Knowledge: Gobbolino at Sea
Aug. 7th, 2020 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pobble_readsI have been really inspired by the HPST Summer Camp - we did Lectio Divina and Floralegia every day and a wide range of other Sacred Reading Practices over the course of the week. I’m excited to apply my new/developed knowledge to Gobbolino. But because Life keeps happening I’ve mostly had Endo pain in the days since the camp ended, which tends to slightly blunt my thinking skills and spoon-levels....
So that’s a far more practical than I planned example of some of the issues with using knowledge after you’ve built it up!
Anyway I mostly like this chapter - Gobbolino gets to explore a new way of life at Sea and to usefully apply some of the knowledge he acquired in the very different situation of his kittenhood in the Witch’s Cave. But of course as it’s not the final chapter of the book it turns out to be yet another temporary home for him....
9 Sentence Recap
Gobbolino ends up by the sea
A sailor boy sees him catching a mouse on the docks
He invites Gobbolino onto the ship the Mary Maud
Gobbolino is popular with the Sailors and great at catching mice
When they are far out to sea a storm starts brewing
Only Gobbolino knows it’s caused by a Sea Witch and how to stop her
He escapes from his cabin, tricks the Sea Witch, jumps onto her shadow and breaks the spell!
The Sailors are confused by what they saw and horrified to learn that Gobbolino is a Witch’s Cat
They refuse to sail with him any more.
3 Sentence Recap
Gobbolino becomes a successful and beloved Ship’s Cat
He argues with a Sea Witch and tricks her into stoping a storm.
The superstitious sailors send him away
Although I said that I mostly like the chapter the start of it is quite sad, it takes much longer than in previous chapters for Gobbolino to find a place to stay - he walks through multiple towns and villages without settling and has mostly negative experiences with the people and creatures he meets. He does get
Anyway, at the port Gobbolino’s knowledge and skill at catching mice is what gets him noticed. Johnnie Tar the Sailor Boy sees an excellent mouser and invites Gobbolino onto the Mary Maud. He doesn’t know anything else about Gobbolino but, along with his fellow sailors is prepared, to welcome him into the community of the ship. The sailors seem to be much more accepting of an unknown cat (or human) - as long as they can do their job - than the land based humans and animals were. They are intentionally building a community aboard the Mary Maud which they know will change over time as new sailors come and go rather than relying on the more rigid structures and known relationships of the established land-based towns and villages. To a certain extent Gobbolino (and presumably other members of the crew) can reinvent themselves and create new reputation based on their lives since they can aboard:
He becomes
Then the Sea Witch appears and
And only Gobbolino has the knowledge, dredged up from his past in the Witch’s Cave, of how to break this terrible storm spell. He knows that he can save the ship and his beloved companions but they don’t understand that. He has to trick them to take the risk of escaping the cabin that he has been shut in for safety while they use the non-magical knowledge and skill to fruitlessly attempt to escape the storm. He struggles out of their well-meaning attempts to recapture here and manages to climb the mast to talk to the Sea Witch. He appeals to her knowledge of the wider Witch community, and his former place, in it to trick her into letting him on to her broomstick. He has to tell her about his Mother and Sister and the Witch they served for her to acknowledge him as worth saving. Then he betrays the temporary trust he build with her to save the sailors he has genuinely bonded with by jumping not onto the brim but onto her shadow and saying the magic words that will break her spell.
Even when the sea has become calm again and the Mary Maud is safe again, the Crew don’t have the knowledge to correctly interpret what the witnessed Gobbolino doing and saying. Even when they are finally aware that there had been a Sea Witch threatening them all they don’t understand that it was Gobbolino who broke the spell. They could only hear (and understand) Gobbolino’s half of the conversation so they now know that he is a Witch’s Cat and they don’t know that his seeming friendliness towards the Sea Witch was a ploy.They have no way of finding out what the spell breaking words of
The Captain tries to be kind and as fair as possible but as the rest of the sailors refuse to sail with a Gobbolino onboard he has to send Gobbolino away. We learn at the start of the next chapter that the Captain rows Gobbolino ashore himself. And once Gobbolino is safely off of their ship the Sailors cheer and wave and wish him well. There is a confusing dichotomy between their feelings for Gobbolino as an individual and there fears about him as a Witch’s Cat. Would them somehow gaining greater knowledge of Gobbolino’s history manage to resolve that or would their fear always contaminate their relationship? The Captain talks about other ships which will not allow any cats aboard, believing them to be unlucky. The Crew of the Mary Maud is more enlighten than that ... but not enlightened enough to let Gobbolino stay with them. So he is once again homeless and alone in the world.
I think this chapter shows not just the problems caused by incomplete and inaccurate knowledge but also that knowledge alone is not sufficient to build trust and community, There needs to be trust and good will - and experience build up over time. It also shows that having and using knowledge appropriately can be life-changing and even life-saving...
I will do Lectio Divina and Blessing for this chapter later (hopefully tomorrow) and then next time we’ll be looking at Chapter 11 The Little Princess through the theme of Change.
Please let me know your thoughts on this chapter, the theme of knowledge and what I’ve missed in the comments.
So that’s a far more practical than I planned example of some of the issues with using knowledge after you’ve built it up!
Anyway I mostly like this chapter - Gobbolino gets to explore a new way of life at Sea and to usefully apply some of the knowledge he acquired in the very different situation of his kittenhood in the Witch’s Cave. But of course as it’s not the final chapter of the book it turns out to be yet another temporary home for him....
9 Sentence Recap
Gobbolino ends up by the sea
A sailor boy sees him catching a mouse on the docks
He invites Gobbolino onto the ship the Mary Maud
Gobbolino is popular with the Sailors and great at catching mice
When they are far out to sea a storm starts brewing
Only Gobbolino knows it’s caused by a Sea Witch and how to stop her
He escapes from his cabin, tricks the Sea Witch, jumps onto her shadow and breaks the spell!
The Sailors are confused by what they saw and horrified to learn that Gobbolino is a Witch’s Cat
They refuse to sail with him any more.
3 Sentence Recap
Gobbolino becomes a successful and beloved Ship’s Cat
He argues with a Sea Witch and tricks her into stoping a storm.
The superstitious sailors send him away
Although I said that I mostly like the chapter the start of it is quite sad, it takes much longer than in previous chapters for Gobbolino to find a place to stay - he walks through multiple towns and villages without settling and has mostly negative experiences with the people and creatures he meets. He does get
a friendly nodfrom fellow travellers with
no harth to share with himbut dogs
gave him one look of terror and ran for their lives, yelping madly till they reached their own kennelsand cats
hissed savagely at him and would not answer the most civil greeting. It seems like Gobbolino is experiencing the worst of not being unknown by the people he meets. In previous chapters there have been plenty of people prepared to welcome a stranger and give him a chance and now there are not. It’s not clear if this is just bad luck or if something has changed? Have these humans and cats and dogs had bad experiences with strangers in the past? Is it because Gobbolino now looks older and more experienced rather than appearing as a cute innocent kitten and people are less likely to give an unknown older cat the benefit of the doubt? Or is the problem that knowledge of the disastrous events of the Cat a Show has spread faster than Gobbolino can walk?
Anyway, at the port Gobbolino’s knowledge and skill at catching mice is what gets him noticed. Johnnie Tar the Sailor Boy sees an excellent mouser and invites Gobbolino onto the Mary Maud. He doesn’t know anything else about Gobbolino but, along with his fellow sailors is prepared, to welcome him into the community of the ship. The sailors seem to be much more accepting of an unknown cat (or human) - as long as they can do their job - than the land based humans and animals were. They are intentionally building a community aboard the Mary Maud which they know will change over time as new sailors come and go rather than relying on the more rigid structures and known relationships of the established land-based towns and villages. To a certain extent Gobbolino (and presumably other members of the crew) can reinvent themselves and create new reputation based on their lives since they can aboard:
the life was so free abd pleasant, the sailors so kind and merry, and the whole atmosphere so full of goodwill and honest charity, that before many days had passed Gobbolino had come to look on the Mary Maud as his own home, and everyone aboard her as his close companions.
He becomes
Gobbolino the mousera valued member of the crew. And he learns many ship-board skills and age-old tales of the seven sea which touchingly he want to remember so that he can share them with the Brothers whenever he is finally able to be with them again.
Then the Sea Witch appears and
a sudden shadow came over the sun, and a ripple of wind sent a hundred cats paws chasing down the calm blue sea. Gobbolino appears to be the only person on the Mary Maud with any real knowledge of Witches. Most of the sailors don’t even see her and none of the realise that’s she has caused the oncoming storm. They do have excellent knowledge and skill at dealing with regular storms and do their very best to keep the ship safe and ride out the bad weather. They would probably survive all but the most extreme of normal storms but this supernatural one is too much for them. Only Gobbolino hears the Sea Witch’s gloating song
I’ll send her down, the Mary Maud,
And every man of her aboard,
For not a sailor here can tell
The way to break a witch’s spell!
And only Gobbolino has the knowledge, dredged up from his past in the Witch’s Cave, of how to break this terrible storm spell. He knows that he can save the ship and his beloved companions but they don’t understand that. He has to trick them to take the risk of escaping the cabin that he has been shut in for safety while they use the non-magical knowledge and skill to fruitlessly attempt to escape the storm. He struggles out of their well-meaning attempts to recapture here and manages to climb the mast to talk to the Sea Witch. He appeals to her knowledge of the wider Witch community, and his former place, in it to trick her into letting him on to her broomstick. He has to tell her about his Mother and Sister and the Witch they served for her to acknowledge him as worth saving. Then he betrays the temporary trust he build with her to save the sailors he has genuinely bonded with by jumping not onto the brim but onto her shadow and saying the magic words that will break her spell.
Even when the sea has become calm again and the Mary Maud is safe again, the Crew don’t have the knowledge to correctly interpret what the witnessed Gobbolino doing and saying. Even when they are finally aware that there had been a Sea Witch threatening them all they don’t understand that it was Gobbolino who broke the spell. They could only hear (and understand) Gobbolino’s half of the conversation so they now know that he is a Witch’s Cat and they don’t know that his seeming friendliness towards the Sea Witch was a ploy.They have no way of finding out what the spell breaking words of
Fiddlesticks to you, ma’amactual did. It seems like they are able to access that kind of magical knowledge even if they wanted to learn it. It’s not surprising that they are confused and somewhat suspicious. Unfortunately they let their fear and speculation overwhelm what the knowledge they have learned from living and working with Gobbolino on the ship together and the reject him.
The Captain tries to be kind and as fair as possible but as the rest of the sailors refuse to sail with a Gobbolino onboard he has to send Gobbolino away. We learn at the start of the next chapter that the Captain rows Gobbolino ashore himself. And once Gobbolino is safely off of their ship the Sailors cheer and wave and wish him well. There is a confusing dichotomy between their feelings for Gobbolino as an individual and there fears about him as a Witch’s Cat. Would them somehow gaining greater knowledge of Gobbolino’s history manage to resolve that or would their fear always contaminate their relationship? The Captain talks about other ships which will not allow any cats aboard, believing them to be unlucky. The Crew of the Mary Maud is more enlighten than that ... but not enlightened enough to let Gobbolino stay with them. So he is once again homeless and alone in the world.
I think this chapter shows not just the problems caused by incomplete and inaccurate knowledge but also that knowledge alone is not sufficient to build trust and community, There needs to be trust and good will - and experience build up over time. It also shows that having and using knowledge appropriately can be life-changing and even life-saving...
I will do Lectio Divina and Blessing for this chapter later (hopefully tomorrow) and then next time we’ll be looking at Chapter 11 The Little Princess through the theme of Change.
Please let me know your thoughts on this chapter, the theme of knowledge and what I’ve missed in the comments.
