i just finished reading "Jaws" by peter benchley recently and i really enjoyed it. i know it probably seems contrary to my great love for sharks that i would read and enjoy a book that succeeded in vilifying sharks to many people. but i think that it actually did not do that.
granted there are times when the shark seems to be pure evil, eating a little boy on a raft, maniacally attacking the orca as it sinks, and so forth. but i do think that the book does a decent job of presenting an alternative viewpoint. the viewpoint that sharks are not evil by nature, they are just predators by nature. there is a character that actually has a reverence for the shark: hooper.
hooper is the marine biologist, ichthyologist to be exact (one who studies only fish). in the movie richard dreyfuss plays him. in the book he is certainly pro-shark, he is amazed by them, he sees them as the perfect predator, he views them with respect. while all the other characters around him cry out for the death of the shark he is the alternate view point, the voice of reason against revenge. the unfortunate part is i am not sure that we are supposed to side with hooper. one of the things they cut out of the movie was hopper's affair with chief brody's wife, ellen. this makes hooper unlikable in the book, and unsympathetic character. we are not supposed to identify with him and agree with his viewpoint.
but i do. putting the affair aside hooper was able to straddle the line of respect and concern for human life with scientific curiosity and respect for the fish.
and i am not so sure that we are supposed to identify with quint either. the ahab character that constantly crosses lines of dignity to achieve his goals. he poached an unborn dolphin to use as bait and gutted a blue shark just to watch it eat its own entrails and watch other sharks eat it. this kind of disregard for any type of life is repellant as well. i think benchley was trying to bring us to a sort of middle ground with brody.
brody is obviously the main focus. it is his famliy and thoughts that are focused on in the book. we are emotionally connected to brody more than any other character, and he does show both feelings about the shark on different occasions. but regardless of how the characters feel about the shark, what did the most damage to the image of the shark was the pure fear that benchley made us feel about the ocean.
he made it seem like these attacks, though rare, always ended in death. the shark always seemed to be targeting whatever it saw and had no discerning taste what-so-ever when it came to prey. we know now that great whites mostly eat seals and sea-lions because they are high in blubber content. the white shark is essentially warm blooded. it uses the high fatty content of its food to produce heat in its body so it can swim in cold waters. very rarely is a human ever eaten by a shark, we may be tested every now and again, but rarely devoured, if at all. but a shark performing a taste test does not make for good pulse pounding fear or drama.
benchley was informed in part by a documentary called "blue water, white death" which i just watched again recently. it is an acount of one film crew's journey to be the first to film a great white shark. it was made in 1971 and though we still know very little about the great white, it seems they knew even less back then. it is interesting to see how far we have come. the film has some great shots and is very interesting. but it is hard sometimes to watch the divers punch sharks that don't seem to have any intention of causing harm. at one point the female diver, valerie taylor, appears to swim up to a shark and shoot it with a boom stick, a sort of underwater gun, just to see what happens. it shoots the shark with a projectile and the shark swims in circles struggling into the deep until it disappears and most likely dies. this was the time period in which the book was written and it shows.
benchley became a huge advocate for sharks and i do respect him a great deal. and regardless of whether or not i believe his book did more harm than good it is still a fun read. the stigma that "jaws" brought upon sharks has yet to be completely lifted but i do think that it did make people interested and fascinated by sharks as well. when i first saw the film i fell in love with sharks . . . it will always be one of my all time favorite movies. and though it does seem to have done some harm, it worked in an opposite way too, and i am very thankful for that. plus it is just plain entertaining.
i will leave you with a quote from the book that pretty much sums up how i feel . . .
"that fish is a beauty, it's the kind of thing that makes you believe in a god. it shows you what nature can do when she sets her mind to it." -hooper
granted there are times when the shark seems to be pure evil, eating a little boy on a raft, maniacally attacking the orca as it sinks, and so forth. but i do think that the book does a decent job of presenting an alternative viewpoint. the viewpoint that sharks are not evil by nature, they are just predators by nature. there is a character that actually has a reverence for the shark: hooper.
hooper is the marine biologist, ichthyologist to be exact (one who studies only fish). in the movie richard dreyfuss plays him. in the book he is certainly pro-shark, he is amazed by them, he sees them as the perfect predator, he views them with respect. while all the other characters around him cry out for the death of the shark he is the alternate view point, the voice of reason against revenge. the unfortunate part is i am not sure that we are supposed to side with hooper. one of the things they cut out of the movie was hopper's affair with chief brody's wife, ellen. this makes hooper unlikable in the book, and unsympathetic character. we are not supposed to identify with him and agree with his viewpoint.
but i do. putting the affair aside hooper was able to straddle the line of respect and concern for human life with scientific curiosity and respect for the fish.
and i am not so sure that we are supposed to identify with quint either. the ahab character that constantly crosses lines of dignity to achieve his goals. he poached an unborn dolphin to use as bait and gutted a blue shark just to watch it eat its own entrails and watch other sharks eat it. this kind of disregard for any type of life is repellant as well. i think benchley was trying to bring us to a sort of middle ground with brody.
brody is obviously the main focus. it is his famliy and thoughts that are focused on in the book. we are emotionally connected to brody more than any other character, and he does show both feelings about the shark on different occasions. but regardless of how the characters feel about the shark, what did the most damage to the image of the shark was the pure fear that benchley made us feel about the ocean.
he made it seem like these attacks, though rare, always ended in death. the shark always seemed to be targeting whatever it saw and had no discerning taste what-so-ever when it came to prey. we know now that great whites mostly eat seals and sea-lions because they are high in blubber content. the white shark is essentially warm blooded. it uses the high fatty content of its food to produce heat in its body so it can swim in cold waters. very rarely is a human ever eaten by a shark, we may be tested every now and again, but rarely devoured, if at all. but a shark performing a taste test does not make for good pulse pounding fear or drama.
benchley was informed in part by a documentary called "blue water, white death" which i just watched again recently. it is an acount of one film crew's journey to be the first to film a great white shark. it was made in 1971 and though we still know very little about the great white, it seems they knew even less back then. it is interesting to see how far we have come. the film has some great shots and is very interesting. but it is hard sometimes to watch the divers punch sharks that don't seem to have any intention of causing harm. at one point the female diver, valerie taylor, appears to swim up to a shark and shoot it with a boom stick, a sort of underwater gun, just to see what happens. it shoots the shark with a projectile and the shark swims in circles struggling into the deep until it disappears and most likely dies. this was the time period in which the book was written and it shows.
benchley became a huge advocate for sharks and i do respect him a great deal. and regardless of whether or not i believe his book did more harm than good it is still a fun read. the stigma that "jaws" brought upon sharks has yet to be completely lifted but i do think that it did make people interested and fascinated by sharks as well. when i first saw the film i fell in love with sharks . . . it will always be one of my all time favorite movies. and though it does seem to have done some harm, it worked in an opposite way too, and i am very thankful for that. plus it is just plain entertaining.
i will leave you with a quote from the book that pretty much sums up how i feel . . .
"that fish is a beauty, it's the kind of thing that makes you believe in a god. it shows you what nature can do when she sets her mind to it." -hooper
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