The Magical-Looking Water: Der gehäutete Text

Zusammenfassung

Am Ende des 18. Kapitels der Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym wird berichtet, wie ein Teil der mit der Jane Guy Reisenden, zwölf an der Zahl, der Einladung des Eingeborenenhäuptlings Too-wit folgt und sich auf den Weg ins Landesinnere von Tsalal macht. We saw nothing with which we had been formerly conversant³ (H 3.185), heißt es; schließlich gelangt man an einen schmalen Flußlauf. The singular character of the water nicht nur dieses, sondern auch der übrigen späterim Lande begegnenden Gewässer läßt die Reisenden erstaunen: we had difficulty in bringing ourselves to believe that their qualities were purely those of nature. Angesichts des Über-natürlichen fühlt sich Pym zu einem eingehenden Kommentar veranlaßt: I am at a loss to give a distinct idea of the nature of this liquid, and cannot do so without many words⁴ (H 3.186). Es ist ihm nicht allein so ergangen, auch spätere Interpreten haben über diese prononcierte Stelle, die dem magical-looking water⁵ (H 3.189) gewidmet ist, viele Worte verlieren müssen. Sie ist ein Exempel geworden: das Wasser als reflektierender Spiegel und Spiegel der Reflexion; Knoten- und Umschlagspunkt der Erzählung, der Vorstellungs- und Interpretationsvermögen auf die Probe stellt. Denn:

»The phenomena of this water formed the first definite link in that vast chain of apparent miracles with which I was destined to be at length encircled.«⁶ (H 3.187)

To see distinctly the machinery — the wheels and pinions — of any work of Art is, unquestionably, of itself, a pleasure, but one which we are able to enjoy only just in proportion as we do not enjoy the legitimate effect designed by the artist: — and, in fact, it too often happens that to reflect analytically upon Art, is to reflect after the fashion of the mirrors in the temple of Smyrna, which represent the fairest images as deformed.¹

(Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia, H 16.170)

The whole of the first part, as far as the Mutiny, is very sensational and at the same time very lifelike, and if it had been finished in the same style it would have been worthy of the praise you bestowed on it. But the Antarctic part completely spoils it, being so completely impossible, with its abundant vegetation, mild climate, fruits and land animals near the South Pole! Also the fantastic idea of striped water so utterly unnecessary and impossible; & it was these absurdities that disgusted me with the story.²

(Alfred Russell Wallace to Ernest Marriott. Jan, 1st 1904. In: A. R. Wallace, E. A. Poe: A Series of seventeen Letters. New York 1966, p. 9)