SPLIT YOUR LUNGS WITH BLOOD AND THUNDER
WHEN YOU SEE THE WHITE WHALE
BREAK YOUR BACKS AND CRACK YOUR OARS MEN
IF YOU WISH TO PREVAIL
THIS IVORY LEG IS WHAT PROPELS ME
HARPOONS THRUST IN THE SKY
AIM DIRECTLY AT HIS CROOKED BROW
AND LOOK HIM STRAIGHT IN THE EYE
WHITE. WHALE. HOLY. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL
..ahem
Moby Dick is a book written by Herman Melville. Unpopular when first published, it is now recognised as being one of the (or possibly the) best novels written in the 19th century. I don't think any other book gets the spirit of America across as well as Moby Dick. That at all out war with nature the pioneers fought during the years of westward expansion.
It is about obsession and hubris. The monomaniacal Captain Ahab stakes everything on a suicidal chase for Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab is a brilliantly lit character, in himself a prophetic image of the dictators of the 20th century and the cult of personality. Ahab's real life cousins include Hitler and Stalin. He subverts the will of the crew of the Pequod for his own murderous obsession, and the men are merely tools to be used to kill the whale.
It is an idiosyncratic book. Part encyclopedia of the Sperm Whale, part adventure story, part metaphysical speculation. Sometimes it wanders into the realms of theology and psychology. A lot of people dislike this strange structure.
It must be understood as Melville's attempt to create the Whale. Naturally, despite the hundreds of pages describing the whale, he fails and it remains a shadowy, unknowable thing. Shrouded in mystery despite every aspect of its physicality categorised and described. Ishmael himself acknowledges that it is impossible to create a true likeness of anything.
The Pequod becomes the world, filled with a crew from all places. Dagoo, Tashtego and Queequeg, African, Indian and Polynesian harponneers. Stubbs and Starbuck from Nantucket, sailors from Manchester and Lisbon and every other place on the planet. They become a macrocosm of humanity cast adrift on unforgiving seas with Leviathan all about.
It is one of the few books that is more relevant to us now than it ever was when first written. And in much more than a simple ecological sense (although if either Melville or Ishmael were alive today they would be part of the save the whales movement). It remains one of the most profound statements of mans relationship with the universe ever written.
WHEN YOU SEE THE WHITE WHALE
BREAK YOUR BACKS AND CRACK YOUR OARS MEN
IF YOU WISH TO PREVAIL
THIS IVORY LEG IS WHAT PROPELS ME
HARPOONS THRUST IN THE SKY
AIM DIRECTLY AT HIS CROOKED BROW
AND LOOK HIM STRAIGHT IN THE EYE
WHITE. WHALE. HOLY. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL
..ahem
Moby Dick is a book written by Herman Melville. Unpopular when first published, it is now recognised as being one of the (or possibly the) best novels written in the 19th century. I don't think any other book gets the spirit of America across as well as Moby Dick. That at all out war with nature the pioneers fought during the years of westward expansion.
It is about obsession and hubris. The monomaniacal Captain Ahab stakes everything on a suicidal chase for Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab is a brilliantly lit character, in himself a prophetic image of the dictators of the 20th century and the cult of personality. Ahab's real life cousins include Hitler and Stalin. He subverts the will of the crew of the Pequod for his own murderous obsession, and the men are merely tools to be used to kill the whale.
It is an idiosyncratic book. Part encyclopedia of the Sperm Whale, part adventure story, part metaphysical speculation. Sometimes it wanders into the realms of theology and psychology. A lot of people dislike this strange structure.
It must be understood as Melville's attempt to create the Whale. Naturally, despite the hundreds of pages describing the whale, he fails and it remains a shadowy, unknowable thing. Shrouded in mystery despite every aspect of its physicality categorised and described. Ishmael himself acknowledges that it is impossible to create a true likeness of anything.
The Pequod becomes the world, filled with a crew from all places. Dagoo, Tashtego and Queequeg, African, Indian and Polynesian harponneers. Stubbs and Starbuck from Nantucket, sailors from Manchester and Lisbon and every other place on the planet. They become a macrocosm of humanity cast adrift on unforgiving seas with Leviathan all about.
It is one of the few books that is more relevant to us now than it ever was when first written. And in much more than a simple ecological sense (although if either Melville or Ishmael were alive today they would be part of the save the whales movement). It remains one of the most profound statements of mans relationship with the universe ever written.
