An Unusual Narrative

Slave Moth to me was a very awkward read. First of all, I don’t read poetry all that much, so adjusting to the narrative verse form of the book took some time. Second of all, I’ve never been a fan of slave narratives, so, when sitting down to write this post, it took some time for me to separate my distaste for the genre from a moderately, at least, objective look at the book. I suppose that now is also a good time to explain my somewhat juvenile reference to Slave Moth as a book, instead of a novel. Well, in my opinion, this story lands closer to the archaic epic poem than it does to a novel. Yes, it certainly has all of the elements of novel: chronology, characters, plot; but it lacks the prose that I find necessary to label a long story novel.

Now, as for the story itself, I enjoyed Slave Moth quite a lot, once I overcame the difficulties previously mentioned. Once I was able to grasp at the plot of the book then it was quite easy to plow through the story. In fact, I consumed the bulk of the story while having a homework party with my girlfriend. The plot itself is an atypical slave narrative, something that made me inwardly smile, primarily because of my previously mentioned difficulty with the genre. I particularly enjoyed the slaves that didn’t really act all that much like slaves and the “masters” that inexplicably let them enjoy what was apparently the illusion of doing whatever they wanted.

One problem that I had with the above atypicality is that the story really had no other way to end, save Varl running away, becoming Free. First off, the title leads you in that direction, probably intentionally, if you are paying enough attention to realize that moths aren’t the silly bugs that are attracted to light of all kinds right away. No, in fact, they are something much more limiting; like a slave is limited by their forced servitude. Secondly, it is plainly apparent, or it was to me anyways, by about the third to last poem, that once Peter became Master, Varl was shedding her cocoon and preparing to make a break for the North and freedom. Poetry, to me, should, at least, be mildly ambiguous in its conclusion. It is for that reason that I was bothered by the bottlenecked conclusion of Slave Moth. However, that quality of an ending only left me with a mildly sour taste in my mouth. Thankfully, that sour taste did not take away from what I felt was an otherwise enjoyable read.