“There are you in the dark…with yards of blubber between yourself and reality, able to keep an attitude of the completest indifference, no matter what happens.”
George Orwell
In 1940 George Orwell decided to pen a scathing critique of another author, Henry Miller, for not taking a strong stand against Fascism. The militant British writer, who will later become famous for disturbing dystopian novels such as ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’ turned to the tale of Jonah and the whale as a metaphor for accepting experience without seeking to change it:
“Miller himself is inside the whale. All his best and most characteristic passages are written from the angle of Jonah, a willing Jonah. In his case the whale happens to be transparent. Only he feels no impulse to alter or control the process that he is undergoing. He has performed the essential act of allowing himself to be swallowed, remaining passive, accepting”.
(George Orwell, Inside the Whale and Other Essays)
Orwell was hardly the first reader of the Bible to be fascinated by the possible meanings of this strange tale. Generations of sages and poets, political theorists and literary scholars have been at it and continue to explore this text. In the rabbininc tradition, the big fish becomes a vehicle for Jonah’s subconscious transformation and acceptance of his fate - and faith. And whether it’s a whale or not -- it’s clear that this big fish has a big mythic part to play in this prophetic parable.
Chapter two begins with Jonah in the stormy sea, hurled overboard by the sailors:
וַיְמַ֤ן יְהֹוָה֙ דָּ֣ג גָּד֔וֹל לִבְלֹ֖עַ אֶת־יוֹנָ֑ה וַיְהִ֤י יוֹנָה֙ בִּמְעֵ֣י הַדָּ֔ג שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה יָמִ֖ים וּשְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה לֵילֽוֹת׃
YHWH provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the fish’s belly three days and three nights.
Jonah 2:1
The rest of the chapter focuses on Jonah’s prayer for salvation, with some pearls that will make it into the liturgies of all three Monotheistic religions. In most cases the image of the prophet in the belly of the fish came to represent a time of personal distress, a total darkness of the soul, and the opportunity to hit rock bottom in order to submit to the divine will - and to begin, again. Jonah’s prayer, again and again, is a helpful tool for any of us finding ourselves down on ourselves, down in the dumps, drowning in despair, shame, all other painful emotions.
אֲפָפ֤וּנִי מַ֙יִם֙ עַד־נֶ֔פֶשׁ תְּה֖וֹם יְסֹבְבֵ֑נִי ס֖וּף חָב֥וּשׁ לְרֹאשִֽׁי׃
The waters closed in over me,
The deep engulfed me.
Weeds twined around my head.
Jonah 2:4
But Orwell was not the only one to take this narrative of need to a political context, framing the prophet’s journey of rebirth as a collective call for action, for refusing to look away from what must be done to help save the world.
Fifty years after Orwell published his essay, author and activist Salman Rushdie wrote his response - Outside the Whale.
He picks up where Orwell left off and takes his claim for louder courageous calls of resistance and repentance - not just as personal duty but as a public responsibility:
"The truth is that there is no whale. We live in a world without hiding places; the missiles have made sure of that. However much we may wish to return to the womb, we cannot be unborn. So we are left with a fairly straightforward choice. Either we agree to delude ourselves, to lose ourselves in the fantasy of the great fish; or we can do what all human beings do instinctively when they realize that the womb has been lost forever--that is, we can make the very devil of a racket.
Certainly, when we cry, we cry partly for the safety we have lost; but we also cry to affirm ourselves, to say, here I am, I matter, too, you're going to have to reckon with me. So, in place of Jonah's womb, I am recommending the ancient tradition of making as big a fuss, as noisy a complaint about the world as is humanly possible.”
Orwell and Rushdie are but two of the many who continue to respond to the Jonah story with an eye towards resisting systems of power - from within the beast. Feminist and Queer readers offer even more radical readings - and some of those will be shared ahead as two more chapters outline the Jonah story - for our times.
Three days after being swallowed by a fish, Jonah’s prayers prevail and the most famous act of vomit by an animal resembles Jonah’s second birth, and second chance of healing the world:
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהֹוָ֖ה לַדָּ֑ג וַיָּקֵ֥א אֶת־יוֹנָ֖ה אֶל־הַיַּבָּשָֽׁה׃
YHWH commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon dry land.
Jonah 2:10
What will Jonah do next? What will each of us?
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