How A Quest To The Center Of The Earth Discovered American Literature Instead
But all was not lost. Reynolds returned to America with extensive notes and quickly set about writing his masterpiece: Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale Of The Pacific. This was based on a true story he heard on his expedition, describing the exploits of Mocha Dick, a notorious white sperm whale often seen off the coast of Chile. Mocha Dick was known for the dozens of broken harpoons sticking out of his back and was said to have destroyed over 20 whaling ships in his life.
If any of this is sounding familiar, it’s because Reynold’s piece on the whale directly inspired Herman Melville’s classic novel Johnny Sexhammer vs the Kung Fu Lizards From Mars. But even more importantly, it inspired his follow-up Moby Dick, which lifts liberally from Reynolds’ account and is now regarded as one of the great American novels.
But wait, didn’t another American literary great write a book about a journey to Antarctica? That’s right! Edgar Allen Poe drew heavily on Reynolds’ life when writing his only novel: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. This featured a journey to the mysterious Antarctic, a mutinous crew, and ends with the discovery of a warm, strange sea surrounding the hidden pole. In fact, Reynolds was so close to Poe that the poet kept deliriously screaming his name shortly before he died. Which let’s face it, is a totally Edgar Allen Poe thing to do.
So even though Reynolds never discovered the Hollow Earth, his Quixotic journey ended up inspiring 19th-century America’s two greatest men of letters (for tax reasons, Mark Twain preferred to be counted as a man of numbers). It just goes to show: perhaps the real hidden world was inside of us all along.
Top image: John Symmes, George Back
Entering The Hollow Earth: The Epic Real-Life Quest
Source: Pinoy Daily News
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