For High Plains Public Radio Readers Club, I’m Shane Timson in Colby, Kansas. Today we’re talking about The Wordy Shipmates from Sarah Vowell and I must say, this was a very wordy book.
It plodded on forever. Part of my problem with this book was that after awhile, I couldn’t tell what was her just being funny and what was fact. I’m a history buff. I take my history very seriously. I don’t want jokes. I want facts. I don’t want funny. I want facts, so there were times I couldn’t tell if it was her being funny or if it was her giving us facts.
Though make no mistake about it, she did give us some interesting facts to think about and I will talk about some of those interesting facts. In fact, the beginning of the book is very interesting itself. Imagine, you have all of these colonists getting ready to leave England, to leave the oppressive England to go to America.
John Cotton is giving a firey sermon. He’s one of the most popular preachers in England at the time. He is making comparisons with what they are about to do by going over to America and what it was like when God sent the Israelites over to their promised land. It is Cotton that tells us of Manifest Destiny and that it is their Manifest Destiny much like it was for the Israelites. He feels that these English are just as much God’s chosen people to go to America as the Israelites were God’s chosen people to go to their promised land. That was interesting and I think she did a good job of articulating that.
The other thing that is interesting is that she brought up how pop culture influences what we know about history. This to me is sad, but it is true. She cites “The Brady Bunch” and “Happy Days,” both shows that were very popular in the 1970s. They both had shows on the Pilgrims and many people take what those shows did as historical fact. If the Fonz said it, it must be true. “Heyyyyy…”
We can see that to be true because in today’s culture, how many people voted for a presidential candidate simply because their favorite celebrity – a.k.a. Taylor Swift – endorsed them?
One other interesting thing – as we get to the end of the book – after John Cotton made it to America and Anne Hutchinson made it to America, we see that there is a lot of arguing between Anne Hutchinson and John Winthrop. It turns out that John Winthrop and Anne Hutchinson were sort of on display in the 2004 election because it turns out that George W Bush and John Kerry, the two that were running in 2004, they are both descendants of the previous two individuals. So we got to see that kind of heat up.
So, those were the things that were interesting, but by-and-large, this was a very boring book. It was very “wordy.” No wonder she calls it “wordy.” It was very wordy. It said a lot, but it didn’t need to say that much. She could have shortened it quite a bit.
Maybe it was because I didn’t appreciate the humor because I’m a history buff and I want my history. I want my facts. I don’t want my funny.
For High Plains Public Radio, I’m Shane Timson.
