“met’a·phor” (met’ə-fôr”) n. a figure of speech, based on some resemblance of a literal to an implied subject.” ~Webster’s Dictionary
1530s, from M.Fr. metaphore, from L. metaphora, from Gk. metaphora "a transfer," especially of the sense of one word to a different word, lit. "a carrying over," from metapherein "transfer, carry over," from meta- "over, across" (see meta-) + pherein "to carry, bear"” ~www.etymonline.com
Rinde Eckert’s And God Created Great Whales, now showing at the Culture Project through March 25th, is the tale of an elderly piano tuner, Nathan (played by Eckert), who is rapidly losing his mind to dementia. The only thing (temporarily) keeping him from floating adrift is his opera “Moby Dick,” personified by his Muse Olivia (Nora Cole). The play is laden with imagery of the ocean: it symbolizes the mind, Nathan and Olivia tell Melville’s story over the course of the play, the set (original design by Kevin Adams) is held together by hemp ropes, the color coded tape recorders that hold Nathan’s memories hang around his neck like an albatross at the end when his mind finally goes and he is, in the words of the play, “adrift.” The ocean is a metaphor for the mind, just like the tape recorders are functional metaphors for Nathan’s memory.
The above quotations indicate that “metaphor” is specifically a linguistic device. Eckert’s Whales makes an element of speech or writing into living, four-dimensional process. The central metaphors are Moby Dick and the tape recorders. “Moby Dick”, in this play, has three referents, all of which blend together over the course of the eighty minute play: the story by Melville, the opera that Nathan’s writing, and Nathan’s journey. In telling the story, Nathan and Olivia take on the roles of Ishmael, Queequeg, Ahab and Starbuck. They are acting. They are representing someone they are not. In so doing, they explode the four-dimensional definition of “metaphor” to all role-playing. The opera becomes Nathan’s “white whale” (a metaphorical turn-of-phrase inspired by Melville’s novel): his quest to complete it before his mind is finally gone gives him the life-purpose to create the external memories in the tapes, and to create (in his mind) his infallible Muse Olivia to keep him focused on his project. But just as Moby Dick is Ahab’s elusive prey in the literal ocean, “Moby Dick” is always tantalizingly out of Nathan’s reach in the ocean of his mind.
Early in the play, Nathan goes of on a rant, or “marginal note,” trying to find a way to preserve his memory outside of his failing brain in such a way that it would preserve the essence of his self. He evokes the Egyptian hieroglyphics – they preserve the Pharaohs’ humanity while their bodies mummify beneath the desert. “Moby Dick” is his pyramid, his monument for those he leaves behind. He is creating the metaphor for himself. And yet he must create smaller, more personal monuments – the tapes that metaphorize what he did the day before. Because the hieroglyphs are not in fact the Pharaohs and Nathan is not his opera. They are simply objects that stand for the people. And the tapes are not actually what happened the day before, but they memorialize it – they preserve the highlights for future Nathan so that he won’t forget past Nathan.
Metaphors as a mnemonic devise – they flow throughout And God Created Great Whales with such persistency that they are the play, because, as far as most people are concerned today, the Pharaohs are what they left behind. And as far as Nathan of today is concerned, Nathan of the past is only what he’s left him on the tapes.
And God Created Great Whales is playing at The Culture Project on 45 Bleeker St, and runs through March 25. Tickets are $55, or $20 for student rush. http://cultureproject.org/
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