Moby Dick

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Volkonski
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Moby Dick

#1

Post by Volkonski »

"Moby Dick" was mentioned in a Disney thread which start bit of searching that led me to this-

Subversive, queer and terrifyingly relevant: six reasons why Moby-Dick is the novel for our times

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/ ... -our-times
But it is Moby-Dick’s premonitory brilliance that continues to make it relevant. Melville predicts mass extinction and climate breakdown, and foresees a drowned planet from which the whale would “spout his frothed defiance to the skies”. And in its worldwide pursuit of a finite resource, the whaling industry is an augury of our globalised state. It’s no coincidence that the Pequod’s first mate, Starbuck, gave his name to a chain of coffee shops.

It’s a very queer book
Moby-Dick may be the first work of western fiction to feature a same-sex marriage: Ishmael, the loner narrator (famous for the most ambiguous opening line in literature) gets hitched – in bed – to the omni-tattooed Pacific islander, Queequeg: “He pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married.” Other scenes are deeply homoerotic: sailors massage each others’ hands in a tub of sperm oil and there is an entire chapter devoted to foreskins (albeit of the whalish variety).

:snippity:

It is genuinely subversive
The alluring figure of Queequeg is one of the first persons of colour in western fiction, and the Pequod carries a multicultural crew of Native Americans, African Americans and Asians (evocatively reflected in the paintings of the contemporary black American artist Ellen Gallagher). It is a metaphor for a new republic already falling apart, with the pursuit of the white whale as a bitter analogy for the slave-owning states. It is why, in 1952, the Trinidadian writer CLR James called Moby-Dick “the greatest portrayal of despair in literature”, seeing an indictment of imperialism in Ahab’s desire for revenge on the whale. (In fact, Melville hints it wasn’t only his leg that was bitten off. As Cerys Matthews asked me: “Shouldn’t it be called Moby-no-Dick?”)
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by Volkonski »

I found "Moby Dick" to be a difficult book to get thru.

The narrative is frequently interrupted with political, historical, philosophical and scientific ramblings understanding some of which requires a fair amount of knowledge about things in the 1840s and 1850s when whaling was a big business upon which other big businesses depended for fuel, lubricants and raw materials.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by Maybenaut »

I had an English prof. who assigned only the salacious bits. The foreskin chapter... :sick:
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Post by Uninformed »

I wonder what Melville would make of Philip Hoare’s interpretation.
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Re: Moby Dick

#5

Post by Suranis »

Based on a true event. Involves Cannibalism.

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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by Estiveo »

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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by roadscholar »

A very dark book indeed. The whole whaling adventure is Ishmael’s alternative (just barely preferred) to suicide. :?
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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by Volkonski »

Suranis wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 10:18 pm Based on a true event. Involves Cannibalism.

The whale ship "Essex" was built not far from my childhood home in Massachusetts.
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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by Mr brolin »

Call me a cynical old devil however I see considerably more of Mr Hoares views and opinions than Melville would ever have conceived.

Melville needed money, had a pretty good idea what was commercial, took his experiences and knowledge and write a somewhat turgid "ripping yarn" with sufficient blood, guts, gore, death and mutilation along with a soupcon of naughty words and fantasies to appeal to the then current mass market.

if it was now, he'd probably have knocked off a 50 Shades of Gray pot boiler
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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Was Melville paid by the word?
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Re: Moby Dick

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Post by Volkonski »

Mr brolin wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 4:33 am Call me a cynical old devil however I see considerably more of Mr Hoares views and opinions than Melville would ever have conceived.

Melville needed money, had a pretty good idea what was commercial, took his experiences and knowledge and write a somewhat turgid "ripping yarn" with sufficient blood, guts, gore, death and mutilation along with a soupcon of naughty words and fantasies to appeal to the then current mass market.

if it was now, he'd probably have knocked off a 50 Shades of Gray pot boiler
"Moby Dick" was published in the USA in 1852. It was a nearly complete commercial failure for decades. It was not widely read until the late 1920s.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Moby Dick

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Post by John Thomas8 »

Moby Dick is a drum solo thank you (sorry, in a strange mood today):

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Moby Dick

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Post by chancery »

There's a very good book about the sinking of the Essex and the sufferings of its crew, which inspired Moby Dick. It's Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2000).* An excellent read.


Philbrick also wrote an outstanding book about the early decades of the European settlement of New England, a book which opened my eyes considerably. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (2006).

______
* If you really want to get into the weeds with legal issues concerning emergency cannibalism, a standard text, albeit one with an arguably excessively utilitarian bent, is Brian Simpson's Cannibalism and the Common Law: A Victorian Yachting Tragedy (1984). My copy didn't survive a recent extreme winnowing.
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Moby Dick

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Post by John Thomas8 »

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Moby Dick

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Post by keith »

I was at Point Leeuwin Lighthouse (southwest tip of Australia) today. They had a print of a painting "Sinking Of The Pet By A Sperm Whale". I can find no reference in Dr. Google's library to such an event, only an assertion that The Essex is the only known occurance.

Perhaps Melville was not the only one to be inspired to be inspired by the event?

ETA: but this story discusses several, but not "The Pet".
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Moby Dick

#16

Post by Lani »

I was maybe 6 years old when I saw the Moby Dick movie. I loved the whale and hated the man who was trying to kill the whale. Maybe I didn't understand the movie, but I was glad the whale drowned the mean captain.
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Moby Dick

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Post by northland10 »

He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him. I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up.
Oh wait, that might not be from the book. That probably means Captain Ahab's other name was not Khan Noonien Singh.

Kahn did sound like Ahab though:
From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."
:mrgreen:
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Moby Dick

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Post by Volkonski »

I grew up in SE Massachusetts where the North River was once home to a thriving ship building industry. Over 1000 ships were built there from 1645 to 1871. Always heard that the Essex was built there.

As ships got larger with deeper drafts construction on the North River became impractical. The last ship to be launched on the North River, the “Helen M. Foster”, slid down the ways at Chittenden's yard in Norwell in June 1871.
The Essex: Another disputed North River vessel was whaleship Essex. Local records indicate that it was built in 1796 on the North River, with no exact location provided. However the town of Amesbury on the North Shore makes a similar claim. The ship – which was 87 feet long, with a 24-foot beam and 12-foot draft — was launched in 1799; in 1804, Nantucket merchants purchased it in Salem. In August 1819, George Pollard Jr. was its commander when it departed Nantucket for the South Pacific. On November 20th of that same year, the captain spotted a school of whales and set off in pursuit. A large sperm whale struck the ship forcefully with its head, knocking those on board off their feet. Soon after the same whale struck again, this time completely staving in the ship’s bow. The 20-man crew quickly gathered equipment, food and water, and disembarked to 3 smaller boats, then watched while the Essex sank. What followed was an ordeal that included dehydration, starvation, taking refuge on a small tropical island, and eventually cannibalism. Two men survived. If this sounds familiar, it might be because it served as the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.
https://www.nsrwa.org/noteworthy-north-river-ships/
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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