Category Archives: Week 5: “Etymology” and “Extracts”

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!

Extracts

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At first I wasn’t too sure what I was expecting for the extracts, as I don’t think I have read a book that has a section for extracts. After reading the opening, which to me seemed more of a warning in terms of what NOT to think- to read the extracts with fluidity. The extracts served as entertainment with Holland’s Plutarch’s Morals extract stating, “And what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos or this monsters mouth, be it a beast, boat or stone, down it goes all incontinently that foul great swallow of his, and perisheth bottomless guilt of his paunch” (p. xl) This is what I have always kind of imagined and seen in movies, the way whales mouth are so huge and can sometimes just swallow things whole or tear up boats. The amount of strength that they have is truly amazing, and it sets image of the whale that we will be reading about in the book.

The extracts are also educational, considering quotes like “Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with immense velocity” by John Hunters account of the dissections of a small sized whale. Both quotes are great introductions to the whale that we will be meeting in Moby Dick.

Week 5: Toes in the Water

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Oh boy. We are actually reading Moby-Dick, a story supposedly about a whaler on a whaling journey. Let’s take a look at the extracts, shall we?

This part of the book was apparently supplied by a “sub-sub-librarian” who narrator (we don’t know their name during this part but is implied to be Melville himself) does not disclose. Near the beginning of the first paragraph, they address us readers, telling us that we “must not … take the higgledy-piggledy whale statements … for veritable gospel cetology” because apparently, another “poor devil of a Sub-Sub” has dug through all sorts of books looking for “sacred or profane” whale allusions. (xxxix) Admittedly, this part is a little humorous for some readers, but it does spark curiosity: what exactly is the sub-sub looking for in the whale allusions, and what are they trying to accomplish from doing this?

Let’s flip to the next page to see what the narrator is talking about–oh. That’s why. A lot of these are passages from the Bible, Shakespeare’s plays, and other classical pieces of literature; passages that deal with whales and large fish specifically. Herman Melville is definitely not alone when it comes to whales in literature. The whale craze was definitely something back then.

I think what the narrator is trying to say here is that we shouldn’t read too deep into these whale passages (no pun intended), but it could also be a message from Herman Melville, telling us to not read too deeply into any part of the book that involves whales. Because you don’t really get anything if you excessively focus on one thing and try to find some deep meaning hidden in it. But Melville is crazy enough to write about whales and turn it into a six-hundred something page novel.

These extracts, although meant to be “solely valuable or entertaining,” (xxxix) do provide us with a history lesson about how writers approached whales back then. However, there are several pages consisting of these extracts alone that it feels like the author is trying to overload us with information about whales. That’s the charm with a novel like Moby-Dick. It’s supposed to be overloading. After all, this book is indeed “hostile to all conventions,” and it’s hostile to the reader expecting a traditional novel.

Chapters 1-3

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The journey of reading through the first three chapters of Moby-Dick was certainly chaotic but also amazing! The way that Melville writes was definitely something I had to get used to, he often goes into long explanations that left me confused until going back and rereading the passages. The aspects we have spoken about in class that past few weeks were instantly present within the first few chapters of the novel. Something that has gained my interest is our human fascination with the sea. Most people are terrified of it, however we are drawn to the ocean and water as a whole. As Ishmael says in chapter three, “Ignorance is the parent of fear” (Melville 24). Water makes up over 70% of Earth yet we still do not fully understand it, just like in many cases our lack of knowledge creates an overwhelming sense of fear within us. However, even with this fear many of us are still deeply drawn to the water in some way. A passage that stuck with me throughout the reading was speaking of the human connection to water, “Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon our first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? … It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all” (Melville 5). The water draws humans in because of the vastness and the drastic unknown. As much as we might believe that we hide from the things that scare us, they are always what bring out life altering moments that influence and change our perspective. This brought me back to the ideas within the blue humanities in the way that if we change our perspective and see the ocean as motivation on how to view our own lives we can be let go of the boxes we create for ourselves. We are drawn to the water for the beauty of what it can represent within our own lives with constant changes and the unknown becoming exciting rather than terrifying. This passage solidified exactly what we have been talking about, this is not just an adventure story but rather a novel that will draw amazing ideas and realizations out from each of us. Within just the first three chapters I was surprised at how quickly I became hooked to the characters and the journey. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s thoughts, likes, and dislikes in class! 

Chapter 1 – The relationship with the sea.

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As I began to read the first chapter of Moby-Dick, a quote stuck out to me. It reads, “Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea?” (Melville 5). After this quote Melville dives deeper into human’s history with the sea, dating back thousands of years with the ancient Persians and Greeks. This got me thinking about how throughout our history there has been a fascination and a desire of the ocean. A means of transportation, a means of trade, a means of sailing to a new land to start a new life, all of these things have lasted in our history for an incredible amount of time. Why is it we as humans are so interested in the sea? Is it because we want to conquer the unconquerable? Or is it because we have learned to respect the vast power of it, and try to use it to our advantage. As we’ve learned through our blue humanities studies, humans are definitely more land oriented, despite the Earth being covered majority in water. Is our fascination with the ocean something we are born with, or is it something that becomes stronger the more knowledge we try to have of it?

Our narrator, Ishmael, has his own personal history and fascination with the sea. We learn that he frequents ships, in his own words, “as a simple sailor”, not a passenger, a commodore, a captain, or a cook. Ishmael sails because he likes the ocean; he risks that comes with going out in the water and being in a place where nothing matter outside of one’s own survival. No one is more important than any other in the sea, and all lives are treated equally. He also claims that he goes out to the sea as a sailor so that he can get paid, something that I feel demonstrates the industrialization of the ocean. When people see that they can use something as a means to make money, there’s no doubt they will exploit the most they can for the profit. While Ishmael may not be drilling oil in the sea, or causing a vast amount of damage to marine life, he is still going on a whaling ship, and is still harming an animal in their own environment.

It was interesting for me to read about humanity’s relationship with the sea through the eyes of Ishmael (which is probably more so through the eyes of Melville). It definitely made me think about my own personal history with it, and think about how much the history has progressed throughout the years. I am interested to see how Ishmael and the other sailors further deepen their own relationships with the ocean as the novel progresses.

Week 5: Etymology – On Melville’s Consumptive Usher.

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Why does Melville start, or refuse to start, with the figure of the consumptive usher? I interpreted his presence as an announcement of the experimental literary form that we are about to dive into. We are told that this man is an usher for a grammar school. Grammar schools used to focus on teaching the classic languages and literature. From a quick internet search I learned that the role of a grammar school ushered was typically a subordinate position to the headmaster and was often a transitory position. Meaning that an usher could expect to eventually become a headmaster of get a different position elsewhere. The Usher in this story has passed away and the reader can assume that the Usher never did go on to ascend any further in his career, he is only acknowledged as a dying usher from an non-descript school. The text first directs our attention to the image of this solitary figure amongst books full of grammar rules and instruction created by people long gone. I am particularly interested in the following line, “He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world.” We are not told where in the world this usher resides but I assume that in this handkerchief, the United States flags is probably not included. From what we have learned in class, the United States as a country is in this burgeoning state but it is still a child compared to the history of the European nations. According to Emerson, it is a country that up until this point is still looking to Europe for instruction. I like that Melville says that it is imprinted with all the “known” nations of the world. By adding the word “known” Melville tells us that we are not to assume that this is the totality of nations in the world, whatever nations are omitted from this handkerchief are simply not yet known in their own right. Here then, is Melvilles submitted work for the nation of America. A book that challenges the pre-established rules of what constitutes a piece of literature and simultaneously claims that America is so unlike any nation like the ones on this handkerchief that it necessitates the breaking of the rules that can be found in these grammar books. Melville signals to the reader, that just like the dying usher, these classical rules are also fading. But this does not mean nothing else will rise to replace it in its stead.

Language and Word Choice in Chapter 1

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While reading Chapter 1, Loomings, I was struck by the following quotation on page 4. “Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries.” The reason this sentence spoke to me in particular was just because of how beautiful it is. I particularly like the use of alliterations, in this case “silent sentinels” and “mortal men”. To be honest, this feels more like poetry than a line from a novel.

Later in the same paragraph this is expanded upon, when Melville, through the voice of Ishmael, says that “these are all landsmen”. None of them are carrier sailors, so, as Ishmael puts it “What do they here?” Especially because, at the time, the beach was not a recreational place. But I’d like to think that these people still saw beauty in it, although they weren’t brave enough to enter the waters. Maye they were just conptemplating the endlessness of the ocean, or the mythical beasts and sailors that ventured it’s endless waters.

In a lot of ways, we are those people. How many of us have actually spent time as crew on a ship? Most likely none of us. But, as people who live in San Diego, we tend to go to the beach at least every once in a while. Some people surf, or play in the waves. But some, like me, start attempting to read a book, but instead find ourselves staring at the waves, wondering if someone on the other side of the ocean is doing the exact same thing.

The ocean inspires all humans, in some way or form. Melville later writes about how it inspires the artist (like him). Because the vastness of the ocean is so unexplored, we can really run with our minds, imagining what lays in its depths. Who knows? There may even be mermaids.

Sub-Sub-Librarian kinship and a love of research

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At last, we have begun the journey of Ahad, narrated by Ishmael, told by Herman Melville. Prefacing the novel itself is the Etymology and Extracts sections, lovingly composed with information regarding whales and their importance to literature throughout time. The first thing that struck me when reading through the excerpts provided was the idea of how much longer it would be had it been written today as opposed to the 1800’s. Would there have been a companion collection instead? Would it have included transcriptions from the scripts that are read during whale watching excursions? Would it have included information about the Orcas and other whales that are intentionally capsizing ships around the world? What about moments from serialized shows or episodes from Dimension20’s NeverAfter storyline when they fought the whale from Pinnoccio’s story?

Perhaps it would have included all of the above examples, as it had included missives such as “Here they saw such huge troops of whales, that they were forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they should run their ship upon them” (xliii). Unsurprisingly, an excerpt from Owen Chase’s account of the Essex was included – a dramatic line, though with little description of the whale itself. The most stunning edition, in my opinion, was the inclusion of J. Ross Brown’s Etchings of a Whaling Cruise, 1846. Some part of me had always wondered if the phrase “Thar she blows!” came from Moby Dick, as it is ubiquitous with whales to this day. The inclusion of this excerpt both disproves that notion and shows that the phrase further predates the novel by a few years at least.

Beyond the preface, into the beginning, the first chapter truly left me thinking deeply about the novel we were embarking on. Within the first page, I had more questions than I had started. Ishmael treats voyaging out to sea as though it is both a necessity and a means to keep himself from depression. “Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul…then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can” (3). Was this a common form of escapism at the time – a way to change your scenery and improve your moods? Did those who suffer from depression tend to go to sea as a means of improving their mental health? How many more died at sea due to their depression worsening with the extreme isolation? Many questions without answers.

Included illustration of a hand-drawn rendition of a sign from Portsmouth, NH. The sign is for a restaurant called Yoken’s, depicting a large whale with a spout of water shooting from it as it cheerily looks at the onlooker. The sign reads, “Thar she blows! Yoken’s good things to eat."

Week 5: Chapter 1: Loomings

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“Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and make him the own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.(p.5)

This passage in the first chapter drew me in with the sheer passion for the water that Ishmael has. Ishamel argues that water is the gravitational pull of life. But there is also a mysticism and fascination of water, of being in it, even to the point of drowning as Narcissus did. His ponderings and emphatic assertions of the pull of water, remind me of conversations we had concerning the blue humanities, and its limitlessness in the human connection with all bodies of water. 

In this chapter, as Ishmael prepares to tell his tale, he argues that his pull to the ocean is not a unique one but one felt throughout all humanity. That much is true for my own experiences. As someone who lives in a coastal city, I can’t bear the thought of being so far away from the open ocean; it makes me feel trapped. And indeed, the few times I’ve visited deserts and forests, I’ve searched for water, whether it was a small creek formed by the melting of ice somewhere higher in the mountains, or the spring blooms reliant on rain and groundwater. 

I enjoy the way Ishmael seems to be speaking and arguing to the reader, reinforcing his assertions through the citing of myths, and the analysis of painted landscapes being nothing without the glorious river running through it: “yet all were vain, unless the shepherd’s eye were fixed upon the magic stream before him(p.4).” I loved the comical sarcasm in his voice as he questions, “Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?(p.5)” Through his view of the world, it could be seen as a universal truth that the human soul is on a never-ending quest to return constantly to the water. Though humans are indeed creatures of the land, our survival is tied to the water, so much so that it not only quenches our thirst but fills up and renews our souls (or at least this is the quest Ishmael has set upon). 

This is the World

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Herman Melville instantly responds to Emerson’s call for a great American scholar in the first chapter of Moby Dick as he digs into prominent issues of 1850 America. Page six serves up the word slave on a silver platter. The most controversial issue in American history. An issue that caused more strife than we face today (so far). This is not a novel to escape the world. This is the world. And Melville forces the reader to face it as he says: “Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who aint a slave? Tell me that.” (6) One can only imagine the pause this would warrant on an 1850s audience. Hmm that’s right who aint a slave… maybe there is a place for compromise on this ripe issue of slavery, they might think to themselves. But Melville hastily shuts any of these thoughts down with his fervent talk of money. He goes on: “But being paid, – what compares with it? The urbane activity with which man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! How cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!” (6-7) One may feel like a slave at work but must remember the pay day. And why does getting paid feel so marvelous? Because money creates autonomy. Autonomy is humanity. What is so interesting about Melville’s analysis is his conclusion that a monied man cannot enter heaven. Slaves, whose justification for being enslaved is being seen as less than human, cannot enter heaven, monied men cannot enter heaven. So, who is it that is going to heaven? Furthermore, Melville centralizes American issues in the bill of fate that Ishmael draws up:

“Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States.

“WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL.

“BLOODY BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN.” (7)

“Grand contested election for presidency” What a statement. A familiar one. The president in power during the writing and publication of this book was one Millard Fillmore. A vice president who was inaugurated after the death of president Zachary Taylor. Fillmore undermined Taylor when he signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act. An act that forced northerners to return slaves to the south, inciting the use of military force if necessary. Fillmore postponed the Civil War by ten years. But greatly increased tensions between the North and the South as well as his unpopularity. In the very first chapter of this 800-page, 135-chapter book, Melville confronts a nation. This is a beginning for America’s greatest novel.