MARDI - At the Crossroads of Life and Art - A Film Script - 5. Mardi Appendicies and Text Notes

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Mardi Appendices

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Mardi Script Notes

1) Setting: March 1843 to May 1844.

2) Character and Costume Notes:

JARL: (aka Viking; Skyeman; Sky-man) From the Isle of Skye, Scotland, mid-30s. Having long weathered Redburn’s ambivalence to his love, in Mardi we see a good man wandering, holding onto the memories of good times. The traveling opens him up to new potentials, and in Yumi encounters something unexpected – a personality close to that of Redburn, but in a young man who clearly fancies the “Sky-man.” Jarl is further flattered by the open attention of King Uhia. A HEA could be awaiting the three of them. Jarl deserves it. As for his appearance in Mardi, it’s more ‘native’ than we’ve seen him; his former shipshape rigidness softens as the Proustian spirit of this journey enters his heart. This tattoo is still prominent, and Yillah is drawn to it (See page 125 above for a full description).

CLOTHES: While on the Parki, Jarl simply augments his sailor work clothes with finery. On Mardi, he lets loose – as far as he’ll let himself. He wears the blue tapa mantles and kilts gifted by Media, but still wears his cotton drawers and tees underneath. We almost always see him with the now-treasured yellow scarf Redburn gave him. He also retains his Guayaquil (or a panama hat) for practical reasons. He keeps Redburn and himself clean-cut with the shaving kit stowed in his ditty bag with other essentials, like is sewing kit and clean under gear.

REDBURN: (aka Tommo; Taji) From the Hudson River Valley; 23-24 years old. His motivation is to move about the South Pacific to look for any sign that Toby has been there. He feels awkward that Jarl is ready to help him, and ultimately, if successful, step aside for them. He has deep-seated anxieties about this ‘ruse,’ even though Jarl is fully aware of his uncertainty to his love and devotion, and about his future in general. He sees himself as writing about his adventures when he returns to the ’real world,’ but he knows that return will also put pressures on him to settle down into a life he may not want at all. He has longish brunette hair which he sometimes wears tied back.

CLOTHES: By the time he arrives in Mardi, he has long accessorized his sailor garb with finery from the hold of the Parki. He likes to wear colorful silk scarves on his head as wraps and turbans. On Mardi, he dresses in blue tapa mantles and kilts as supplied by Media, but he continues to wear a heavily fringed purple silk scarf around his waist. He likes beads, and other adornments, around his neck.

SAMOA: (aka Upolu) An Upolu-born pearl diver; 28 years old. An honest man, he wants to ultimately return the Parki to her owners on Maui. Fitting her with a new crew and provisions on An’natu’s home island will give them a chance to ready everything for the homeward journey.

CLOTHES: On the Parki, he set his sailor clothes aside. He dresses comfortably in several kilts he fashioned from the trade-good calico on board. He wears chunky beads, and fashioned a long red silk scarf into a head covering. He has long hair, which is mostly tied into a bun under his turban, except when he is getting ready to bed down, or just rising.

AN’NATU: A Tawara-born teenager from the Gilbert Islands; 18 years old. She is a strong-willed person who bends to Samoa because she loves him, and knows he wants only the best for her.

CLOTHES: She wears calico skirts from her waist to her mid-calf. For her upper body, she ties an array of silk scarves; sometimes knotted in front, sometimes behind. She wears various strings of coral and of pearls. Her hair is unusually short and boyish; just down to cover her ears, and she sometimes ties it back when working.

YILLAH: American foundling; 18 years old. She is a phantom to Redburn, born from his severe angst over losing Toby, and transformed into a manifest challenge. She is the embodiment of Nature / Art (Sacred / Profane). She is free and open; clear of all bias; she accepts all that is genuine and will happily help others unencumber themselves to see / accept things as beautifully as they really are – the raison d’être for art itself. As Nature she is drawn to the beauty of religion – marvels over the passion exhibited in Jarl’s crucifix tattoo – though she cannot understand it, only feel along with it. As Art, she is the soul of expression itself, and will, through the crucible of seeking her, be Redburn’s life-long love and loadstone. He will win / convert society at large through her, and prove to its hostile, watchful eyes, his love is good; his love is genuine; and his love reproduces himself in children who assume the form of Art. All of this, as he states in his writing, is through the unselfish and undenied love of Toby; and of the nobility of men loving men as equals.

CLOTHES: She wears white tapa skirts and hooded mantles.

ALIMA: A Polynesian priest; in his 60s. He has raised Yillah in isolation as a sacrifice. He has long white hair and an impressive beard.

CLOTHES: he wears white tapa mantles and kilts. On his head is the symbol of his priesthood – a white “bamboo trellis…forming a sort of arbor for his hair.” (Chapter 39)

MEDIA: Leader of the Island of Odo; mid-30s. A strong man both of body and mind, he is proud and stately. As a developing teenager, he identified strongly with the demigod Taji, thus he built a shrine for him and seated an image of himself next to his hero. He has long hair, which he usually wears up.

CLOTHES: His clothes are blue, a pilgrim’s color, and emblazoned with his three boar tusk crest. On formal occasions, like when being feasted by other chiefs on his travels, he wears various crowns. One is a braided band of blue tapa, bordered with pearls, and radiating manta ray bones on top, like the crown of the Statue of Liberty. He has a more sedate, but far more valuable, diadem of porpoise teeth. ^[10]

VI-VI: Media’s page; 8 years old. He is lively and devoted to serving the man who shows much love and respect for him. In his down time, he knows Media will comfort him as a father does, so he feels no compunction climbing into Media’s lap, hanging onto his hand, or gripping his leg. When he’s tried, the tip of his index finger goes into his mouth.

CLOTHES: He wears mini versions of Media’s clothes, with small versions of the chief’s crest, but his headgear is usually a wreath of palm fronds or flowers. He has a red cord that supports his conch shell horn.

MOHI: An historian; mid-40s. He treasures knowledge, and is drawn to repeating lessons from the past to inform current issues and conversations. He has dark brown hair, and a full and expertly maintained beard.

CLOTHES: He wears plain white tapa mantles and kilts.

BABBALANJA: A philosopher; “500-hundred moons old,” or 41.5 years of age. He has long and dark hair, which he wears tied back, but loose. His beard is distinctive: down to his knees, braided and embellished with antique whale ivory beads and mementoes. Despite his investment in this beard and hair, it remains shaggy and slightly disheveled.

CLOTHES: He wears tapa mantles and kilts with geometric patterns, and if asked, he will gladly spend hours relaying the history and use of each figure and form.

YUMI: A poet and musician; 18 years old. A handsome lad, he effortlessly reminds those older than he is what it was like to be young. Internally though, Yumi regards himself as mature beyond his years, and sometimes resents, with frustration, his outer appearance. Towards Jarl, he sensed an instant ‘past life’ comfort, which grew to love rather quickly. As an artist, he feels things deeply and channels this into his art and expression. He has medium length, light brown hair.

CLOTHES: His clothes are youthful, and he rarely wears a mantle. He likes patterns on his kilts and a big shark’s-tooth pendant on his chest.

HAUTIA: A beautiful woman; mid-30s. She is a blend of Polynesian cosmology – relating to birth, death, ‘mother earth’ – and ancient Mediterranean goddesses of the underworld and rebirth, like Hecate. Hecate is the three sided / three faced guardian of crossroads, and often considered the controller of Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the underworld. Shrines often appeared on poles with three masks hanging from them where major roads intersected and a choice had to be made. People at crossroads in their lives would go to such places and make offerings to her. The overlap of these two traditions revere the power of the ‘female’ to cause change, to bear life, and to take it away into transformation, death, or into recycling as other forms. She has long henna-bleached red hair.

CLOTHES: Her hooded robes are long and transform in color. She wears horrifically beautiful crowns of barbs – made of stingrays, lionfish, fire coral, lamprey jaws, lobster shells and squid beaks.

THREE WOMEN: Beautiful young women; mid-20s. They are the enticements of a conforming life – of comfort, of respectability, and of offspring. Since the beginning of time, Gay men and women have been led by these incentives into relationships where their hearts did not lay.

CLOTHES: Their hooded robes are long and transform in color.

THREE WARRIORS: (also, Three Messengers) Alima’s sons, handsome young men; mid-20s. They are the fears that drive Gay men and women into a conforming life of misery. Anxieties that push from behind: dread of loneliness, humiliation, and the isolation of a meaningless existence. They have long hair worn in a ponytail.

CLOTHES: They wear only red tapa kilts with shark patterns on them.

3) The Polynesian culture of the Gilbert Islands includes a remarkable tradition of woven armor. Many of Media’s men, and the warrior of the various islands his party visits, will be wearing just this type of protection:

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-oceania/oceania-peoples-and-places/micronesia/a/kiribati-armor

4) For the expanse of Mardi, see the following map:

https://cdn.kastatic.org/ka-perseus-images/702c73ed4d8135b12bc85acbf437ecffa01b71dc.jpg

Mardi Text Endnotes

[1] Outrigger canoe: the following 1789 engraving accurately shows Gilbert Island intercoastal craft. Note the masts and sails, and the outrigger of a ‘box construction’ type:

https://antiqueprintmaproom.com/product/a-canoe-and-natives-of-mulgraves-range-robert-cleveley/

[2] Jarl’s wanderer theme: “Lonesome Road I” is the sojourner composition used throughout the film. Its chord structure is perfect for any number of instrumentations, including Polynesian settings. Words and music by Nathaniel Shilkret / Gene Austin:

https://youtu.be/A5AM8xtl-uU

[3] Royal barques: Melville does not exaggerate when writing about the size of Gilbert Island sailing craft. The following photograph shows a hundred-foot-long, late 18th century baurua. Media’s central boat is a double-hulled version of this with two outriggers large enough to accommodate the rowers:

https://www.multihull.de/proa/history/gilbert_islands_baurua.jpg

[4] A Tawara chief: the flowing link shows a sailor-made watercolor of a chief visiting their whaling vessel in the early 1840s, the exact time setting of Mardi. Note the crown, the personal adornments, and the distinctive ‘basket weave’ style of tattooing:

https://i2.wp.com/www.larskrutak.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fig.29A-e1518227843482.jpg

More and differing types of Gilbert Island tattoos may be seen here:

https://www.larskrutak.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/154.jpg

https://www.larskrutak.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/164.jpg

[5] Gilbert Island personal property: the following link shows an early nineteenth century, or late eighteenth century scepter. Note the wonderfully animated and evocative mask:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ef/65/ec/ef65ec634cee429f77a24c0e282fdc24.jpg

[6] “Lonesome Road II” theme: acapella version of song by James Taylor / Don Grolnick:

https://youtu.be/79RYo6fArwQ

[7] Hautia’s theme: Piccinni’s O notte, o dea del mistero (transcription for clarinet and orchestra):

https://youtu.be/igxZ5rVhcCY

https://www.sheetmusicnow.com/products/o-notte-o-dea-del-mistero-o-night-mysterious-goddess-p254434

[8] Toby and Redburn’s love theme: Domenico Zipoli’s All’Elevazione N.1 – adagio for cello, oboe, orchestra and organ:

https://youtu.be/Cz7BKFwJJCc

[9] Closing credits: “Lonesome Road II” choir, orchestra and soloist version; music and lyrics by James Taylor / Don Grolnick:

https://youtu.be/wnsjk3KqAPo

[10] Male couple: the following link shows a Gilbert Island same-sex couple photographed in the 1920s. They sport two traditional ’looks.’ The man on the right wears a woven armor breastplate. The one on the left wears a formal version of the traditional kilt and its decorative sash:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81NNfvM1LsL._AC_SY879_.jpg

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