I have begun 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This will be my second classic nautical expedition in a year, as I read Moby Dick in January.

Captain Nemo seems to have had a traumatic experience that leads him to deplore the society of humans. Captain Ahab, too, eschewed most human relationships, except, in the end, the company of a young Black man, who, traumatized not by humans but by the threat of drowning, became a prophetic character speaking gibberish to those who could not understand. But to those who could, such as Ahab, he was a link to the Divine.

And Nemo? Why did he avoid humans? I’m still waiting for that answer.