Ship of fools

For other uses, see Ship of fools (disambiguation).
Illustration by artist Albrecht Dürer in Stultifera navis (Ship of fools) by Sebastian Brant, published by Johann Bergmann von Olpe in Basel in 1498.
The ship of fools, depicted in a 1549 German woodcut

The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Plato,[1] that has long been a fixture in Western literature and art. The allegory or parable depicts a vessel without a pilot, taken over by force or persuasion by those who are deranged, frivolous, or oblivious, and seemingly ignorant of their course. This mob is willing to kill anyone in the way, and to drug the captain if necessary. The true pilot, that knows the stars, the wind, and how to stay on course, is considered useless by the mob. The allegory is compared to how a philosopher is rejected by the state.

The concept makes up the framework of the 15th century book Ship of Fools (1494) by Sebastian Brant, which served as the inspiration for Hieronymous Bosch's famous painting, Ship of Fools: a ship—an entire fleet at first—sets off from Basel, bound for the Paradise of Fools. In literary and artistic compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries, the cultural motif of the ship of fools also served to parody the 'ark of salvation' as the Catholic Church was styled.

Literary use

A 1962 novel of the same name by American writer, Katherine Anne Porter, set in the autumn of the year 1931, also uses the device of the allegory, and can be seen as an attack on a world that allowed the Second World War to happen.[2] The novel was the basis for a 1965 film starring Vivien Leigh and Lee Marvin.

In Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide series, the Golgafrincham civilization uses myths of impending planetary doom to cast three Ark ships into the void of interstellar travel. Into the A ship would go all the leaders, scientists and other high achievers. The C ship would contain all the people who made things and did things, and the B ark would hold everyone else, such as hairdressers and telephone sanitizers. They sent the B ship off first, but of course the other two-thirds of the population stayed on the planet and lived full, rich and happy lives until they were all wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone. The useless Golgafrinchans crash-land on prehistoric Earth, and displace a slowly developing primate culture to become the ancestors of modern humanity.

Ship of Fools is also the title of a 2002 science fiction novel by Richard Paul Russo where the Ship of Fools is, not surprisingly, a space ship on which no one knows the destination.

In addition, Ship of Fools was used as the title of a book by the Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole on the causes of the financial crisis in Ireland, the metaphor being used to describe the Irish political establishment and their self-deception regarding the economic situation in the country.

Theodore Kaczynski, more commonly known as 'The Unabomber', wrote a play Ship of Fools while in prison, which uses the allegory for the state and advocates violent revolution on environmentalist grounds.

The alternate history novel The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson, portrays a 'caravan of fools' composed of outcasts, criminals and liberals, whose clashes with Muslim ideologues prompt them to abandon their lives in newly recolonised Al-Andalus and form new settlements in modern-day France.

Critical Theory

Michel Foucault, who wrote Madness and Civilization, saw in the ship of fools a symbol of the consciousness of sin and evil alive in the medieval mindset and imaginative landscapes of the Renaissance. Though this critical angle conflates myth, allegory and history, scholars such as Jose Barchilion have found Foucault's words on the subject very insightful. In his introduction to Madness and Civilization, Barchilon writes of the Ship of Fools as if it were an example of actual societal practice:

"Renaissance men developed a delightful, yet horrible way of dealing with their mad denizens: they were put on a ship and entrusted to mariners because folly, water, and sea, as everyone then 'knew', had an affinity for each other. Thus, 'Ship of Fools' crisscrossed the sea and canals of Europe with their comic and pathetic cargo of souls. Some of them found pleasure and even a cure in the changing surroundings, in the isolation of being cast off, while others withdrew further, became worse, or died alone and away from their families. The cities and villages which had thus rid themselves of their crazed and crazy, could now take pleasure in watching the exciting sideshow when a ship full of foreign lunatics would dock at their harbors."

In popular music

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Narrenschiff.
  1. ↑ See Philosophy Now for a one-page summary of Plato's original 'Ship of Fools' argument against democracy (link to article), accessed March 2014.(subscription required)
  2. ↑ "Katherine Anne Porter". Educational Broadcasting Corporation. September 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
  3. ↑ "Prog Archives". Retrieved 3 April 2012.
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