Why must Arthur Gordon Pym, the protagonist of Poe's only book-length fiction, be identified on the title page as someone who is of Nantucket? Nantucket is of no apparent interest to Pym and plays no memorable part in his narrative. Psyche-wise and plot-wise, it seems to be nothing more than what westering Americans in the mid-nineteenth century called a “jumping-off place,” a town where travelers assemble to make preparations for an upcoming journey. Why must Pym be identified as belonging to, or hailing from, this place? Other questions are implicated in that one. Why must a person be identified as the product of his or her influences? Why must an idea be identified as the precipitate of prior ideas? Why must an action be identified as the effect of prior actions? Why, more generally, must it be taken for granted that every element of one's existence is subject to genealogical criticism?