The Most Dreadful Thing at Sea

In the 1874 novel 93 by Victor Hugo, there is a fantastic passage talking about a loose cannon.

He’s writing about a two-ton cannon that broke loose during a terrible storm.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

This is perhaps the most dreadful thing that can take place at sea.

Nothing more terrible can happen to a man of war under full sail.

A cannon that breaks loose from its fastenings is suddenly transformed into a supernatural beast.

It is a monster developed from a machine.

This mass runs along on its wheels as easily as a billiard ball.

It rolls from one end of the ship to the other, whirls around, turns aside, evades, rears, hits out, crushes, kills, exterminates.

It is matter set free. One might say that this eternal slave is wreaking its vengeance.

It would seem as though the evil and what we call inanimate objects had found vent and suddenly burst forth.

It has the air of having lost its patience and of taking a mysterious dull revenge.

Nothing is so inexorable as the rage of the inanimate.

And that’s just him talking about a cannon.

Wow.

A loose cannon on a ship.

So when people talk about a loose cannon, this is a serious thing.

This is just like, oh, it bumped me.

This is death.

This is death at sea.

You’re done.

You’re over.

That is annihilation.

Yeah.

It’s annihilation.

I am right on that ship with him.

Oh, my gosh.

That’s terrifying.

Yeah.

And if you’ve never read Victor Hugo, he’s certainly worth picking up in big batches and small.

Oh, man.

I’m glad we had that conversation about loose cannon because that’s one of the best pieces of writing I’ve heard in a while.

Yeah.

And we’re always open to hearing about your favorite pieces of writing, large and small.

Martha and I love to take your recommendations and share them on the air, 877-929-9673.

Or send a paragraph or two of what you’ve been reading, something that’s really struck you, to words@waywordradio.org.