Allegory of the Whale
Layers of brilliance and synergy in Anthony Veasna So's, "Human Development"
Anthony Veasna So died too young. We mourn the death of any 28-year-old, but especially of one who was surely set to become a bastion of quality in the literary world.
We are only left with two sets of work by this all-too-gifted writer, a posthumously published collection of essays and outtakes called Songs on Endless Repeat, and his debut collection of short stories, Afterparties1. I’ve written about the underappreciation of short stories before, but this collection truly epitomizes why we must take the genre seriously. Afterparties is not just about the Cambodian-American experience (Veasna So was a first generation immigrant himself), but, like so many great works, is about the human condition, and no work better explores that than the aptly named “Human Development.”
wrote a fantastic review of the story as a whole, (which you can read here), but I am going to focus here on one particular passage, a passage that has stuck with me since the first time I read it. The passage, is as follows:"It (Moby Dick) was the first novel I'd ever read that didn't care for resolutions. It validated for me the experience of confusion, of exploring something as stupid and vast as a white whale, as an ocean. Or, at least, it made me feel okay about the philosophy major I'd settled on after failing all my classes in chemistry, first, and then economics. Equipping teenagers to sniff out the nonsense of society, I told myself, that was the logic behind this new curriculum. I wanted my students to understand the doomed nature of Ahab's hunt for Moby Dick, the profound calm of Ishmael's aimless wandering, the difference between having 'purpose,' like Ahab, and finding 'meaning,' like Ishmael. I thought my students should learn the best ways to be lost."
As I note above, there are three layers of brilliance to this passage: 1) It is a deft use of antithesis - a highly effective rhetorical strategy; 2) In two sentences, it tells us exactly what this story is about; and 3) It clues us in on the beautiful synergy between Moby Dick and the story itself.
A Beautiful Use of Antithesis
Rhetorically, “antithesis,” is used to place two ideas in opposition that are not necessarily opposites. It differs from juxtaposition or dichotomy in this way. The latter two examples contrast natural opposites - light/dark, good/evil, etc. - whereas “antithesis” creates contrast through parallel structure.
The specific excerpt in question is the following: “the difference between having 'purpose,' like Ahab, and finding 'meaning,' like Ishmael.”
Here, Veasna So pits the understanding of Moby Dick’s two central characters against each other, Ahab’s myopathy and Ishmael’s musings, and he does so with tight parallel structure (verb, noun, character). In this way, it is a highly effective bit of rhetoric: we, as listeners/readers, did not realize that these two characters - the qualities they embody - were in contrast. Purpose and Meaning are not natural opposites, but here, Veasna So throws them into sharp relief, making us consider the profound ways in which they may intersect or run parallel in our own consciousness.
It Tells Us Exactly What This Story Is About
The rhetorical analysis above says it all: this story is about the contrast in “having purpose” and “finding meaning.” Within the story itself, the protagonist, Anthony (doubtfully a coincidence), is a gay Khmer twenty-something living in San Francisco who has found himself teaching at an elite private high school. Synergistically, he decides to curate his curriculum for a class called “Human Development” based on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (for the reasons laid out in the very quote above). Anthony meets - and begins a relationship with - Ben, who is also Khmer, and is working on developing a tech startup that he hopes to get funding for.
Again, I’ll refer you to the synopsis and analysis linked above for the full summary, but as the story unfolds, we begin to understand that this story is an allegory. This too is about the difference between having purpose and finding meaning.
Ben has purpose. He is driven, myopically motivated. Nothing will prevent him from achieving his singular goal. He, in other words, is Ahab. Anthony, then, is our Ishmael. Anthony is wayward. When the story begins, Anthony is professionally, socially, and sexually unmoored. It is really only when he meets Ben that he begins to scrutinize his surroundings more closely, that he begins to “find meaning” in his otherwise fractious and flighty existence.
I don’t want to intimate that Moby Dick could have been 25 pages long, but in 25 or so pages, Veasna so is able to tell a tale with nearly commensurate gravitas, one in which the ultimate clarity at the end feels almost as deserved as Ishmael’s (sans shipwreck).
A Beautiful Synergy
I’m a sucker for a good title, and this title, “Human Development,” is as good as any.
Let me explain why.
As mentioned above, we learn early in the story that “Human Development” is the name of the class Anthony is teaching (which he is using Moby Dick as the basis for). So, though we suspect there may be more to it, we do, at this point, think that this is the sole place from which the title derives.
But then comes the above quote, the expert antithesis, and of course that final money line - “I thought my students should learn the best ways to be lost.” All of sudden, it all comes together. This story, as noted, is an allegory of Moby Dick. It is a story of being untethered and trying to make sense of an otherwise vertiginous world. Thus, while the quote above is “directed” to his “students,” really, it speaks what this very story is about, how Ishmael’s “aimless wandering” is the blueprint for the advice above, how “having purpose” will only chain us, but “finding meaning” will set us free.
I’m always wary of works by newer, relatively unknown authors that allude to works of high renown. Are you just showing off? Cool, you’ve read Moby Dick, or Ulysses, or whatever. So what?
Here, though, not did only did Anthony Veasna So buck that skepticism, but he compelled me re-read Melville’s classic myself. In those few simple lines above, I realized that there was so much more to Moby Dick than I’d first understood, so much more yet to be explored. I set out to read it, yet was conscious of my goal: my purpose, in this case, was to find meaning. I wanted to know the best ways to be lost.
Thanks for reading! Until next time…
Great read Evan, love your analysis. Recently I've heard a few people refer to Moby Dick as one of their favourite books. Your distinction and emphasis on it being a story between meaning and purpose makes me even more inclined to finally read it. Excited to crack into it.
This is great