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| Jaws (novel) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I recently picked up my copy of “Jaws” and I have to admit
that the opening passage is very hard to beat. Consider these very famous
lines:
“The great fish moved
silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent
tail. The mouth was open just enough to permit a rush of water over the gills.
There was little other motion: an occasional correction of the apparently aimless
course by the slight raising or lowering of a pectoral fin -- as a bird changes
direction by dipping one wing and lifting the other. The eyes were sightless in
the black, and the other senses transmitted nothing extraordinary to the small,
primitive brain. The fish might have been asleep, save for the movement
dictated by countless millions of years of instinctive continuity: lacking the
flotation bladder common to other fish and the fluttering flaps to push
oxygen-bearing water through its gills, it survived only by moving.”
Opening passages to novels are vital. It intrigues me how a
good author can draw his reader in at the get-go. Anthony Trollope, in his “Autobiography”,
puts it very simply: “Of all the needs a book has the chief need is that is be
readable”. Maybe it comes from being born into a family that performed without
the privilege of being given grants or being patronized by wealthy indulgent benefactors,
but I believe strongly that all artists owe something to their audience. A
great novel, no matter what a critic will tell you, should have some very attractive
first few lines. Please forgive my obvious simile, but Benchley’s words in
this passage are siren-like. You are
immediately drawn into the depths of the sea and propelled along with the
instinctive movements of the story’s lead antagonist into the primal terror
that awaits you on the next few pages.
I first read the novel, “Jaws”, now superseded in fame by
the Steve Spielberg masterpiece of film, in an abridged form in my secondary
school library. Later I was in conversation with my grandfather, who had read
the book when it first came out in 1974, and he said what I was feeling at the
time, it’s a book that is very hard to put down. A lot of different factors are
responsible for the enduring success of “Jaws”. The film’s expert suspenseful direction,
cleverly adapted screenplay, excellent cast, beautiful cinematography and who could
forget the primeval chords of John Williams’ memorable score. The movie, as we
know, has been heralded as the first summer blockbuster and has gone onto
inspire a huge range of films, from its own sequels to many clones involving
sharks and other predators of the deep to less obvious masterpieces in their
own right, such as 1979’s “Alien”. Part of the book’s own success might be down
to the book’s editor, Tom Congdon, suggesting “Jaws” for a title.
The copy I ended up purchasing cost me £3 a few years ago
from a second-hand book shop in Cornwall. It’s a worn hardback – not abridged this
time - and was published for a book club on the year of the novel’s initial
release. Although this doesn’t quite make it a first edition there is something
nice about possessing an edition that was published ahead of the huge success
that would follow. This edition was out before Bantam had even bought the
rights to publish it as a paperback let alone before it was picked up by film
producers. Knowing this helps me appreciate the essence of what became a
bestseller before it became the prototypical summer blockbuster. The next time
someone tells you that the plot of “Jaws” is not very good and really it was
just Spielberg’s direction or John Williams’ score that made it a success, draw
their attention to the fact that the novel was immediately accepted by Book of
the Month Club, when it was first submitted, and was subsequently picked up
Reader’s Digest before staying on the bestseller list for 44 weeks.
Sadly “Jaws” has suffered from the critics and several
relegate it as purely populist success. This is in somewhat contrast to the
movie, which although it was an enormous commercial success and spawned some
very silly sequels and imitations, has received a lot of favourable criticism.
There have been several scholarly dissections of the movie and the Library of
Congress selected it in the United States National Film Registry for as "culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant".
I disagree with the critical consensus of the book. That
opening passage speaks volumes about the author’s literary skill. The art he
has chosen may be sensationalist, but then so was Sheridan Le Fanu’s and Edgar
Allan Poe’s. They still knew how to play their populist pieces with style. Yet again,
I find myself looking at the artificial lines of artistic merit and finding
then being little more than snobbery. I will go more into detail on this in
another essay. For now, I ask that you look at that opening passage again and
consider the brilliant way it immediately engages the lay reader with looming
terror yet fascinatingly interweaves Peter Benchley’s knowledge of marine
biology. The idea that a book’s main protagonist is this perfect killing
machine that has evolved yet little changed over millions of years gives the
sensationalist genre a type of gravitas that easily suspends disbelief. This seriousness
and scientific awareness is present throughout Benchley’s story. He was
famously against the dramatic and explosive ending that Spielberg insisted on
because this did not resemble the behaviour of great white sharks.
However, despite being inspired by real life events such as
the capture of a 2,060kg great white shark off the shore of Long Island in 1964
and the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks, “Jaws” is an exercise in mythological
influence. Benchley was working off the theories of the time on sharks. His
novel and the movie would prompt an unprecedented amount of interest in sharks,
and a greater understanding of these fascinating creatures. Benchley has said
that he couldn’t write “Jaws” now knowing that the vast majority of shark
attacks were accidents whereby the animal had mistaken a human for its prey.
Indeed attacks on humans are considered to be freak occurrences by most marine
biologists. Nevertheless, as has always been the case, sensational fiction
indirectly ends up creating more awareness about an issue than just about any
other media.
At least Benchley’s work does not enforce a type of
pseudoscience or pseudohistory on you, as is the case with Dan Brown and at
least “Jaws” isn’t some partisan documentary. Instead what you get is a 1970s
take on the Leviathan (a name Benchley considered a few of his title ideas) and
Cetus ideas from ancient mythology. As more exploration has been done and more
incredible examples of fossilized remains have revealed the existence of the giants
of prehistoric times, we see that “Jaws” reflects that fearful wonderment. Although
the shark of the book is diminutive compared to its Cenozoic ancestor, it is
part of the Megalodon legacy. On that note, I encourage you to read the less
scientific but fun novel, “Meg” by Steve Alten, which also has an excellent
opening chapter.
Although Benchley wrote the first three drafts of the script
that became the movie, “Jaws”, Howard Sackler did uncredited work and comedy
writer, Carl Gottlieb, was brought on to lighten the tone. Benchley’s book has
a decidedly darker tone than Spielberg’s movie and it works well as a novel. All
of the novels three main protagonists were unlikeable to Spielberg and I guess
might have been ahead of the audiences of the time, even 1970s audiences who
were into gritty thrillers and dramas at the time. I find them to be simply
more complex and I think an audience that has accepted the moral ambiguity of “Game
of Thrones” and “Dexter” would possibly buy into these less clear-cut
characters if anyone dared to make “Jaws” the mini-series.
I consider the movie “Jaws” to be one of the best films made
and certainly one of the best horrors movies in history. However, the book also
deserves to be re-appraised. Like “The Godfather”, a piece of classic fiction
that is overshadowed by its brilliant movie adaptation and often snubbed by
literary academics, “Jaws” is a true “page turner”. Both books have subplots
that were completely dismissed in their movie versions, but work well in a
literary sense. Despite being in a simplistic thriller mould, “Jaws” is almost
a tragedy with the three main protagonists heading towards a type of final
reckoning with a force of nature.
I recommend you go back before the movie and before the rousing score, and consider the original novel. It is great in full, abridged or to listen to as an audio book, especially at night.
Don't forget to check out Jamie Clubb's main blog www.jamieclubb.blogspot.com
