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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Moby-Dick: Ch. 107
Chapter 107: The Carpenter
"If he did not have a common soul in him, he had a subtle something that somehow anoalously did its duty."
Most of Melville's novel has seemed dedicated to redefining religion and religious practices. Many allusions have been made to Jesus and many characters display characteristics that seem representative of Jesus- Pequod launching on his birthday, Moby-Dick's seeming rebirth and immortality, Ishmael's lack of parental information, Queequeg's 'miracles' and heroic saviors, and Ahab's sense of higher power. This chapter, in a sense, define's what Ishmael percieve's Jesus (the greatest carpenter) to be. A humble man who was 'no duplicate', and simply followed out his orders and purpose willingly and succesfully. Hey, perhaps every character in Moby-Dick corresponds to a character from the bible? Melville did call this a 'wicked text'...did he rewrite- maybe even mock- the holy book?
"If he did not have a common soul in him, he had a subtle something that somehow anoalously did its duty."
Most of Melville's novel has seemed dedicated to redefining religion and religious practices. Many allusions have been made to Jesus and many characters display characteristics that seem representative of Jesus- Pequod launching on his birthday, Moby-Dick's seeming rebirth and immortality, Ishmael's lack of parental information, Queequeg's 'miracles' and heroic saviors, and Ahab's sense of higher power. This chapter, in a sense, define's what Ishmael percieve's Jesus (the greatest carpenter) to be. A humble man who was 'no duplicate', and simply followed out his orders and purpose willingly and succesfully. Hey, perhaps every character in Moby-Dick corresponds to a character from the bible? Melville did call this a 'wicked text'...did he rewrite- maybe even mock- the holy book?
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Moby-Dick: Chapters 82-106
Chapter 82: The Honor and Glory of Whaling
Throughout this novel, Ishmael has implied that whales are immortal, Gods. Now he takes a new approach, detailing the whalers as heroes, Gods. If whalers are the Gods, then what are the whales? This chapter emphasizes the idea of whales as the hunted mortal beings. Do Gods worship the worshippers? Is whaling a battle of the Gods? Are are there no Gods at all?
Chapter 83: Jonah Historically Regarded
The validity of myths is something debated to this very day. But his chapter seems to make clear that the myths themselves are the source of wonder, and they are capable of creating miracles.
Chapter 84: Pitch Poling
"Annointing" the Pequod is evidently a ritual for certain sailors. Like most forms of worship viewed objectively, it neither hurts nor benefits in any particular way. Yet for Queequeg, it satisfies the soul. Perhaps that is the 'soul' purpose of worship, and has nothing to do with the Gods above.
Chapter 85: The Fountain
How is that that which creates rainbows, can also be poisonous in nature? This is Double-think to the extreme. But wait, Ishmael also observes that a whale's spout is 'nothing but mist'. It inspires goodness, evil, and nuetrality. Triple-think? ...or the Holy Trinity?
Chapter 86: The Tail
In legend, it was the provocative tail of the Mermaid that drew men to their deaths. Ishmael seems as entranced by the tale of this whale as any sailor was to a siren.
Chapter 87: Grand Armada
The calm before the storm. The calm within the storm.
The plot of this book has remained fairly flat throughout. Here it is foreshadowed, that this is the point of rest before the plot begins to rise. At the same time, it mentions that within every storm there is a center of stillness. It seems that the plot of this book is like a storm. Circling around and around, tossing the reader from place to place without obvious direction. It can be exhausting and chaotic. However, at its center remains the same stillness, the same message and purpose, that there is in any storm. It is perhaps the same stillness found int he motivation of each sailors, whose lives are like storms.
Chapter 88: Schools and School-Master
The men on the Pequod are, in a sense, very feminine. It is traditionally believed that only females can share close, intimate friendship, and that masculine men must be indepdent and without attachment. That would be the reason you don't often see men hugging in public. However, aboard the Pequod, all the men show open affection for one another. Not neccessarily in a sexual way, but friendly and affeciontately. Ahab, on the other hand, lacks that sense of femininity, and is disconnected from the other men. Is the Pequod a Harem? Like the schools of whale's which they pass? Is Ahab the great Leviathan?
Chapter 89: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
The ownership of whales is an illusion. The chapter makes ownership of a whale seem only a conception of the human-mind. It concludes saying that the reader is both a fast-fish and a loose-fish. The soul of any human being is both trapped and free.
Chapter 90: Heads or Tails
Tails- haha, what artificial victory. The title itself is interesting, because in a coin-toss 'Heads or tails' determines whether one 'wins or loses'. The idea of presenting the tail of a leviathan to a queen- a sign that the have conquered that which tries to lure them to their death- is a complete scam. It is a false front. What the leviathan is, will never be conquered.
Chapter 91: The Pequod meets the Rosebud
Gold from the rotten. One man's decayed flesh is another man's pay-day.
Chapter 92: Ambergris
Interesting, that only man create's the tarnished/smelly image of the whale. Only when man interferres, harvests blubber, and allows it to rot, that whale's produce a disgusting scent. Otherwise, they smell good, and their oil is pure.
Chapter 93: The Cast Away
Perhaps you must be on the verge of death before you can truly see God- Like Ishmael before heading out for Nantucket- Like Ahab when he lost his leg. Oh, Pip will grow to be a great sailor I predict.
Chapter 94: A Sqeeze of the Hand
Again, Matrimony found through cooperation. Is love synonymous with bliss? This chapter makes it seems so. Why do children play with mud? dream of swimming through spaghetti? squich Pla-doh in their hands? Is it any different a reason than why Ishmael find such happiness and affection squeezing sperm?
Chapter 95: The Cassock
The greatest example of 'maleness' aboard the Pequod. For a ship which attempts to exclude all things feminine, and believes it has found perfect relationships without the presence of women, it makes perfect sense they would use the penis of whale's as protective gear. It is much the same as men using the whaling vessel to protect them from the outside world.
Chapter 96: The Try-Works
Madness is only one state of wisdom.
Chapter 97: The Lamp
In perfect rhythm with the rest of the novel, whaler are depicted in a holy way. The ship itself seems to be an alter in the lamp light, or a sacrfice. Or the whalers, seems blessed by the light of whales, the light of God.
Chapter 98: Slowing Down and Clearing Up
Moby-Dick must be arriving soon. It is predicted that the Pequod will be crushed by the whale- obliterated. Now, in a ritualistic manner, it is clean and purified. Prepared for sacrifice. It is a 'death bath'.
Chapter 99: The Doubloon
Haha, Pips interpretation is best! The coin, symbolic of the whale quest, is in actuality nonsensical. Crazy, Loony. They have been warned about whats coming to them for pursueing the White Whale- crows unfaltered by the scarecrow. Caw Caw!
Chapter 100: Leg and Arm
I had at first assumed that Ahabs madness and obsession were driven fully from his encounter with Moby-Dick. Now we see that the White Whale does not consume everyone in the same sense that it has consumed Ahab. Because it is made quite clear that the other ship is English, and that Samuel is from Longon, perhaps this is a commentary on American and its independence- the pilgrims did afterall leave England in search of religious freedom. The english are spiritually dead :)
Chapter 101: The Decanter
Ishmael goes further to discuss the glutonous characteristics of English vessels, particularly their love for alcohol. Oh how effective subtle insults can be.
Chapter 102: A Bower in the Arsacides
A mock of credibility. While he begins attempting to justify himself as an expert on whales, taking measurement of bones, and telling a story that enforces his position- the story is completely false. For all we know, so is the descriptions of whale bone measurements. Concluding the chapter by discussing how he was going to tattoo a poem on his body only further mocks the credibility he was 'trying' to establish. But I do like the idea that your identity, your body, is a poem waiting to be written.
Chapter 103: Measurement of the Whale's Skeleton
Again, Ishmael uses the most mortal aspect of a whale, it's physical bones, to make it immortal. Perhaps whales are like Hercules and Tea Cake, half gods.
Chapter 104: The Fossil Whale
Moby-Dick, the novel, is a Leviathan. Perhaps Melville's entire purpose was to recreate the enormity of a Sperm Whale, in text. The blood of it is certainly as old as the whales'.
Chapter 105: Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish?- Will He Perish?
Immortality is claimed not in the everlastingness of an individual, but in a species. Ishmael knows humans could be wiped of the face of the earth at God's hand, and the species will eventually cease. However, Whale's will be the creatures which survive Armegeddon. This is where man and whale differ.
Chapter 106: Ahab's Leg
How ironic that Ahab would consider the bone of any whale a trustworthy leg. Ahab's command for a new lege seems remiscent of a command for the preparation of battle, assigning all mens to their posts. It seems that the new leg could serve as battle armor. Is the battle with Moby-Dick to happen soon?
Throughout this novel, Ishmael has implied that whales are immortal, Gods. Now he takes a new approach, detailing the whalers as heroes, Gods. If whalers are the Gods, then what are the whales? This chapter emphasizes the idea of whales as the hunted mortal beings. Do Gods worship the worshippers? Is whaling a battle of the Gods? Are are there no Gods at all?
Chapter 83: Jonah Historically Regarded
The validity of myths is something debated to this very day. But his chapter seems to make clear that the myths themselves are the source of wonder, and they are capable of creating miracles.
Chapter 84: Pitch Poling
"Annointing" the Pequod is evidently a ritual for certain sailors. Like most forms of worship viewed objectively, it neither hurts nor benefits in any particular way. Yet for Queequeg, it satisfies the soul. Perhaps that is the 'soul' purpose of worship, and has nothing to do with the Gods above.
Chapter 85: The Fountain
How is that that which creates rainbows, can also be poisonous in nature? This is Double-think to the extreme. But wait, Ishmael also observes that a whale's spout is 'nothing but mist'. It inspires goodness, evil, and nuetrality. Triple-think? ...or the Holy Trinity?
Chapter 86: The Tail
In legend, it was the provocative tail of the Mermaid that drew men to their deaths. Ishmael seems as entranced by the tale of this whale as any sailor was to a siren.
Chapter 87: Grand Armada
The calm before the storm. The calm within the storm.
The plot of this book has remained fairly flat throughout. Here it is foreshadowed, that this is the point of rest before the plot begins to rise. At the same time, it mentions that within every storm there is a center of stillness. It seems that the plot of this book is like a storm. Circling around and around, tossing the reader from place to place without obvious direction. It can be exhausting and chaotic. However, at its center remains the same stillness, the same message and purpose, that there is in any storm. It is perhaps the same stillness found int he motivation of each sailors, whose lives are like storms.
Chapter 88: Schools and School-Master
The men on the Pequod are, in a sense, very feminine. It is traditionally believed that only females can share close, intimate friendship, and that masculine men must be indepdent and without attachment. That would be the reason you don't often see men hugging in public. However, aboard the Pequod, all the men show open affection for one another. Not neccessarily in a sexual way, but friendly and affeciontately. Ahab, on the other hand, lacks that sense of femininity, and is disconnected from the other men. Is the Pequod a Harem? Like the schools of whale's which they pass? Is Ahab the great Leviathan?
Chapter 89: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
The ownership of whales is an illusion. The chapter makes ownership of a whale seem only a conception of the human-mind. It concludes saying that the reader is both a fast-fish and a loose-fish. The soul of any human being is both trapped and free.
Chapter 90: Heads or Tails
Tails- haha, what artificial victory. The title itself is interesting, because in a coin-toss 'Heads or tails' determines whether one 'wins or loses'. The idea of presenting the tail of a leviathan to a queen- a sign that the have conquered that which tries to lure them to their death- is a complete scam. It is a false front. What the leviathan is, will never be conquered.
Chapter 91: The Pequod meets the Rosebud
Gold from the rotten. One man's decayed flesh is another man's pay-day.
Chapter 92: Ambergris
Interesting, that only man create's the tarnished/smelly image of the whale. Only when man interferres, harvests blubber, and allows it to rot, that whale's produce a disgusting scent. Otherwise, they smell good, and their oil is pure.
Chapter 93: The Cast Away
Perhaps you must be on the verge of death before you can truly see God- Like Ishmael before heading out for Nantucket- Like Ahab when he lost his leg. Oh, Pip will grow to be a great sailor I predict.
Chapter 94: A Sqeeze of the Hand
Again, Matrimony found through cooperation. Is love synonymous with bliss? This chapter makes it seems so. Why do children play with mud? dream of swimming through spaghetti? squich Pla-doh in their hands? Is it any different a reason than why Ishmael find such happiness and affection squeezing sperm?
Chapter 95: The Cassock
The greatest example of 'maleness' aboard the Pequod. For a ship which attempts to exclude all things feminine, and believes it has found perfect relationships without the presence of women, it makes perfect sense they would use the penis of whale's as protective gear. It is much the same as men using the whaling vessel to protect them from the outside world.
Chapter 96: The Try-Works
Madness is only one state of wisdom.
Chapter 97: The Lamp
In perfect rhythm with the rest of the novel, whaler are depicted in a holy way. The ship itself seems to be an alter in the lamp light, or a sacrfice. Or the whalers, seems blessed by the light of whales, the light of God.
Chapter 98: Slowing Down and Clearing Up
Moby-Dick must be arriving soon. It is predicted that the Pequod will be crushed by the whale- obliterated. Now, in a ritualistic manner, it is clean and purified. Prepared for sacrifice. It is a 'death bath'.
Chapter 99: The Doubloon
Haha, Pips interpretation is best! The coin, symbolic of the whale quest, is in actuality nonsensical. Crazy, Loony. They have been warned about whats coming to them for pursueing the White Whale- crows unfaltered by the scarecrow. Caw Caw!
Chapter 100: Leg and Arm
I had at first assumed that Ahabs madness and obsession were driven fully from his encounter with Moby-Dick. Now we see that the White Whale does not consume everyone in the same sense that it has consumed Ahab. Because it is made quite clear that the other ship is English, and that Samuel is from Longon, perhaps this is a commentary on American and its independence- the pilgrims did afterall leave England in search of religious freedom. The english are spiritually dead :)
Chapter 101: The Decanter
Ishmael goes further to discuss the glutonous characteristics of English vessels, particularly their love for alcohol. Oh how effective subtle insults can be.
Chapter 102: A Bower in the Arsacides
A mock of credibility. While he begins attempting to justify himself as an expert on whales, taking measurement of bones, and telling a story that enforces his position- the story is completely false. For all we know, so is the descriptions of whale bone measurements. Concluding the chapter by discussing how he was going to tattoo a poem on his body only further mocks the credibility he was 'trying' to establish. But I do like the idea that your identity, your body, is a poem waiting to be written.
Chapter 103: Measurement of the Whale's Skeleton
Again, Ishmael uses the most mortal aspect of a whale, it's physical bones, to make it immortal. Perhaps whales are like Hercules and Tea Cake, half gods.
Chapter 104: The Fossil Whale
Moby-Dick, the novel, is a Leviathan. Perhaps Melville's entire purpose was to recreate the enormity of a Sperm Whale, in text. The blood of it is certainly as old as the whales'.
Chapter 105: Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish?- Will He Perish?
Immortality is claimed not in the everlastingness of an individual, but in a species. Ishmael knows humans could be wiped of the face of the earth at God's hand, and the species will eventually cease. However, Whale's will be the creatures which survive Armegeddon. This is where man and whale differ.
Chapter 106: Ahab's Leg
How ironic that Ahab would consider the bone of any whale a trustworthy leg. Ahab's command for a new lege seems remiscent of a command for the preparation of battle, assigning all mens to their posts. It seems that the new leg could serve as battle armor. Is the battle with Moby-Dick to happen soon?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Insights on 'The Whale': Ch. 78-81
Chapter 78- Cistern and Buckets
"Only one sweeter end can readily be recalled- the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey in the crotch of a hollow tree, found such exceeding store of it, that leaning too far over, it sucked him in, so that he died embalmed. How many, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato's honey head, and sweetly perished there? "
The oil cavern in he head of a Sperm whale, while not veiwed as the brain or mind necessarily, represents the most valuable part of the whale. Perhaps Tashtego's near-death experience slipping into that 'honey-comb' is symbolic of how easily sailors are sucked into whaling. How easy that which you desire can overtake and destroy you. From Ishmael, who was saved from suicide by the sea, to Queequeg, who was drawn to the whaling ships since the first time he saw them, to Ahab, whose future is inextricibly twined with that of the White Whale, all men on board are captured in the vortex of the whaling industry. Of course, when you spend upwards of 3 years at sea at a time, how could you not be?
Chapter 79- The Prairie
Again, Ishmael nominates himself as the great whale expert. Like a priest, he interprets and dictates meaning, sometimes finding a greater truth, othertimes making a great fool of himself. As he discusses the nature of a whale's genius, the question is posed "What would we humans be without tongues?" Ishmael seems to argue that genius and communication, in its purest form, is found in the whale, although it has never written a book or spoken a speech. Is this how humna society determines 'genius'?
Chapter 80- The Nut
"It is plain, then, that phrenologically the head of this Leviathan, in the creature's living intact state, is an entire delusion. As for his true brain, you can then see no indications of it, nor feel any. The whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world. "
Discussion of the Whale's skull seems to compliment the potential of high-intelligence in a whale, adding power to the malicious stories of Moby Dick. However, the whale has no immediatly apparent brain, also encouraging the idea that whale's are powered by a higher force. Moby Dick, powered by a darker force.
Chapter 81- The Pequod Meets the Virgin
"But still more curious was the fact of a lance-head of stone being found in him, not far from the buried iron, the flesh perfectly firm about it. Who had darted that stone lance? And when? It might have been darted by some Nor' West Indian long before America was discovered. "
The great whale harpooned in this chapter emphasizes the potential age of a whale. A stone harpoon found embedded in the skin implies the whale may have lived before the discovery of iron. It almost like he existed from the beginning of time. This inturn emphasizes the immortal nature of whales. How old could Moby Dick be? Or is he, and what he represents, ageless?
"Only one sweeter end can readily be recalled- the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey in the crotch of a hollow tree, found such exceeding store of it, that leaning too far over, it sucked him in, so that he died embalmed. How many, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato's honey head, and sweetly perished there? "
The oil cavern in he head of a Sperm whale, while not veiwed as the brain or mind necessarily, represents the most valuable part of the whale. Perhaps Tashtego's near-death experience slipping into that 'honey-comb' is symbolic of how easily sailors are sucked into whaling. How easy that which you desire can overtake and destroy you. From Ishmael, who was saved from suicide by the sea, to Queequeg, who was drawn to the whaling ships since the first time he saw them, to Ahab, whose future is inextricibly twined with that of the White Whale, all men on board are captured in the vortex of the whaling industry. Of course, when you spend upwards of 3 years at sea at a time, how could you not be?
Chapter 79- The Prairie
"But how? Genius in the Sperm Whale? Has the Sperm Whale ever written a book, spoken a speech? No, his great genius is declared in his doing nothing particular to prove it. It is moreover declared in his pyramidical silence. And this reminds me that had the great Sperm Whale been known to the young Orient World, he would have been deified by their child-magian thoughts."
Again, Ishmael nominates himself as the great whale expert. Like a priest, he interprets and dictates meaning, sometimes finding a greater truth, othertimes making a great fool of himself. As he discusses the nature of a whale's genius, the question is posed "What would we humans be without tongues?" Ishmael seems to argue that genius and communication, in its purest form, is found in the whale, although it has never written a book or spoken a speech. Is this how humna society determines 'genius'?
Chapter 80- The Nut
"It is plain, then, that phrenologically the head of this Leviathan, in the creature's living intact state, is an entire delusion. As for his true brain, you can then see no indications of it, nor feel any. The whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world. "
Discussion of the Whale's skull seems to compliment the potential of high-intelligence in a whale, adding power to the malicious stories of Moby Dick. However, the whale has no immediatly apparent brain, also encouraging the idea that whale's are powered by a higher force. Moby Dick, powered by a darker force.
Chapter 81- The Pequod Meets the Virgin
"But still more curious was the fact of a lance-head of stone being found in him, not far from the buried iron, the flesh perfectly firm about it. Who had darted that stone lance? And when? It might have been darted by some Nor' West Indian long before America was discovered. "
The great whale harpooned in this chapter emphasizes the potential age of a whale. A stone harpoon found embedded in the skin implies the whale may have lived before the discovery of iron. It almost like he existed from the beginning of time. This inturn emphasizes the immortal nature of whales. How old could Moby Dick be? Or is he, and what he represents, ageless?
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