7 Comments

At first, I wasn’t thrilled w Mr. Urbina being a prominent ‘character’ in the writings, but you could say he’s growing on me. As for characters, Mr. Hardberger, the Mississippian who repossess boats, is rivaling Mr. Charles Lummis from the Library Book for best character of the Numlock Book Club.

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I’ve been thinking a bit about homelessness issues (probably in part because of The Library Book) and how similar the issues are to the stowaway and “stuck at sea” situations. I think both are questions of basic living and personal property at its core.

Regarding homeless, it is a relatively modern construct to think of homes as being affixed to a piece of land that is solely owned. The homeless of skidrow in LA or in underpass etc are putting up a shelter on a piece of unoccupied land (yes, yes, I know it’s an over simplification). It’s because of our private property construct do we consider them “homeless”. How many years ago would they have just been nomadic humans?

So, the sea version of this is the concept of boundaries. A person cannot be on this piece of land (or this swath of sea) because of some political decision - not some physical absolute. Columbus and his explorers of his ilk didn’t look at an island and wonder who owns it and what it’s rules might be. They just went where they want. So a stowaway seems to be somewhat similar (yes, another over simplification) in a nomadic sense and a sailor stuck at sea is caught up in the most extreme - you can’t be anywhere.

I can definitely understand the appeal of the sea. You cannot tell me where to be and not be. That seems to be the overwhelming sense I get from most of the characters in this book so far.

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This book has opened my eyes to many issues and I am really enjoying it.

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Not sure that "At Sea" is not more like a jail sentence than an adventure I would like to have. That said I'm mostly enjoying this book. The Repo Man Max Hardberger in my view has overtaken Charles Lummis as the best character of the Numlock Book Club. I would love to read a whole book about his adventures. Plus that picture of him with his dog in front of his trailer in Lumberton, Mississippi is so bad ass!!

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All of the above.

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This book is making me re-think globalization. There are no positives here.

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