3 hours for a 1992 video game OST!?
April 9– From "New Atlantis" (1626) by Francis Bacon
Summary:
Commentary: I'm sure this isn't the first "death day" selection we've had, but it's the first I've noticed. Our letter is H for Hospitality, which is what this story is about. It's fascinating to look at how hospitality is often one of the earliest and most important customs developed by cultures, though the traditional "let the traveler in for the night or you'll get smited" meaning has largely fallen by the wayside. Inhospitableness is (probably) the actual sin of Sodom and Gamorrah.
So that finding ourselves, in the midst of the greatest wilderness of waters in the world, without victuals, we gave ourselves for lost men and prepared for death. Yet we did lift up our hearts and voices to God above, who showeth his wonders in the deep, beseeching him of his mercy, that as in the beginning he discovered the face of the deep, and brought forth dry land, so he would now discover land to us, that we might not perish.
This is the end of the first paragraph of the story. It's an interesting beginning. They just run out of food and give up. They have food for a year, which does seem like a fairly sizable cushion (by my Googling/math the trip would take 2-3 months, 9600 miles at 120 miles a day) but it's still lame that the protagonist and crew just give up 4 sentences in. If you're going to deploy deus ex machina on page one, how do you have dramatics on page one hundred?
They find land and sail there easily (as opposed the the months of sailing in circles/dead wind before), but aren't allowed to land (but can resupply). They negotiate to land (mostly by Bacon cramming "Christianity", "Jesus", and "cross" into the next page as many times as grammatically possible). Hurray, another problem solved by God within a paragraph of introduction!
of somewhat a bluer colour than our brick;
Bacon likes this comparison. We see some parchement that's slightly yellower also.
I do like the expression "twice paid" that the Atlanteans (Bensalemites?) use when the crew tries to tip them. The explanation is that they've already been paid a salary for their service, and that the tip would basically be a bribe.
The narrator (I'm not sure if this is just a first person, or if it's supposed to be Bacon) gives a speech about how they should be good Christians so they don't get kicked off the island, and everyone claps.
Therefore for God's love, and as we love the weal of our souls and bodies, let us so behave ourselves, as we may be at peace with God, and may find grace in the eyes of this people." Our company with one voice thanked me for my good admonition, and promised me to live soberly and civilly, and without giving any the least occasion of offence.
This whole thing reads like one of those Evangelic Harry Potter rewrites. Deliver us from didactism.
Eventually, we find out the island is named Bensalem. I always assumed that Bensalem was named after Ben Franklin (since the real one is near Philadelphia) but he wouldn't be born for 3/4 of a century after New Atlantis. The town is post-Franklin though, so it's possible it's a case of convergent evolution in naming. The internet seems unsure.
I put almost the same comment in my reading of The Imitation of Christ earlier this year. Bad Christian literature hasn't changed in...ever as far as I can tell. You could modernize the language some (maybe only a little, leave it pseudo-King Jamesy) and put this on a shelf at Waterstones next to Left Behind, and no one would bat an eye. There's a huge demand for books with no functional characters/conflict/setting and poorly written sermons every couple pages, and apparently has been for centuries.
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