The Whale
The Whale
I don’t think I have anything to say about Moby Dick himself that wouldn’t sound like an American Lit 101 term paper. Moby Dick shows up in person very late in the book with the Pequod following a trail of destruction he leaves among other whaling ships. Ishmael discourses about the various meanings of the color white, both angelic and demonic soon after Ahab and his quest are introduced. It seems to me all of the malevolence is wrapped up in Ahab, and Moby Dick is just a big, ornery animal that you’d be smart to leave alone. I agree with Starbuck, the voice of reason on the Pequod:
"Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous."
“Moby Dick seeks not thee. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!''
Going back to 10th grade literature, Ahab thinks he’s fighting the supernatural, but he’s actually fighting nature, and the magic harpoon that he forged ain’t gonna do squat because he’s not a monster, just a whale. So you got some C+ freshman lit anyway.
In D&D terms, Moby Dick would be Neutrally aligned animal, but would start off an encounter with a -4 on the reaction roll, meaning “uncertain” is the best result.
youtube.com - Mastodon- Seabeast
ReplyDeleteCasey G. At first it SEEMS like 10th grade literature biz, but it’s a very human theme. We just can’t stop imagining ourselves in everything, and it helps us some, but it also leads us to ignore the evidence of our insignificance...often to our ruin. Seems pretty deep to me. Maybe i’m enamored of my own limited intelligence?
ReplyDeleteAlso: Thank you for these MD posts. They are great. It’s been so long since I read this that I didn’t even know how metal it was.
Yeah, Ahab is convinced he’s in some cosmic struggle where he’s the protagonist. Like most of us. But we are puny.
ReplyDeleteI also kept wondering if Lovecraft was influenced by Moby Dick since the “rediscovery” of the book was during the 20’s.
And that’s the conclusion of my Harry Potter = Moby Dick inverted thesis as well. The thing I like best about it is that in both cases the object of rage/fear/desire hardly appears until the showdown. The thing I like least is that Harry pulls a Christological turn at the end. I would’ve preferred it if we never really knew if any of the prophecies had any merit, so it would be totally (even more) ambiguous whether Voldemort was done in by fate or his own paranoia.
ReplyDelete(also this discussion puts me in mind of some ancient debates between osr and storygames about whether or not you’re playing a hero)
ReplyDeleteBeing done in by your own paranoia seems pretty metal too.
ReplyDeleteRichard G, it’s interesting to me that one goofy tepid take next door has made for 4 or 5 days of actual hot takes here in the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThat Harry Potter connection is good. I’ve always thought that as soon as Voldy decided that the prophecy was about him and decided to do something about it, he doomed himself. So yeah, hubris. Even if he’d decided the prophecy was about Neville he would have doomed himself. Neville levelled up pretty well too.
ReplyDeleteMAN, this official video! youtube.com - MASTODON - "Seabeast" (Official Music Video) - YouTube
ReplyDeleteAdd in some "in the American colonial imagination to which Melville was indebted, nature is always already the devil's church" and you can probably get at least a B-.
ReplyDeleteAlso I heard you like nautical metal youtube.com - Ahab - The Hunt
Jack Shear I'm sure I would have got there if I was staring at my computer monitor and the paper was due in 2 hours. The word "colonial" is always good for an extra letter grade!
ReplyDeleteclassicsandcheese.blogspot.com - Lovecraft Inspired by Melville? Maybe.
ReplyDeleteSo Lovecraft did mention Moby Dick in his letters before he wrote Call of Cthulhu.
ReplyDeletehttps://lovecraftzine.com/2015/03/27/lovecrafts-cthulhu-and-melvilles-moby-dick-cosmic-echoes-from-the-ocean-depths/
These have been a ton of fun.
ReplyDeleteI'm now starting to think I should've done a Patrick Stuart type chapter by chapter notes on The Baroque Cycle.
ReplyDeleteRichard G it's not too late
ReplyDeleteRichard G 🤩 blog gold! Synthesis from peoples areas of emphasis and interest is something that really does enrich my experience in hobby land.
ReplyDelete