Category Archives: Extra Credit

Late Halloween from the Brow

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This is definitely a long overdue post but here it partially is, the whale made from a five dollar box from Target (which is a rip off in and of its own if you ask me but I had a vision.) I didn’t initially know what I wanted going into this, whether it’d just be some dead whale or Moby Dick itself, but I think that was part of the point now that I’m reflecting on it. In creating this thing, I’ve come to realize that the analysis of the brow/skeleton/head/cetology can apply to whatever whale came across that boat, dead or not. The scientific capabilities of the past really seem interesting, but it also shows how misguided and judgemental science could have been when understanding these animals. This was a passion project of a water bottle, lots of glue, screws and bolts, stained marker hands, and silly references. I hadn’t even actually known that sperm whales don’t have any top teeth, a mistake I almost made after having to rip off the row of top teeth I cut out for it. There’s a good chance this will end up as my final project, and in all honesty, I do feel a little attached to the thing as it sits on the floor of my bedroom. I wouldn’t say I’m as obsessed with it as Ahab is though.

Halloween Extra Credit

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For Halloween (sorry posting a bit late!), I dressed up as a whale that has been harpooned. I wore grey shorts and a grey shirt, with red accents (shoes, hair tie, red on the shirt) and I cut out a harpoon from cardboard. Although it may have been a bit of a ‘graphic’ costume, I think it represents a part of the book that has really stood out to me–how the whales are dying in these chapters. Their deaths are gory, violent, painful, helpless, which I find to be a sharp contrast to how human deaths are portrayed. This is also a representation of an industry (whaling) that is not well known or often talked about in the scope of history. There was a period of time in history where whales were hunted as they are in this book, and killed solely for their monetary value, and this costume is a reflection of the extents people were willing to go to for money, for the “American dream”.

Living Writers Extra Credit

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Maria Dolores Aguila’s visit to our Love Library last night was an incredible, raw, and enlightening experience. While Aguila primarily writes middle-grade literature and elementary picture books, her experience as an author deeply reflects what Andrew Delbanco describes in his introduction to Melville’s writing process in Moby-Dick. Delbanco describes how Melville had his various friends review his first drafts, picking and choosing whether or not to abide by their suggestions. Delbanco describes how, amongst scholars, “…there is a general agreement that it went through several radically different versions” (Delbanco xvi). Aguila described a similar experience, particularly as she navigated the rigorous publishing and reviewing process for her work. Where Melville had an experience with a friend who reviewed an initial draft and didn’t enjoy the beginning of the novel, Aguila described a similar experience, where a friend recommended suggestions that she disagreed with. Overall, attending Maria Dolores Aguila’s author visit helped put a lot of the writing process into perspective, especially in terms of receiving feedback.

Happy Halloween from the Counterpane

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For my costume on Thursday, I elected to dress as Ishmael wrapped in the counterpane. This chapter, while early in the novel, was so immensely important for Ishmael’s development and even for his ability to board the Pequod at all. This marked the true beginning of Queequeg and Ishmael’s relationship – at whatever capacity that you see it in – and it is the catalyst for his embarkment on the Pequod. Without Ishmael, Queequeg would have struggled to board the ship. Without Queequeg, Ishmael would have likely boarded a different vessel altogether.

For the costume itself, I had an ivory colored cotton shirt with ties, a laced up brown suede vest, simple black pants, and black laced boots. I took care to avoid straps and buttons, as Ishmael was no “bumpkin dandy” (37)! He knew “how bitterly those straps would burst in the first howling gale, when thou art driven, straps, buttons, and all, down the throat of the tempest” (37). I elected to leave off his monkey jacket, partially due to the weather and partially because he would not have had his outer clothes fully on when in bed with Queequeg. My earrings I had mostly left in tact, though I did wear a hoop laden with three chains to represent the ties that would come to bind Ishmael – the ocean, Queequeg, and Ahab.

While I do not have a picture, I do think it was a happy coincidence that Rayne and I were standing side by side in the front of the classroom – as Rayne had dressed as Queequeg in his Beaver Hat. Had I thought more on it, I should have switched the shoulder my counterpane was on so that it was the shoulder closest to Rayne, but I missed out.

Edit: I kidnapped this image from the slides for Lesson 19!

Halloween Costume!

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For last Thursday’s class, I dressed as Chapter 15’s Mrs. Hussey! Firstly, I had most of the articles already in my closet, take that how you will, which made it easy and free to dress up. I wore a jean skirt, a brown wool sweater, a (kind of) jean collared long sleeve on top, an authentic Dutch fishing hat that my Grandfather bought in Solvang in the 60s, and carried around a wooden bowl and ladle. Without the bowl and ladle, I could’ve worn the same outfit and claimed to be any of the other whalers, but I think Mrs. Hussey is extremely important to the narrative. As we’ve discussed in class, there’s a significant lack of female characters in Moby-Dick, making their appearance even more notable. Hussey is the first female character to have speaking dialogue, so for me, it was a no-brainer. I really enjoyed dressing up, though I immediately sprinted to the bathroom to change because a multi-layered outfit with a maxi skirt in 90-degree heat in Hepner Hall sounded like a terrible experience. It was definitely worth carrying around a wooden bowl, a silver ladle, and a fifty-year-old fishing hat in my tote bag, and the various questions that came with it.

How I Annotate! Extra Credit

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I started annotating my copy of Moby Dick as soon as I got it, using it as a notebook for our class discussions. Even before we started reading the actual text, I used the blank, or mostly blank, pages at the beginning of the edition to take notes on the historical context and Melville’s background. I’m reminded at every turn of a page that this novel is, in many ways, a preservation of existence, thought, and experience. It’s because of this that my edition is marked up in every way, from highlighter to pen to various color-coded tabs.

My favorite part of my copy is its evolution. In the beginning, my annotations were underlines, hearts, and different variations of “oh my god” or “wow.” Now, it’s a complete analysis, connections to other chapters, or thought-out stream of consciousness spouts. I have three different colored tabs: sage green, light blue/green, and light (almost pea soup) green. The sage green tabs are always located at the top of the page and mark the beginning or end of an assigned reading segment. While reading, these make it easy to distinguish how far I have to go. The light blue/green (It’s important to note here that I am, embarrassingly enough, colorblind, so these colors might be inaccurate) marks quotes that I really liked and will probably quote at various social settings. Finally, the almost pea-soup green mark my all-time favorite passages or quotes that I plan to focus on in future discussions or papers. There are only three of these so far, which makes them easy to find.

Extra Credit – Moby Dick Costume

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For class on Thursday, October 30th, I dressed up as Queequeg at the beginning of Moby Dick. He is presented to us, in his and Ishmael’s first endeavors outside the Spouter-Inn, in a long coat, slacks, and a Beaver skin top hat. While I could only assume the attire he wore underneath (most sailors portrayed in media are placed in plain white button-up dress shirts), I decided to include a rope to my costume, ties around my belt loops, to incorporate the passage on Ishmael and Queeuqeg’s wedding by the anchoring of the rope they share on the Pequod while Queequeg assists in skinning the whale. While not very noticeable (since I wear these rings quite often to class), I assigned specific passages/meanings to the designs of each of my rings. 1) A coffin, symbolizing the crew’s imminent and constant threat of death, and the foreshadowing of the shipwreck of the Pequod at the end of the novel, 2) a skull, referencing chapter 80 – The Nut, and Ishmael’s rant about the phrenology and craniology of the Sperm Whale, 3) a sun, made of bronze, gold, and silver, referencing the numerous times Melville uses terrestrial language and points out the use of light in representation of the feature of the whale and whiteness, and 4) a ring I received from my eldest brother’s grandmother containing different parts of an Abalone shell. Another piece of jewelry I used to reference the book was my cross earing (I know, I wear it all the time and hardly switch it for something different), which I used to represent Queequeg’s desire to learn from Christians for the betterment of his people and himself, and later his repulsion of the behavior of so called Christians, and rebuttal for them to learn from cannibals instead.

Extra Credit

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reflecting on Steve Mentz Q&A or conversation, he talked a lot about coastal and coast to coast, how every coast is different and has it’s own rules. every coast has it’s own culture and how you have to respect that. makes me think how you can really pull a lot of inspiration from that and how you think, for me i’m not fully on board with the idea of thinking blue but the idea of think coastal is more approachable to me. Taking land and sea and seeing that in a poetic way by seeing the coastal rules and culture, truly is more ideal for me and the way i think. to bring back to that Emily Dickinson poem, her on the coast looking into the silver nothing. Yeah it was a fun listen.

Extra Credit: Steve Mentz’s Visit in the DHC

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I attended the Steve Mentz talk in the Digital Humanities Center this past week. One point of conversation I found particularly interesting during this discussion was about the use of language when it comes to the internet. For instance, “surfing” the internet. “Flow” of data. I had never thought about how those words interact with technology and the idea of impermanence that comes with that language. The idea of surfing the internet makes it seem like we are just passing by, and the water (data) we touch will float away, with us leaving no trace of our existence. But, like the ocean, we are leaving a trace, something permanent rubbed into the surface that will sink to the bottom (think of the trash scattered on the ocean floor, invisible to the naked eye but long lasting evidence). Although I reckon impossible, I wonder how changing these terms might change our ideas on data and perhaps open our eyes to how insecure and public all of this data is. Perhaps if we used “walking the internet”, or “stomping through”. With these terracentric terms, we start to think about footprints (take digital footprint), and how those stick. I personally have literally no clue how these underground cables work or the cloud, but they kept getting mentioned during this talk (and the one during our class), and I’m wondering how they can even manage to support the amount of data we are constantly sending back and forth across the globe?

Steve Mentz Extra Credit in DH Center

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Attending Steve Mentz’ seminar in the Digital Humanities Center was very insightful. One idea that I liked that he brought up is that water is an ominous present in our environment and his curiosity on moving blue humanities beyond the ocean and thinking about other materials like rain, humidity, lakes, ice, etc. There are so many various sources of water that influence human identity. Not everybody has access to the ocean but they do have access to drinking water or fog or a lake nearby them. Everyone can participate in blue humanities beyond the ocean. I feel like for some it can be hard to relate to “Moby-Dick” in a blue humanities way since they don’t live by the ocean, but it doesn’t matter, they are still reading about it participating in the discussion. Water, in a blue humanities context, doesn’t have to be physically there, it can be present in literature, art and other cultural expressions. Mentz also briefly brings up global climate change impacting waters. I feel like now more than ever it is important to have these discussions regarding water. We need water, we can’t live without water. It is important to appreciate what we have and to not take it for granted. His seminar had made me more excited to read “Moby-Dick” and see how the narrative of the ocean is portrayed. Do they disregard it or appreciate it? It will also be interesting to see their interactions with the ocean. Overall, this seminar and class discussion was very insightful!