Typee Introduction

Typee is the red-headed stepchild of one of the most famous novels in modern literature: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick . Whether you've read that big kahuna or not, Typee will introduce you to Polynesian adventure, whaling ship boredom, and a hyper-observant, well-informed storyteller eager to offer his tale—at about half the page count.

It's up for debate whether this story of a sailor held captive by maybe-cannibals on a beautiful and remote island in the Marquesas is strictly true or not. When Melville first tried to publish it, it was as a true account of his own time as an adventure-seeking sailor. When the publishers looked at him like he had lobsters growing out of his ears, he even added chapters about everyday customs, animals, and plant life, just to try to prove that he had spent four months in the Typee Valley. Eventually, it was published as fiction in 1846. (Note: it sold better than Moby-Dick, or any other book he would writer later in life.)

So, did Melville actually do time with a sweet-hearted cannibal tribe? It's hard to say. But either way, Typee provides two for the price of one. It's one part proto-adventure novel in a landscape many of us will never see. And it's one part hyper-progressive discussion about the native islanders and the damaging European culture that began once Columbus-era exploring and "discovering" became en vogue.

 

What is Typee About and Why Should I Care?

Reading Typee is a lot like going on an Internet binge, only with gorgeous, intricate descriptions of landscape and plenty of old-timey charm. Here's a list of "websites" (literary moments) you can expect to click through on the journey:

DIY Flower Accessories: All the Rage for Spring!
Get Cut with The Islander Diet: What is Breadfruit, Anyway?
Popular Tattoos of the Typee People, Their Meanings, and Whether You Should Get One
35 Everyday Uses for Palm Fronds
Dress For Success: How to Channel Your Inner Typee Warrior
Using Plant As Medicines: Treatments You Can Try at Home
Are You "Taboo"? Take This Quiz & Find Out!
Wedding Tips: Festival of the Calabashes Tablescape Ideas
Video: Chief Mehevi is Angry. You Won't Believe What Happens Next!
First Person: My Life As A Prisoner of a Cannibal Cult

Well… you get the idea.

Okay, so don't just read Typee for the clickbait. It's also a chance to complicate your idea of European bias against cultures that do it differently. Reading older books about so-called exotic countries can seem depressing to our contemporary brains, where authors may say reductive things about non-Euro-centric cultures.

But Melville makes his best efforts as a nineteenth-century man to approach the Typee culture with respect and openness, interrogating his own ignorance and wondering if all this European meddling does any good for native peoples, whose values and particular joys may get lost in the shuffle. His attempts aren't always pitch-perfect, but reading this book is a literary way to think about how systems of power can give goodies to one group of people, while things don't exactly work out for another.

A little too heady for you? Then you can start by thinking of narrator Tommo as a kind of ancestor to freewheeling gourmand Anthony Bourdain, sampling the local delicacies and culture while cracking jokes and taking in the sights—plus, you know, kidnapping.

Either way, Typee is an adventure book chock-full of specificity, new sights and sounds, and a good bit of danger. But it's also a great chance to remember that we're all human, all interesting, and all worthwhile... no matter what we eat for dinner.