Moby Dick Chapters 12-20
Jun. 21st, 2013 07:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretI feel like I should say something about Queequeg's biography, but mostly what I feel is disgust. Melville/Ishmael couldn't even be bothered to spell the name of Queequeg's homeland consistently from page to page! Boo Ishmael. Boo Melville.
The chowder scene is pretty hilarious. ISHMAEL IS SUCH A GREENHORN. Actually, the best summary of chapters 12-20 is ISHMAEL IS SUCH A GREENHORN. There's the chowder, the harpoon saga at the inn, the way he gets outnegotiated into a 300th lay by the Peleg/Bildad team... The whole point of these chapters is mostly for Melville to winkingly show how little Ishmael knows about whaling.
The impression one gets of Nantucket Island from Ishmael is of an insular community with odd customs whose sole ambition is to screw stupid whalers and wannabe whalers out of money. And Ishmael is class A chum for the Nantucketer, despite the fact that he keeps reminding us that he doesn't have money, because he also doesn't seem to really care that he doesn't have money. Another sign pointing to his exile from a childhood of fortune, perhaps?
I don't have too much else to say, except that I'd completely forgotten that the Pequod is dressed like a sperm whale. Ahahahaha... Oh, Melville, are you trying to tell us something there? Is the Pequod perhaps a Babelian monster, a man-made Leviathan? Is the true White Whale not Moby Dick, but Ahab's construction of self? Who is being doubled here, and for what purpose?
I think I mentioned in my past post, Melville is so good at sincerity and straightforward detailing that it's at times a bit tricky for me to tell if he even wants you to bother reading these things as symbols. Isn't it enough that Melville just really loves whales and whalers? Isn't the description of the Pequod, which takes several paragraphs and covers the minutest detail of the ship's decoration, a brilliantly entertaining piece of writing on its own terms?
The chowder scene is pretty hilarious. ISHMAEL IS SUCH A GREENHORN. Actually, the best summary of chapters 12-20 is ISHMAEL IS SUCH A GREENHORN. There's the chowder, the harpoon saga at the inn, the way he gets outnegotiated into a 300th lay by the Peleg/Bildad team... The whole point of these chapters is mostly for Melville to winkingly show how little Ishmael knows about whaling.
The impression one gets of Nantucket Island from Ishmael is of an insular community with odd customs whose sole ambition is to screw stupid whalers and wannabe whalers out of money. And Ishmael is class A chum for the Nantucketer, despite the fact that he keeps reminding us that he doesn't have money, because he also doesn't seem to really care that he doesn't have money. Another sign pointing to his exile from a childhood of fortune, perhaps?
I don't have too much else to say, except that I'd completely forgotten that the Pequod is dressed like a sperm whale. Ahahahaha... Oh, Melville, are you trying to tell us something there? Is the Pequod perhaps a Babelian monster, a man-made Leviathan? Is the true White Whale not Moby Dick, but Ahab's construction of self? Who is being doubled here, and for what purpose?
I think I mentioned in my past post, Melville is so good at sincerity and straightforward detailing that it's at times a bit tricky for me to tell if he even wants you to bother reading these things as symbols. Isn't it enough that Melville just really loves whales and whalers? Isn't the description of the Pequod, which takes several paragraphs and covers the minutest detail of the ship's decoration, a brilliantly entertaining piece of writing on its own terms?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-12 02:26 pm (UTC)I'm not sure how I missed this before. Melville is not exactly a subtle writer.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-24 02:05 pm (UTC)Okay, the outnegotiation for the 300th lay I understood, and that was pretty funny. (I also enjoyed how Queequeg immediately got the 75th lay.)
I think it's interesting how, when Ahab was introduced in these chapters, there's a big to-do over how his name DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING, OKAY? YES WE ALL KNOW WHO AHAB WAS, NO IT IS NOT SYMBOLIC OF HIM IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER. Um, okay.
I also am enjoying all the grim foreshadowing of the type "...and so-and-so would NEVER COME BACK from this trip!!"
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-25 04:35 am (UTC)