There’s much to be done before the final, researching and planning for the massive essay, one that honours the novel and perhaps even makes a reader rethink and recontextualise the novel’s events! Or so I hope. The bit that has me in its grips, that just continues to swim about my mind fluid, is how the titular Whale is not this evil creature filled with hate—no, of course not, that would be Ahab—but rather this being filled with kindness. Could it be that this creature is one of kindness, as seen with the warnings that are given before they engage with the Whale at the end of the novel? Might this creature be biblical in that from the first sin came hate and violence (Ahab)? I am completely unable to get the idea out of my head that perhaps, just maybe, the Whale can be seen as a messenger from God, much like an archangel or have a similar use in the novel as Adam does in the bible? How much of the Whale do we see reflected in the sermon whale? And the other way about? I find this Whale endlessly fascinating and I am beyond excited to work this into an actual idea worth presenting!