"Yet, there is little exploration of why Ahab had the control he had, why the crew followed him, other than that they did, because that is how the system, corrupted though it may be, worked."
I thought this was one of the more poignant lines in your essay. It is something, I believe, many of us ponder about the current situation our country is in. Both in the masses following the current executive and in how many more continue in lockstep with a system that is rotting from the inside, while, by some small or very large measure, continuing to function.
Great literature treats evil seriously without making it glamorous. It understands that corruption often enters through vanity, weakness, and small compromises.
Unlike American citizens who know Moby Dick as early as their elementary school or (junior) middle school period. I knew Moby Dick was when I was in (senior) high school. However, it was not the book, but same-title instrumental work performed by Led Zeppelin. It's in their second self-titled album, which was honored for its great impact on the foundation of heavy metal music. Before that, I was fascinated with the Beatles or Eagles. I happened to know Led Zeppelin was great before I appreciated their works. When I got the cassette of Led Zeppelin II, holding it in my hand and watching its cover, I began to wonder why they chose such an unimpressive (to a middle schooler's eyes) photo to present their work. Most of the songs appeared on Led Zeppelin II left indistinct impression on me except Moby Dick and other 2-3 tracks. I was totally astounded by John Bonham's drumming performance, which I never heard it before. I couldn't make a judgement whether it was a good one or not. But it would be years before I could find another piece of drumming performance that could be as impressive as this one. In lots of years, I thought John Bonham was the best drummer in the whole world. Then I happened to know a book named Moby Dick when I was at college. And I was like thinking, what was that? A whole book-length of Led Zeppelin's great track of the same-title? As I opened the book, I found no mention of Led Zeppelin or Heavy Metal, then I realized it was an American novel narrating marine adventurous exploration in nineteenth century. To be honest, I still couldn't finish reading this book till today. Those knowledge involving overall picture and vivid details of whaling industry in ninteenth century's America is so strange and obscure to me that only vocabulary I memorized after having finished the first page was Starbucks. At first, I thought it was unintentional coincidence. Until someday later, I realized "Starbucks" appeared in Moby Dick was where the name of that American Coffee franchise derived from.
Sorry, I didn't mention any significant connection with Moby Dick the novel in the above paragraphs. Although I knew quite little about the details of this book. But just like Mr. Chris Arnade claimed in his newsletter, Moby Dick is a prominent novel that has established what we know as the unique spirits and social organization forms of America even in nowadays's world.
To my eyes, I think it was not a book discussing about adventurous exploration or even battle with giant creature in nature. Moby Dick is an embodiment of the agglomeration of people's ambitions, desires and fears. We can't ignore our inner desires that motivate us to fulfill a variety of deeds, or else the inner flame keeps us vitalized and energetic may go dim or even die out, that's why the protagonist subconsciously joins the funeral procession (or something analogous) as he doesn't participate martime adventures. But our desire and fear may grows as deepening and broadening of the exploration. ordinary preys become unattractive to him, he wants to get acquainted with novel gadgets, and he wants the challenges to be intensified and escalated, which simultaneously means intensification of dangers and uncertainties as well. And it's ultimate embodiment would be Moby Dick, the giant creature that's attractive yet frightening.
Putting all those civilized training or camouflages aside, are we really finer creatures made by the universe? Or we are animals driven by instincts or desires showing no difference than other creatures? What makes us feel superior when compared to other species? Shall we consider Moby Dick the outsider whom should be destroyed only because his distinctive appearance or its noticeable presence which can't be ignored? Each time we encounter novelty, we either want to harness it or destroy it if it becomes out of control, just like the Captain who wants to capture and kill Moby Dick, even if it means chasing after it for more than half of the world. If Moby Dick is really some horrible creature came from the outside, maybe it won't do harm if the Captain destroy it eventually. But what if it represents his inner desire? Eradication of Moby Dick doesn't mean the victory of the hunter, actually the motivation that drives him to live and exploit doesn't exist anymore, which also means his death has been determined by the absence of his own subjective initiative.
Paradoxically, we can only learn how to live with and harness our inner desire and fear, by no means shall we eradicate them or totally submit to them. The former implies the death of an individual with subjective initiative, the latter means we are not ourselves as individuals anymore. As those desire, fear things are intangible, they can flow, agglomerate, transfer from one place to another without permission given by anyone; contrarily, as individuals, we are separable, also we can embrace the intangible item which is larger than anyone of us, becoming members under its realm. But we are fundementally only tangible individuals whom can only be recognized by others via our existence (including appearance, speech, deeds or other kinds of percetible interactions) which can be perceived and comprehended by others.
Know yourself and learn how to better live with yourself, and try to be part of the world.
Maybe try The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade sometime. Melville was closer to Carlin re 'the American dream' ("you've got to be asleep to believe it").
But before taking that trip it helped me to read Franklin's The Wake of the God's: Melville's Mythology:
The idea that great fiction needs non-fiction at its core is the line, wow. It explains why Moby-Dick still breathes after six hundred pages of digression, Melville actually climbed those ropes, actually stood watch, and the invention only works because it’s tethered to something real he lived through. I write literary fiction myself and the scenes that hold up longest in revision are always the ones grown from something I actually witnessed or felt, dressed up in fiction’s clothes rather than built from nothing. The row boats among the mothers and calves passage you flagged does exactly what you say: it wasn’t meant as an argument against whaling, and reads as one anyway, because the respect built from proximity leaks through no matter what the writer intended.
Wonderful essay. Looking forward to the discussions later this month. Did you listen to the Frank Muller audio version? One of the greats, lost tragically early, link below.
Also, for anyone who responds to the prose in Moby Dick, there's also Cormac McCarthy, particularly Blood Meridian.
Well roared! This reminds me of what the film reviewer Michael Ventura wrote about the Harry Dean Stanton character in Repo Man: He's a landlocked Captain Ahab in desperate search for an ocean, let alone a whale. Which kind of crystalizes what is feels like to be a man in our society these days.
Thanks for sharing a lovely, thoughtful review. I've read Moby Dick--once in college and twice in my adult life. It's such a magnificent novel. Regarding the novel's religious themes, my interpretation is Moby Dick represents the inscrutable for Melville. Through his adult life Melville was I suppose what we'd call today an "agnostic seeker," vexed by questions of God's existence, His nature, and our incapacity to ever fathom Truth in a full, genuine way. Ahab's desire to "Strike through the mask!" suggests part of his desire to kill MD is a belief that doing so will somehow provide him with a greater understanding of existential quandaries that plague him.
Now that this post inspired me to go looking for whaling accounts from the early to mid 19th century, I want to read them all and have no idea how to fit them all into my life. *sigh
There are three novels for which I feel envious of someone about to read them for the first time: Moby Dick, Middlemarch, and Lord of the Rings. The latter two are very English, and yes, Moby Dick is a very American book.
I would probably substitute The Brothers Karamazov for Moby Dick (though I do think Melville is the writer I find most similar to Dostoevsky) but otherwise fully agree.
I'm reading Middlemarch in a few weeks, after I finish Demons (Dostoevsky) -- like Moby Dick, I've tried it before (years ago) and it didn't stick, but 19th century British literature is my favorite, so I've got hopes for it
Did you listen to the audiobook narrated by Frank Muller? His narration is one of my favorite works of art in any genre. You can tell he deeply understands the book.
Anthony Heald -- I found he brought out, through inflections and emphasizes, things I had missed. I should check out the Muller one. I follow good narrators like a fan -- often choosing which books to listen to by that alone
I've read Moby Dick several times, in different stages of life, and it's changing as I grow older. Still, as a woman I feel that there are parts of it that I recognize but that don't really chime with me - the search for cameraderie, all that male bonding, that energy put into the chase. It's just not how women roll, in my experience, and when I read what you wrote about men looking for a goal, an adenture, that looks very recognizable to me as an outside observer.
What the book was for me, too, was the juxtaposition of a world of almost unbearable beauty and self-sufficiency - the whales, the sea - vs. the driven, haunted machine of the Pequod - in search of riches, the prey, meaning. Nobody is self-sufficient on the Pequod, they're all driven by some need. I'm sure the Buddha would have to say something about that.
Yes, it can certainly be read as a deeply ecological book -- the descriptions of whales, and nature in general, are much more loving and moving than of people
It very much is the book of a man -- regardless of how much we might ignore gender differences.
It seems to me curiously modern, an almost romantic view of unspoiled nature, at peace with itself, vs. Fallen Man. Very much (fairly) modern man living from nature but not with it grappling with his Christian/Puritan heritage.
I loved this book when I read it one summer at about age 20 - for no particular reason than I liked the library edition I had with Rockwell Kent's illustrations. I intend to read it again.
Speak, thou vast and venerable head...
"Yet, there is little exploration of why Ahab had the control he had, why the crew followed him, other than that they did, because that is how the system, corrupted though it may be, worked."
I thought this was one of the more poignant lines in your essay. It is something, I believe, many of us ponder about the current situation our country is in. Both in the masses following the current executive and in how many more continue in lockstep with a system that is rotting from the inside, while, by some small or very large measure, continuing to function.
Great literature treats evil seriously without making it glamorous. It understands that corruption often enters through vanity, weakness, and small compromises.
Unlike American citizens who know Moby Dick as early as their elementary school or (junior) middle school period. I knew Moby Dick was when I was in (senior) high school. However, it was not the book, but same-title instrumental work performed by Led Zeppelin. It's in their second self-titled album, which was honored for its great impact on the foundation of heavy metal music. Before that, I was fascinated with the Beatles or Eagles. I happened to know Led Zeppelin was great before I appreciated their works. When I got the cassette of Led Zeppelin II, holding it in my hand and watching its cover, I began to wonder why they chose such an unimpressive (to a middle schooler's eyes) photo to present their work. Most of the songs appeared on Led Zeppelin II left indistinct impression on me except Moby Dick and other 2-3 tracks. I was totally astounded by John Bonham's drumming performance, which I never heard it before. I couldn't make a judgement whether it was a good one or not. But it would be years before I could find another piece of drumming performance that could be as impressive as this one. In lots of years, I thought John Bonham was the best drummer in the whole world. Then I happened to know a book named Moby Dick when I was at college. And I was like thinking, what was that? A whole book-length of Led Zeppelin's great track of the same-title? As I opened the book, I found no mention of Led Zeppelin or Heavy Metal, then I realized it was an American novel narrating marine adventurous exploration in nineteenth century. To be honest, I still couldn't finish reading this book till today. Those knowledge involving overall picture and vivid details of whaling industry in ninteenth century's America is so strange and obscure to me that only vocabulary I memorized after having finished the first page was Starbucks. At first, I thought it was unintentional coincidence. Until someday later, I realized "Starbucks" appeared in Moby Dick was where the name of that American Coffee franchise derived from.
Sorry, I didn't mention any significant connection with Moby Dick the novel in the above paragraphs. Although I knew quite little about the details of this book. But just like Mr. Chris Arnade claimed in his newsletter, Moby Dick is a prominent novel that has established what we know as the unique spirits and social organization forms of America even in nowadays's world.
To my eyes, I think it was not a book discussing about adventurous exploration or even battle with giant creature in nature. Moby Dick is an embodiment of the agglomeration of people's ambitions, desires and fears. We can't ignore our inner desires that motivate us to fulfill a variety of deeds, or else the inner flame keeps us vitalized and energetic may go dim or even die out, that's why the protagonist subconsciously joins the funeral procession (or something analogous) as he doesn't participate martime adventures. But our desire and fear may grows as deepening and broadening of the exploration. ordinary preys become unattractive to him, he wants to get acquainted with novel gadgets, and he wants the challenges to be intensified and escalated, which simultaneously means intensification of dangers and uncertainties as well. And it's ultimate embodiment would be Moby Dick, the giant creature that's attractive yet frightening.
Putting all those civilized training or camouflages aside, are we really finer creatures made by the universe? Or we are animals driven by instincts or desires showing no difference than other creatures? What makes us feel superior when compared to other species? Shall we consider Moby Dick the outsider whom should be destroyed only because his distinctive appearance or its noticeable presence which can't be ignored? Each time we encounter novelty, we either want to harness it or destroy it if it becomes out of control, just like the Captain who wants to capture and kill Moby Dick, even if it means chasing after it for more than half of the world. If Moby Dick is really some horrible creature came from the outside, maybe it won't do harm if the Captain destroy it eventually. But what if it represents his inner desire? Eradication of Moby Dick doesn't mean the victory of the hunter, actually the motivation that drives him to live and exploit doesn't exist anymore, which also means his death has been determined by the absence of his own subjective initiative.
Paradoxically, we can only learn how to live with and harness our inner desire and fear, by no means shall we eradicate them or totally submit to them. The former implies the death of an individual with subjective initiative, the latter means we are not ourselves as individuals anymore. As those desire, fear things are intangible, they can flow, agglomerate, transfer from one place to another without permission given by anyone; contrarily, as individuals, we are separable, also we can embrace the intangible item which is larger than anyone of us, becoming members under its realm. But we are fundementally only tangible individuals whom can only be recognized by others via our existence (including appearance, speech, deeds or other kinds of percetible interactions) which can be perceived and comprehended by others.
Know yourself and learn how to better live with yourself, and try to be part of the world.
Best wishes!
Maybe try The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade sometime. Melville was closer to Carlin re 'the American dream' ("you've got to be asleep to believe it").
But before taking that trip it helped me to read Franklin's The Wake of the God's: Melville's Mythology:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wake_of_the_Gods
Hershel Parker's the man for Melville biographies. I read this one:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13593841-melville-biography?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=NLUPN9rY6l&rank=1
The idea that great fiction needs non-fiction at its core is the line, wow. It explains why Moby-Dick still breathes after six hundred pages of digression, Melville actually climbed those ropes, actually stood watch, and the invention only works because it’s tethered to something real he lived through. I write literary fiction myself and the scenes that hold up longest in revision are always the ones grown from something I actually witnessed or felt, dressed up in fiction’s clothes rather than built from nothing. The row boats among the mothers and calves passage you flagged does exactly what you say: it wasn’t meant as an argument against whaling, and reads as one anyway, because the respect built from proximity leaks through no matter what the writer intended.
Wonderful essay. Looking forward to the discussions later this month. Did you listen to the Frank Muller audio version? One of the greats, lost tragically early, link below.
Also, for anyone who responds to the prose in Moby Dick, there's also Cormac McCarthy, particularly Blood Meridian.
https://www.audible.com/pd/Moby-Dick-Audiobook/B002V8L3RI
Well roared! This reminds me of what the film reviewer Michael Ventura wrote about the Harry Dean Stanton character in Repo Man: He's a landlocked Captain Ahab in desperate search for an ocean, let alone a whale. Which kind of crystalizes what is feels like to be a man in our society these days.
Thanks for sharing a lovely, thoughtful review. I've read Moby Dick--once in college and twice in my adult life. It's such a magnificent novel. Regarding the novel's religious themes, my interpretation is Moby Dick represents the inscrutable for Melville. Through his adult life Melville was I suppose what we'd call today an "agnostic seeker," vexed by questions of God's existence, His nature, and our incapacity to ever fathom Truth in a full, genuine way. Ahab's desire to "Strike through the mask!" suggests part of his desire to kill MD is a belief that doing so will somehow provide him with a greater understanding of existential quandaries that plague him.
Now that this post inspired me to go looking for whaling accounts from the early to mid 19th century, I want to read them all and have no idea how to fit them all into my life. *sigh
Very interested in joining the zoom discussion!
There are three novels for which I feel envious of someone about to read them for the first time: Moby Dick, Middlemarch, and Lord of the Rings. The latter two are very English, and yes, Moby Dick is a very American book.
I would probably substitute The Brothers Karamazov for Moby Dick (though I do think Melville is the writer I find most similar to Dostoevsky) but otherwise fully agree.
Middlemarch is indeed extraordinary as well.
I'm reading Middlemarch in a few weeks, after I finish Demons (Dostoevsky) -- like Moby Dick, I've tried it before (years ago) and it didn't stick, but 19th century British literature is my favorite, so I've got hopes for it
Beautiful review.
Did you listen to the audiobook narrated by Frank Muller? His narration is one of my favorite works of art in any genre. You can tell he deeply understands the book.
The Frank Muller version is my favorite. I've listened to other narrators but Muller's voice really brings out Ishmael.
Anthony Heald -- I found he brought out, through inflections and emphasizes, things I had missed. I should check out the Muller one. I follow good narrators like a fan -- often choosing which books to listen to by that alone
I've read Moby Dick several times, in different stages of life, and it's changing as I grow older. Still, as a woman I feel that there are parts of it that I recognize but that don't really chime with me - the search for cameraderie, all that male bonding, that energy put into the chase. It's just not how women roll, in my experience, and when I read what you wrote about men looking for a goal, an adenture, that looks very recognizable to me as an outside observer.
What the book was for me, too, was the juxtaposition of a world of almost unbearable beauty and self-sufficiency - the whales, the sea - vs. the driven, haunted machine of the Pequod - in search of riches, the prey, meaning. Nobody is self-sufficient on the Pequod, they're all driven by some need. I'm sure the Buddha would have to say something about that.
Yes, it can certainly be read as a deeply ecological book -- the descriptions of whales, and nature in general, are much more loving and moving than of people
It very much is the book of a man -- regardless of how much we might ignore gender differences.
It seems to me curiously modern, an almost romantic view of unspoiled nature, at peace with itself, vs. Fallen Man. Very much (fairly) modern man living from nature but not with it grappling with his Christian/Puritan heritage.
I loved this book when I read it one summer at about age 20 - for no particular reason than I liked the library edition I had with Rockwell Kent's illustrations. I intend to read it again.
Definitely wish to join the conversation.