Author Archives: Graciela Clavel

The Necessity of Death

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Moby Dick is a tale about the struggle of survival in the darkest periods of one’s life. Whether this is exemplified by Ahab’s fight for vengeance to honor the part of himself he lost, or Ishmael himself with the loss of his naive innocence during this time on the Pequod. Faith is essential to this story, not exactly in hopes of a brighter future, but faith serves as an engine to live past the internal struggles that one faces, existing only out of our doubts.

In Chapter 5, The Chapel, Ishmael describes the loss and wandering grief around a room full of widows whose husbands were lost to a violent mass they cannot come to peace with. The husbands are continuously lost/dying after their initial death, this chapel is the only place that serves as a controlled outlet for their grief. Their murderer (the ocean) is the permanent keeper of their bodies. 

In Ishmael’s mediations, he brings up how faith is perpetuated by doubt, “But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.” (pp. 42). There is hope that is born out of fear, doubt is the bearer of hope. In this chapel full of mourning women, Ishmael sees faith being rejuvenated over and over out of the crushed hopes for a life with their husbands. One cannot exist without the other, and in our fight to survive our struggles comes faith. Melville also writes “Why all the living so strive to hush all the dead” (pp. 42), calling forward this hope in the darkest times. Death should serve as a constant reminder of the hope all around us, and those who have died are where we find this hope, not in our idealized afterlives but in our struggle itself, to have hope in its alleviation. 

This chapter was really powerful for me to read, it took me a few days to completely think about some of the things written in this chapter because it felt a little overwhelming. I connected with these quotes but it was hard to understand why immediately. I still don’t feel like I completely get it, and maybe I never will, but I felt its impact anyways whether there was a logical/literary explanation for why.

We love whales

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Whales have been a long obsession of humanity beginning with some of the most influential written works. For what seems like forever, whales had been tied with viciousness as a natural extension of their size. Biblical stories describe the Levianthan, aka the whale, as “the piercing serpent…that crooked serpent…the dragon of the sea” (Isaiah). Yet, in modern times whales are culturally tied with ideas of serenity and natural beauty, a completely different viewpoint from the former. Where did this initial idea about whales come from and how has it changed to what we think of today? The one constant throughout this tale is that whales are a living embodiment of nature at its most wild, its power inspiring people into the storytelling that is seen throughout ‘Etymology & Extracts’. Melville captures our own history of obsession with power through the overrepresentation of the largest living creature in our culture. The whale is the size of thousands of men in one, representing entire armies inside of one creature. Humans have a complicated relationship with power, it has led to violence more often than not, and the whale is the most powerful, and logically would be the most capable of violence. Humans have reflected their own ability to do violence onto the whale. As Melville whips up every whale reference there is simultaneously a call out to evil & power, both human constructions that explain the long history of violence engrained within us. This creature has been a projection, and as we slowly shift away from violence being a daily commonality, the whale has been rebranded in our culture as a symbol of peace and the greatness of nature. I am excited to see how Melville projects human qualities onto Moby Dick, starting with giving the whale a name in the novel. I personally never realized how far back whales have been a cultural influence for people, it’s been an icon for many different human experiences, but overall it is its power that has continuously inspired. 

Somethings have to change

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The ocean can teach us so much about our lives on land and its fragility, highlighting our refusal to acknowledge the delicate nature of the society we have created. Steve Mentz and the Blue Humanities movement uses the presence of our oceans as a signifier of the chaos that belongs to nature, something so obviously vicious and beautiful you cannot turn away from its message. This untamable spirit has connected humans across worlds, creating empires on land that tumble but are quickly replaced by a bigger one. The human empire is at odds with nature as the climate crisis worsens every day, Mentz calls this the “central challenge of the current generation”. Water is our survival but it has the potential to destroy the human empire on Earth. We cannot possess water and we certainly cannot survive in it. 

Before this course, I never attributed any sort of characteristic to water, it was just a thing that we needed, essential but invisible. Thinking about it in vast amounts and the various climate crises that have happened through bodies of water, it’s both creator & destroyer of life. As we continue to live on Earth at the pace we are going, these water crises will be more prevalent until we have completely lost the privilege of seeing water as invisible, its presence will demand our attention through its violence. Mentz sees water, the ocean, as a way to slow down and embrace the vulnerability of the human empire. Rather than a stagnant society shaped by people who lived hundreds of years ago, the fluidity of water can teach us about how we can move towards a freer world. Mentz renames progress, not as something that has a is already defined in a single direction, but flows outwards unable to take a single shape, confusing us enough to think outside of “historical narratives”. Thinking about the nature of water can reshape the things we take for granted as truth. Greed and hatred have been byproducts of what we deem as truth, as ‘the way the world is’. Reframing the world through the lens of water can offer us “possibilities for new ways of thinking and living”, a world where we are no longer captive to ancient establishments but we become both destroyers & creators, like water.

Thank you Futurama!

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One of my first interactions with Moby Dick was years ago while I was watching an episode of Futurama. It was a retelling of Moby Dick but taking place in space with an intergalactic whale. I was probably around 11/12 and I thought this was one of the cooler episodes. The thing that stuck out to me the most was how dark the episode got. The character Leela was Captain Ahab in the retelling and her obsession got everyone eaten by the whale. In the end, she does conquer the whale by befriending it, but I assume the original story does not have the same kind ending. 

Moby Dick has a huge cultural significance and it has been on my bucket list for a long time. This was always the book about whales and obsession to me, and there was a time where I tried to read it. It was intimidating and intriguing at the same time but I ultimately did not get far. Years later, I saw an opportunity to take a course dedicated to Moby Dick with a group of people to walk through this book together. Thinking of Moby Dick now, I associate it more with nature & power. This book is a play with the ocean as its stage. I can imagine the air and colors as I read it. I am excited to dive in and experience a piece of time that doesn’t really exist anymore. Moby Dick will always be the whale book to me due to my first associations, but I am looking forward to adding new ones as I continue reading. 

Inspired by Cannibalism

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The Essex reflects the internal horrors that one can face when pushed to their absolute limits. As Ishmael himself notes the sea as a romanticized experience that men must run to rather than the safety of the shore, the Essex falls short of that romance when its men were left stranded and starving to the point of cannibalism. Melville takes this tragedy and reimagines new parameters for man, a fictionalized world that speaks to real life tragedies, analogized in the form of a tyrant who takes this boat beyond its limits and ultimately destroys everyone with it. Melville’s romance for the sea is preemptively shaped by tragedy, as seen in the early chapters of Moby Dick. Ishamel has idealized his voyage on the Pequod, yet there is an internal hesitancy as the ship is preparing to take off among other warning signs, immediately sealing this tale as one of misfortune. For Melville, romance and misfortune are fated together, whether this is consciously noted by Ishamel.

The Essex’s fate led to the cannibalization of its shipmates, notably two teenaged boys one of which was the cousin of George Pollard Jr., the survivor who shares his story of the Essex. Melville uses the real life cannibalism from the Essex in his fictional piece, figuratively having the leader devour his own shipmates for his insatiable hunger to conquer nature. The men on the Essex were left to the fate of an unforgiving and endless ocean, left feeble. Yet, Moby Dick presents a man who cannot accept his powerlessness against the open sea, going to inhumane lengths to conquer the unconquerable. 

The Essex is a tragic story that immediately draws your attention with its horrible images and tragedy. It’s easy to see how Melville was able to create a world based on the events of the Essex, drawing from reality as a basis for Ishamel’s journey on the Pequod. From the many mirrored images we can see from the real life story of survival, Moby Dick takes the lived experience of Pollard and weaves it into a tale that speaks to something much bigger than any single individual.

Hi!

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Hi everyone, my name is Graciela and I’m super excited to be taking this class with you guys. I am a San Diego native, I actually grew up near SDSU towards La Mesa area. I love San Diego so much, it’s perfect (in my opinion) and my family and friends live here. I just transferred to SDSU from San Diego City College. I initially had a difficult time with my higher education and it took me years to finally figure out what I wanted to do, but I found so much passion in English & History so that is how I got here. Somethings I love are traveling and spending time with people I love, it’s the best when I can do both. One of my goals in life is to visit all the national parks, I’ve gone to Yosemite and Yellowstone so far. Nature relaxes me a lot and I try to take time everyday to enjoy it when possible. I am looking forward to reading this giant book and seeing where it goes.

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