Very interesting discoveries, Andrea! I knew about John Rae but not about the controversy in which he figured. I'm especially interested in the cannibal angle since I believe that VN strongly connected cannibalism with incest. So here we could see Ray's report of HH's incestuous desire for Lolita as analagous to Rae's report of cannibalism in the Franklin expedition. I believe it was Claude Levi-Strauss who said that cannibalism is "an alimentary form of incest."
 
Best,
Matt
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