Author Frank Lentricchia Chases 'Moby-Dick'

Author: Molly May

Introduced by D.E. Axinn Professor of Creative Writing Jay Parini as one of the "most celebrated, attacked and lionized critics of our time," Frank Lentricchia, professor of English at Duke University, faced an audience of eager students and countless literature professors last Thursday in Mitchell Green Lounge.

With a commanding yet casual presence, Lentricchia immediately broke into a discussion of his new work, "Luchese and the Whale," by explaining the literary genre shift he underwent towards the end of the 1990s, when he pointedly stopped writing literary criticism. Not only had Lentricchia become bored with the work and fearful of repeating himself, but he had also grown weary of the world of criticism. "Literary criticism had become totally unliterary," he explained.

Following time spent at a monastery retreat and at the encouraging words of a monk, Lentricchia dove into an adventure in fiction, which culminated in the 13 fragments, or representative anecdotes, that comprise his new work.

Describing the novel's main character Luchese with a long list of coarse adjectives, Lentricchia lightly hinted at his fictional creation's likeness to himself or, at least, to the quintessential writer. And, like all writers, the philosophical Luchese is obsessed with two specific writers, Melville and Vichenstein. The attention given to both authors — Luchese is a scholar writing a book about "Moby-Dick" — became clear when Lentricchia read three of the fragments that comprise "Luchese."

Lentricchia first read from "The Fan Club," a fragment where Luchese dips into the metaphysical realm by meeting his parents on their honeymoon. Lentricchia's manner while reading Luchese's awkward, de-identifying experience was intoxicating. He truly embodied his character by raising eyebrows at moments of introspection and lowering his voice during periods of confusion.

He rocked the audience most intimately with the humor of his writing and in his demeanor. At one point, the character Luchese states, "I'm inbetween unpublished books."

Despite true dedication, all writers continually confront unpublished status. The humor picked up as Lentricchia moved through two more fragments which addressed the significance of naming.

In the centerpiece of the work, "Chasing Melville," Luchese's tone slips into a playful but genuine argument about the presence of a hyphen in the title "Moby-Dick" versus the lack of a hyphen in the name of the white whale Moby Dick.

Although perhaps self-defeating, such discussion concerning such a minute piece of punctuation seemed to encapsulate Lentricchia's fragment. He tried to make us laugh, but also pushed the recognition of the effect of details in language. The intentional slow drawl of his voice reinforced the effect.

After the hyphen discussion, Lentricchia launched into the next reading of the fragment called "Logic of Love," in which Luchese jabbers philosophically on an airplane while being seduced by a flight attendant, Ruth.

Lentricchia did well in establishing Luchese's fast-thinking, muttering attempt to rationalize the world. The phrase "if p, then q" popped up more than five times, as Luchese battles his own consciousness.

But the best was certainly saved for last.

Lentricchia read the end of the fragment with such gusto as to align himself directly with Luchese in one definitive area — as victims of the mispronunciation of their Italian names. With one long verbal tirade of mispronunciations of the name Luchese, Lentricchia had the audience erupting into fits of hysterical laughter — especially the professors of Italian in attendance.

At the end, when asked in what genre he places the new work "Luchese and the Whale," Lentricchia casually shrugged that the publishers insist upon calling it a novel, but he does not know what to call it himself. He ruminated on the numerous possibilities. Maybe a critical fiction. Perhaps a fiction of ideas. Whatever his final decision, whether the book be defined as literary criticism, a piece of fiction or a hybridized version of both, he seems pleased with the result.