Comment on language/style

The narration of The Art of Fielding is notable for its uses of literary allusions involving authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville (particularly Moby-Dick), and T.S. Eliot. Several of these references are provided by two well-read characters, Pella Affenlight and President Affenlight, whose psychologies are explored at great length. References to Melville, Emerson, and Whitman, for instance, can be explained in part by President Affenlight's background as a scholar of ninteenth-century American literature.