Defying gravity

EM Forster appears never to have seen a flying fish, but if he had, he might have recognised the way they inhabit two worlds. BY MATT VANCE

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In an essay for The Atlantic in 1926, Edwardian novelist EM Forster said, “Literature is a flying fish.” Ironically, it was a quote that never took off. As an afterthought, perhaps knowing it was a dud, he surrounded it with some explanation.

“The fish are the English emotions,” he mumbled, “which are always trying to get up to the surface but don't quite know how.” He goes on to say that when these emotions do come out as art, “it is a proof that beauty and emotion exist in the salt, inhospitable sea”. A supplementary explanation is always a bad sign with a quote.

While he did not have the quotability of someone like Oscar Wilde, Forster did leave us with some good novels that gave us a view of the stifling world of Edwardian England. Colonisation, foreigners, the frustrations of the English class system were some of his favourite themes. The stories usually involved attempts to push through some form of social or cultural barrier, but being bounced off its mirrored ceiling and ending up slightly mangled on the floor.

There is no record of EM Forster having ever seen a flying fish, despite twice taking a steamer to India from England and back. If he had, I'm sure we would have heard about it, as it is an Alice in Wonderland experience. Something zips out of the water, sprouts wings and glides for what seems like an unfeasibly long time. Sometimes, there are whole squadrons of them spread out in formation, defying logic and gravity in equal measure. It's like seeing your first rainbow and has the same element of the incredulous about it. The uninitiated will let out a gasp or a whoop and turn to you wide-eyed and say, “I had no idea fish could fly!”

Despite their ability to dazzle, they are largely ignored by all but a handful of ichthyologists who insist they are pronounced as one word: flyingfish.