Author Archives: Darian Murillo

Chapter 44: The Chart

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In chapter 44, Ishmael explains on how obsessed Captain Ahab has become on planning his hunt for Moby Dick. Melville writes,” God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates”,(220), in this passage Melville explores how obsession can transform the human mind into its own tormentor and how easy it is to loose yourself to madness when the thoughts come to deeply to torment the human mind. He transforms Ahab has a victim and the creator of his own madness. The phrase,” God help thee” is recognizing that Ahab is suffering and no one can save him, but Him. When he says the “creature” it represents the madness being born inside of him from his obsession with Moby Dick, while comparing him to Prometheus due to both being defiant and both being punished for not fulfilling their duties. Melville uses imagery to to warn us, the audience, about the conception of madness of the human mind, becoming to much of a delusion of something we can’t let go.

I recently read Terry Eagleton’s, “Literary Theory: An Introduction,” in one of his chapter, psychoanalysis, Eagleton discusses that psychoanalysis views that humans are driven by unconscious desires and compulsions that they don’t comprehend, which comes as a clear example: Ahab’s obsession with Moby Dick.

Chapter 35: So lonely, so bored

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In Chapter 35, “The Mast-Head,” Ishmael reflects on the uncanny stillness and spiritual isolation that comes from the high above the ship as a whale lookout. He starts turn the tone very philosophical and more about the consciousness of the human mind. In the quote, “but lulled into such such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thought, that at last he loses his identity…” (172) , he’s describing on how the watcher drifts away from its own consciousness and starts to separate from himself, basically losing his identity. Melville starts to use poetic imagery and philosophical views for us to see on how isolation can mirror the human struggle of awareness and illusions. It demonstrates on how Ishmael’s calm yet warning tone can see the meaning of searching for whales, but how it can lead to excellence or destruction.

It’s scary on how it can be easy to disconnect yourself and others in moments where you start feeling vulnerable. I’ve felt like when life starts getting hard and so my mind starts to wonder off to those thoughts, but then I start to reflect on the positives in order for me to seek the good things I have encountered in my life.

Week 7: Chapter 24

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In Chapter 24, “The Advocate”, Ishmael narrates by defending the honor and dignity of whaling and argues that they deserve more respect from society ideals and see whaling as heroic . When Melville writes, “The dignity of our calling the very heavens attest. Cetus is a constellation of the South!” (122), he uses this imagery for us to see on how the whale and the people who hunt it hold like a cosmic/ divine importance. The whale isn’t just an animal, but as something powerful and important. The whales, in many cultures, often seen as divine, sacred and spiritual beings, and symbolized as creation, wisdom and strength. Melville is indicating that honor can exist in difficult, physical labor, and not just by high societal nobles, but as heroic, ” I account that man more honorable than that great captain of antiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns,”(122). I believe Melville wants the readers (us) to see manual labor with admiration and respect and not seen as a societal norm. I feel that Melville wants for us to see the concepts on how America wanted to be demonstrated as a country with being defined as class and greatness.

So far this chapter was my favorite. Not going to lie, but the book was making me mad and confused all day after re-reading every sentences with the whole different dialect of old English.

Week 6: Chapters 1-4 Ishmael x Queequeg

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Reading chapters four through 12, reading chapter 10, ” A Bosom Friend”, such an intense and also a big development of friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg. It was heartwarming of seeing Ishmael seeking to develop a friendship with Queequeg. It’s cute and I am loving it. Melville wants us to understand the human connections, breaking barriers and putting our differences aside when it comes to understanding other people in a diverse world.

” I began to be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing savage had redeemed it.” (57). At the beginning of the book, we see how Ishmael was afraid and wasn’t quite sure about Queequeg being his roommate, also being a cannibal! wasn’t in his bingo card of the year! We can see the development of their friendship Ishmael goes continuously in these couple of chapters finally wanting to understand him and be his friend by putting his idealisms( religion, beliefs etc.) aside. Whether we see them as a romantic or platonic friendship going on it’s something beautiful as a developing friendship that awakens during rough times, makes us seek for comforting situations.

Week 5: Etymology & Extracts

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I’ve been sitting re-reading the entire introduction, etymology, and extracts to fully comprehend on the whole deal about what makes Moby Dick special ( in some ways) and what caught my attention right away wasn’t even the actually story, if not the etymology section of the book. Melville starts with words, finding “whale” through dictionaries, Latin, and other languages. It kind of reminded me of the ocean because we are navigating and discovering these words before we dive into the book. Then he dives into the extracts, so many quotes from poems, stories and some I can’t even recognize, but were super interesting to read. The way he pulled those quotes it created an arrange of voices all trying to define or capture the whale. I saw a references to the Bible, “And God created great whales”( Genesis), “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah,” (Jonah), “There go the ships; there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein.” (Psalms) and etc, so it made me question on to, why the Bible would reference so much the word “whale” in their verses? It just makes me more excited to read the book now! Wanting to uncover more and who Ishmael is!

“Steve Mentz, ” Deterritorializing Preface”

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It was a bit difficult to understand, but the reading was interesting and also a way to understand the world differently. In the preface, ” Deterritorializing Preface” by Steve Mentz he mentions to us alternate from “land-based” thinking and to “ocean-based” thinking, which means he wants us of being stable and grounded with the same concept to see it as fluid, changing and spontaneous like the ocean itself. I enjoy the metaphors he uses to describe the ocean as something that can change our lives.” Our metaphors must float on water rather than resting on ground. In an aqueous environment, nothing stays on the surface forever.”( Mentz, xvi), this quote is very relevant and true because nothing stays forever as we must continue with more ideas flowing and coming to our lives instead of being stuck forever in the same routine, lifestyle, ideas, etc. We must continue to evolve in order to improve in our cognitive skills, specifically language.

Thinking, in a oceanic way, can help us see connections, vulnerability and also change our ways in life to something new. I always describe and see the ocean as a human being who can think, shape, and destructible. Amidst of climate change, we need to see the ocean as a a powerful force that can shape a human life. Observing on how the ocean is deteriorating slowly by pollution, plastic waste, etc, Mentz wants us to see it as an awakening towards the direction on how urgent

“The Blue Humanities”

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I’m fascinated with this week’s reading, ” The Blue Humanities,” this article really stood out to me, especially this quote by: Jules Verne, who wrote: “The human mind delights in grand visions of supernatural beings. And the sea is their very best medium, the only environment in which such giants . . . can be produced and developed.” The fact that he mentions this on how the ocean can create such imaginative beings and creations of whatever comes to mind by the power of ‘nature’ is truly marvelous. Getting a bit off topic, as a child I was obsessed with anything of the ocean: animals, shells, sea creatures, mythical sea creatures, etc. Anything that involved the ocean I would write and create stories about it. Even as an adult I sometimes write and describe the ocean as an actual “human being” with emotions. The sea is full of mystery, wonder, power, curiosity in many aspects, and now being considered as a piece of art and inspiration to others for creativity and escape. Everyday people create stories and songs involving the power of nature to be used as an escape and appreciation, Melville being inspired by the ocean and thus came the creation of Moby-Dick, by wanting us to feel inspired by it.

Emerson & King

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Waking up at 6:30am to read Emerson’s ,” The American Scholar”, (TWICE) and I still don’t understand it, sadly. What I got from it was a little bit on how to be the perfect “American scholar” is the past (books), which probably means having the right understanding and be yourself because you won’t get to experience life in order to have.

Emerson kind of mentioned on how you can find knowledge by learning the real truth with books and how they are basically the key to understand life fully, “Books are the best type of the influence of the past, and perhaps we shall get at the truth,–learn the amount of this influence more conveniently,–by considering their value alone.” (Emerson) I agree with this concept becasue I actually do agree on how books open up more creative minds and ideas with a full experience on what the book mentions or the type of genre it is. “Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking; by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles,” this quote got to me, no words.

“There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. ” (Emerson), this quote caught my interest because I majored in Creative Writing (even got a certificate) and enjoy creative writing because it I think creativity can expand the mind to it protentional of creativity when it comes to writing.

For some odd reason, I found King’s article interesting, but sad at the same time. The fact that those men had to endure for months in the sea and their only way to survive was cannibalism, its heartbreaking and the fact that they had to choose who to eat was just horrible to read about that. It reminded me about the Uruguayan rugby team whose airplane crashed into the Andes mountains and endured so much a traumatic event and also to recourse to cannibalism as well. To know that Herman Melville was inspired by this true event makes it more interesting, nerve-wrecking and fully grasp the need on wanting to read it now and know what the deal is with Moby Dick. It still was a bit hard to understand so hopefully can someone help me understand it a bit more in class.

HI HI HI EVERYONE!

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Hi everyone! It is a pleasure to meet everyone!

My name is Darian Murillo. My pronouns are she/her/they/them, but I identify as gender fluid so it’s perfectly fine with whatever pronouns. I am a transfer student from San Diego City College and I’m majoring in English. My dream is to become an author and write about fantasy (my favorite genre) and express my feelings towards writing, but mostly be able to express myself creatively because I want to connect with people who maybe have similar passions or feelings when it comes to certain obstacles in life. I got back into writing after my grandma passed away, it helped me be able to let go of the anger and sadness I was holding onto, so now its become my salvation.

I have a passion for reading and writing , hence why I work in a bookstore (BEST JOB EVER!) so far my favorite books are the ACOTAR series, Jane Austen, Hunger Games, Fourth Wing and others. I love anime and K-pop, soooooo if anybody has recommendations let me know!!! I enjoy getting tattoos once in a while, but I mostly get anime and video game tattoos and they all have a different meaning to me. I have two dogs which we named Max and Rambo and three cats which we called Luna, Momo and Ume. I also love love LOVE MATCHA!!!!

I’m excited and nervous to be in this class and getting to understand more about Moby Dick because I want to challenge myself in order to understand more about classic literature.