Moby Dick Blog Post
My favorite subject in school was always math. I wasn’t much into literature for most of my time in school. I would often read the SparkNotes instead of assigned reading or just wing it through tests so I had more time to play Guild Wars. As I continue to get older, my appreciation for things that aren’t math is growing and I find that I actually want to read these books that were assigned to me in school.
Me reading Moby-Dick on the swinging bridge in the village
I’ve wanted to read Moby-Dick for a long time. I don’t know why exactly, my vague idea about what the book was seemed “cool”. Moby-Dick is not what I was expecting at all and more than I ever could have hoped for.
“Queequeg,” said I, “do you think that we can make out a supper for us both on one clam?”
However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. (p. 65)
I would always hear people say things like “Moby-Dick is so boring, it spends whole chapters talking about whales or rope” and I thought… that sounds kind of sick to me? As it turns out, the chapter about rope isn’t just about rope. The chapter about whale spout mist isn’t just about whale spout mist. The chapter about how the whale is white most certainly isn’t just about how the whale is white. It amazes me how Melville conveyed meaning through these topics.
So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory. (p. 203)
I don’t even know where to start in writing about this book. It’s much funnier than I ever would have thought it would be (prior to reading, I didn’t even consider that it would be funny). It feels all over the place and cohesive at the same time. The logistics of the book were confusing at times, I would find myself questioning if Ishmael or Melville himself was the narrator and questioning whether the “facts” being presented were real or not. Eventually I decided to take whatever the book threw at me in stride and not worry about whether I was getting an accurate depiction of nineteenth century whaling. This is a novel, after all.
I didn’t read this book alone! I ran a book club with a group of friends over the summer which was an awesome experience. We called it Moby Dick Book Club. A highlight was our meeting of a dozen or so people to discuss the first half of the book. I have very insightful friends and it added a lot to my experience reading the book to hear their thoughts. I’m still trying to get some shirts made to commemorate the book club!
Book Club information in our Discord discussion forum thing
My understanding of the overarching theme of the book is this: Moby-Dick is about the folly in pursuit of comprehension of the unknowable nature of the universe. It doesn’t really do the book justice to try to summarize the themes in one sentence, though. I think there is still much more for me to get out of this book. I know this will be a book that I read again and again.
Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.
God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return! (p. 274)
The impact this book has had on me is profound!
Me reading Moby-Dick at the Santa Barbara Zoo on my birthday
It makes me want to read more. I have a list of some “classics” that I’m reading through now. It has made me enjoy thinking more critically about literature. My friend Kat recommended the book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders which talks about how stories work. It has been a great read so far.
It makes me want to write. That’s a big part of why I started this blog and why you may see some sentences where I try to get a bit “literary” scattered throughout my posts. If I could write something that makes someone feel a fraction as deeply as Moby-Dick made me feel, well that sure would be cool.
as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul. (p. 421)
It makes me consider doing something else with my life. There has always been a part of me that thought my true calling was in academia. Maybe it is? I always thought that would be in math, but maybe not? Either way, this is a path that I’ve been considering. I’m not sure what, if anything, this will materialize into.
Reading in Morro Bay after getting seafood for lunch
To wrap things up, I’ll say that I think you should give Moby-Dick a try (the William Hootkins audiobook is excellent if you prefer to listen). Prepare yourself for a long, strange journey should you choose to embark upon it. Even if you don’t want to read Moby-Dick, I would highly recommend making the time to challenge yourself. I say “make the time” because, at least for me, challenging myself isn’t something I do by default, it’s something I have to go out of my way to do. You could do this by reading a more challenging book than you typically would, or challenging yourself in some other way. I’ve been challenging myself in a few different ways recently and it’s been very rewarding to notice my perspective broaden as I get out of my comfort zone.
I’ll leave you with one last passage to end this post.
In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly pleasant—the mast-head; nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful. There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus at old Rhodes. There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves. The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor. For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are never troubled with the thought of what you shall have for dinner—for all your meals for three years and more are snugly stowed in casks, and your bill of fare is immutable. (p. 153)
Use your imagination and pretend we got a big group picture reading Moby-Dick on vacation in Pawley’s Island
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