleteThere is an interesting link between fishing and mining here - I put this in for Hugh but something worth thinking about.
I also love this description and the clear image it presents.
I am seeing the fisherman/miner link, in the sense that in representations of both in literature there is a sort of reverence or respect for them. The miner not only because of the extreme physicality of his work and work environment but because he routinely undertakes this work. I am reading D.H. Lawrence at the moment and the 'waiting-on' that miner's wives undertake when their husbands come home from work to eat and wash has a very practical but also reverential quality to it. In Kate's example the blue coal dust scars and the miner's crouch are two common aspects of the coal-miners' life that are emphasized in literary representations of miners and are often written about respectfully. For the fisherman, in many of the texts Richard is discussing, they are revered for their knowledge and wisdom. I think Oppian's text demonstrates this quite well as the fisherman must be physically and mentally 'fit'.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see if we can map the eight dimensions of wisdom that Bloch identifies onto the qualities of the fisher as described here.
ReplyDelete1. Maturity: First of all the fisher should have body and limbs both swift and strong, neither over fat nor lacking in flesh
2. Care 'he must not love satiety of sleep but must be keen of sight,wakeful of heart and open-eyed'
3. Imperturbability: 'he must be fond of labour'
4. Simplicity: 'temperate'
5. Sophia: 'Cunning of wit too and wise should the fisher be'
6. Concordance of will and goal: 'Daring also should he be and dauntless'
7. Humor. 'dear to Hermes'
8. Historical and geographical localization: 'He must bear well the wintry weather and the thirsty season of Sirius'
Not a perfect fit, but perhaps instructive all the same. Why is the fisher dear to Hermes? Hermes, Mercurius, the elusive messenger of the Gods, the interpreter: we see him in the word 'hermeneutics'. The god of catching the elusive. Humor is a 'gift from the Gods', in its elusive, unsettling and yet redemptive quality. Surely the angler has to learn humor if she is to survive! I believe there is an etymological link between the yiddish 'chein', joke (old Dutch slang 'gein') and the Hebrew 'hen', grace, gracefulness.
We begin to see the place of the gesture in an account of wisdom, and with it of the glance, the askance and indirect. In the context of fishing we can start to think about the movements and gestures there: the throw, the veering and reeling in. But especially the throw for that gesture has a lot to say about human existence. It's all in the wrist.