We might regret this.

Been reading

2006-11-12T05:07:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-10-11T03:49:00.000-07:00

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

Chapter 34: The Cabin Table

2006-10-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T20:40:00.001-07:00

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

2006-10-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Chapter 16: The Ship

2006-10-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

I like the one split second when Ishael questions his intentions when faced with the mostly unchanging view of the ocean and asked by Captain Peleg what he sees of the world from a ship. He glosses over it in the space of a few words with his own will and stubborness - I will do what I set out to do whether or not it will be beneficial to me. Whether or not it will serve the purpose I need it to serve, I must go to sea. This could be tied with the "god as sea" metaphor Iestyn mentioned - blindly obeying the compulsion to seek god, if not obey god directly, though these could arguably be the same thing.

Chapter 23 - The Lee Shore

2006-10-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

I had more coherent thoughts about the subject on the plane, but didn't write them down. I'm interested in the religious elements of the story. For instance, the use of the sea as representing the infinite, the "indefinite", the godly, as opposed to the concreteness of the shore. So in Ch. 23, "all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the independence of the sea".

And in keeping with Ceridwen's theory about Queequeg becoming the "only wise man", in Chapter 18 we find that Queequeg's mark is the infinity mark, and is tattooed upon him.

I mentioned in another comment the theme of slavery and obedience which comes up here and there, how men in the Christianity of the time are meant to be obedient to god. (The sermon in Chapter 9 is the argument for the prosecution - the tale of Jonah lays out what happens to those who would disobey). There's a great little tiny sentence in Chapter 16 about Captain Ahab that hints at what may come: "He's a grand, ungodly, godlike man, Captain Ahab;" By not being godly, he himself is godlike - he seeks to impose his will rather than the other way around.

On a lighter note, this exchange could have come straight from Monty Python or Black Adder:

"Very good. Now, art thou the man to pitch a harpoon down a live whale's throat, and then jump after it? Answer, quick!"

"I am, sir, if it should be positively indispensable to do so; not to be got rid of, that is, which I don't take to be the fact."

Chapter 12: Biographical

2006-10-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

So it appears that Queequeg is developing into not only Ishmael's buddy, but the sort of "hidden wise man" of the story. I'm betting the savage will be revealed to be the most civilized among them at some later time. Not particularly in this chapter, but I've found that in some places I'm reading along swiftly, only be be bogged down in a particularly overwrought passage, usually about religion. It's like walking along on a sidewalk then suddenly wandering into a marsh and I'm slogging through muck. These are the passages I can only assume have been ripped from the abridged editions. Anyone else having this problem?

Chapter 11 - Nightgown

2006-10-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Big ups to the section on contrast - "for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast." This has been studied out the wazoo, and it's true - happiness is not measured on an absolute scale, it's all to do with how you feel compared with something or someone else, or how you anticipate feeling better or worse in the future.

And - "..to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air." That's why I crank the ac down to 66 degrees at night in hotels.

Success!

2006-10-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

I tracked down the great white whale at the Logan Airport Borders. The shadowy beast had escaped me at the Atlanta Hudson News. I'd say it's a testament to the novel's staying power that you can find it in a well-stocked airport bookstore. My version has a little bio at the front, and I was interested to learn that Melville -

Did spend a fair amount of time at sea, much of it in the South Pacific
Wrote some successful books about his adventures (much "embroidered")
Bought a farm and released Moby Dick to little notice in 1851
Released some more books with an "increasingly torturous style" which were wholly unsuccessful
Spent the next 20 years as a customs inspector in NY, working on an epic poem about his visit to the Holy Land, and "consumed with religious doubt"

And wow, that's a lot of whale quotes. I sort of pictured the opening of a movie with a black screen, and quotes slowly appearing on the screen - to the point of absurdity. It's like he googled "whale" and just printed the results.

For more historical context, here's what was going on in 1851:

Wikipedia - 1851

Norton Critical Editions, how I love thee

2006-10-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

If anyone is interested in some criticism of our fair book, I have a fabulous 1967 edition with all sorts of interesting tidbits, including "Melville: Not Even a Minor Master." Catty.

Study Hall + Wikepedia = trouble

2006-10-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Umm.

"The German funeral doom metal band Ahab refers in all of their songs to the book by Melville. Their demo "The Oath" was released in 2005. On October 10, 2006, their debut album "The Call of the Wretched Sea" is slated to be available in America. [1] "

Chapter 4: The Counterpane

2006-10-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Totally opens with a "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" moment... remember when Steve Martin and John Candy wake up and they're spooning? Classic.

Loomings-Spouting Whale

2006-10-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Since Keath was driving all day Saturday, I had the unique experience of reading this aloud to him. Once I learned to breathe more often than sentence structure would indicate, it was quite fun. The innkeeper had a horrible Irish/Scottish accent and Ishmael did his ramblings in an oddly aristocratic voice. But I digress. I'm enjoying the book more than I thought I would and finding I really like the tangents he goes off on that modern publishing seems to disallow. Having multiple descriptions/figures of speech for the same thing gives me extremely precise images in my head, rather than a vague fuzziness. So far, so good. Bring on the whale.

Chapter 1: Loomings

2006-09-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

Ishmael is hilarious. He's so pompous, yet self-deprecating. I really love that line about how sometimes it takes a high moral principle to keep him from methodically knocking peoples hats off their heads in the street. I can totally relate... maybe it's time I take to the sea! I feel like I could hang out with Ishmeal because I also enjoy circumambulating the Island of Manhattoes. If you were friends with Ishmael, though, he would leave 42 minute long voice mails on your cell phone just going off on tangents about stuff that happened to him that day. Anyway, I'm super surprised because I didn't realize people were funny back then.... I thought comedy wasn't invented until the 20's. So far this book is pretty great... I guess that's why people like it?

Oh, it's ON

2006-09-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

So people have asked me how this is going to work. To be perfectly truthful, I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm an English teacher, but my classroom tends to border on anarchy (especially this year, when I've got 27 kids in a really tiny room, and they all know the answers all the time).

With that in mind, I'm making everyone an administrator. If you're familiar with Blogger, it'll be easy for you to add links, play with the template (in a nice way), invite friends to participate, &c. If you're not comfortable doing that, well, posting's really easy, and commenting's even easier.

I wonder if it might be best to work like this: Read at your own pace, and post/comment on particular chapters, with the chapter title as the title of your post. For example, if I, in a fast-induced manic state, were to read Chapter 21, "Going Aboard," on Monday afternoon and then wanted to discuss something I found in it, I'd start a new post called "Chapter 21: Going Aboard". Then everyone who wanted to say something about that chapter could get in on it.

'Course, we could also have posts about bigger topics, or offshoots, or whatever. It's not my show--I'm just along for the ride.

Get pumped

2006-09-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

This was, in essence, the inspiration for deciding to read this beast of a book in the first place.

Studio 360's American Icons:Moby-Dick

Give it a listen at some point. It's a pretty incredible chunk of radio.