In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

OCEAN LINERS 167
From the perspective of Becher and Traven, individuality is a privilege
of the rich, and it means that one is exempt from the constraints of the
law. [see Individuality vs. Collectivity] The poor, in contrast, are treated
as individuals only in private conversation: "I've told you that, under the
circumstances, I've no power whatsoever to do anything for you ... I'd
like to be able to give you the document you need, but I can't . . .
Frankly, I believe your story. It sounds true ... But I'll tell you just as
frankly: if the French police ever brought you here and asked me to
identify you, I would vehemently deny your claim to American citizenship"
(Traven, 49).
If the reintegration of upper-deck and lower-deck passengers into the
everyday world produces such dramatic divergence, the contrast between
the spheres of nonreality they inhabit during the voyage is by no means
less impressive. Mere survival on board is a daunting challenge for the
poor and the marginal. Indeed, Bertolt Brecht tries to show, in his fragmentary
novel Lebenslauf des Boxers Samson-Korner (Life of the Boxer
Samson Korner), that transatlantic crossings offer the best possible
preparation for a career as a prizefighter. [see Boxing] In some episodes,
Korner is a starving stowaway hiding from the crew. [see Hunger Artists]
In others, he appears on deck and must then buy the sailors' complicity
by doing their work and submitting to their sexual advances. [see Male
= Female (Gender Trouble)] The black cook Jeremiah Brown even insists
on making public his erotic relationship with Korner: "He organized
boxing matches on deck, supposedly to demonstrate my strength, which
had so impressed him . . . Brown would sit there on a small stool,
looking at me with a fascinated grin and continually drawing the spectators'
attention to some trick of mine, or other things of that sort. He
also liked to feel my muscles, and would praise them like a connoisseur"
(138). Another protagonist, an American black man named Kongo, is a
professional boxer who takes vacations from the rigors of his job (and
from the constraints of Prohibition) by traveling across the ocean in a
state of complete inebriation. [see Bars] What makes the unreal world
of ocean liners appealing to stowaways (like Korner) and dropouts (like
Kongo) is a tradeoff between the two aspects of their situation that relate
to the absence of the law on board: stowaways and dropouts are at the
mercy of the crew, but they are also beyond the reach of any State
authority. Their legal punishment (for traveling without paying the fare
and for crimes committed before departure) must be deferred, and this