Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell documents white man’s relationship to, destruction and annexation of Hawaii. The history covered is primarily 1820 through 1898 beginning with Cooke’s sailors, focusing mainly on the missionary colonization, touching on whaling, the monarchy and sugar issues.
I first heard of Vowell as a contributor from This American Life. I know her voice and tone. Usually I hear the story in the author’s voice if I’ve heard the author speak before. Vowell’s voice is very distinctive (she played Violet from The Incredibles) so I was surprised that when I read this, Ididn’t hear her voice in my head. She has a warped way of seeing and describing things. She’ll be describing something and put some pithy rejoiner at the end. She did a lot of research and it shows. She noted that “I’m never more at home than when I’m looking stuff up.”
Vowell describes VD and religion as sharing a similar process: “The only thing more European than spreading VD is documenting it… Missionaries were to spread the fear of god as far as Cooke’s men spread the clap.”
Previous to missionary settling, polygamy and incest were acceptable. The word “adultery” didn’t exist in the Hawaiian vocabulary. So when it was outlawed, King Kamehameha III really outlawed the delightful crime of “mischievous mating.”
Interesting, informative, snarky. Just the way I like my history.
