Been reading

I read something like 25 chapters of Moby-Dick on the train to and from NYC in the past couple of days. I'm completely hooked now--somewhere around chapter 55 it really kicked in--and I don't even mind the highly technical bits about whaling procedure, &c. Even the chapter entirely about blubber was awesome.

More specific writings later. For now, I just want to read for a while. It's Sunday morning and I'm finally not sick.

Outside magazine article on modern whaling

A pretty good read.
http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200605/norwegian-whaling-1.html

So, when you're a high school English teacher, you get things like this in your email.

http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Free/Inbox/comp/EJ0953Reading.pdf

Chapter 34: The Cabin Table

I found this chapter greatly entertaining. The poor Dough Boy who has to serve cannibals and promoted but hungry Mr. Flask both cracked me up. It was one of those chapters that transcended time periods since it was dealing almost entirely with human nature - I could imagine the whole thing happening now, if I could rustle up some cannibals.

Chapter 27: Knights and Squires, again

I'm taking up heavy smoking again. Melville says it's good for me, a disinfectant of sorts. Get me a pack of Marlboros, I'm on a lung cleaning rampage.

I'd always thought that white men can't jump - apparently they can't harpoon, either. Just not in their blood.

Chapter 32: Cetology

I am assuming that we are not supposed to be hearing this chapter in Ishmael's voice. It seems unlikely that a first-time whaler would be so interested in Cetology. This chapter is really amusing to me, for 2 reasons - the premises and conclusions are so wrong, and the author is inordinately proud of it. Aye, a whale be a fish. A warm blooded, spouting fish with a horizontal tail, just like no other fish.

I hope this means something naughty, at the end of the narwhal section, "the Earl of Leicester, on bended knees, did present to her highness another horn, pertaining to a land beast of the unicorn nature." Heh heh. I bet he did.

After reading the classification of warm blooded air breathing fish by size and other arbitrary descriptors, the last paragraph is just priceless. The comparison of his Cetological System to the unfinished cathedral in Cologne, and "leaving the copestone to posterity".

Time, Strength, Cash and Patience. I'm pretty sure 50 Cent has that tattooed on his back.

Chapter 26: Knights and Squires

OK, now we're into some serious exposition. (I think that's the right term - the part where no story happens, right?). And it appears to go on for several more chapters. I have to say, in some ways I found the separation of character introduction from story refreshing. When I'm in the middle of one of my usual books (genre scifi), I get a little annoyed when a new character is brought in and I have to figure out all the motivations, mixed in with the story. I'm sure this style will get a little old after a few chapters, though.

Biblical Names

Along the same lines as the vocabulary comment, I do not know much about the biblical context of some of the character's names. So, I thought I'd share what the Internets taught me:

Ishmael - Ishmael was Abraham's son by his wife's servant, Hagar. He and his mom were sent away when he was a teen. From the twelve sons of Ishmael are derived the twelve tribes of the Arabians. His name translates as "he will hear/obey God".

Elijah - I knew Elijah was a prophet, but what I didn't know was that he warned Ahab (a king of Israel) about supporting his wife, Jezebel's, worship of the god Ba'al. He also warned Ahab and Jezebel that they would die violent deaths.

Ahab - A king of Israel, married a Phoeinician, Jezebel. Eventually, disguised as a foot soldier, he is killed in battle and, as earlier predicted by Elijah, his blood is ingloriously licked up by dogs. Later, he founded a German funeral doom metal band... or something.