Tag Archives: Blue Humanitites

“Yea, foolish mortals, Noah’s flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers”

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I can finally talk about Chapter 58 “Brit”. I’ve been thinking about this chapter since I read Moby Dick for the first time two years ago, I feel it encapsulates the whole “nature is inevitable/unconquerable” aspect. I’ll try not to quote the entire chapter:

“however baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may augment; yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make…

That same ocean rolls now; that same ocean destroyed the wrecked ships of last year…

But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it, but it is also a fiend to its own offspring; worse than the Persian host who murdered his own guests; sparing not the creatures which itself hath spawned…

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes… Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began…

do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!” (298-299).

Where do I start? baby man may brag of his endless technological advancement, but he will never be able to escape the insulting, murderous, and pulverizing nature of the sea. No matter how hard we try to make the strongest frigate (a type of warship) the sea will always overbear it. We cannot conquer the sea or nature, perhaps even the whale? Ahab can enhance himself with a new leg, a new crew one and all with his goal, a new harpoon, a new whatever, and it will not ever be enough to conquer Moby Dick.

This eternal sea is the same as Noah’s flood, it will never go away and we cannot run away or hide from it forever; we already know we cannot rule it. The ocean is in itself a ferocious yet sublime living thing. It is a fiend to both alien and its own children, it keeps “its most dreaded creatures… treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure”. Like the whiteness of the whale, it is both reassuring/good in nature (at least according to our own perceptions) and terror inducing. It transcends a definitive description, it is neither black or white, good or evil, right or wrong; it is life: a chaotic jumble of everything ranging between the dichotomy we humans love to apply to everything.

In the closing passage of this chapter, Melville prompts us to compare these features of the ocean to ourselves. We are surrounded by the “appalling ocean” that is life, and we retreat into our insular Tahiti, holding onto the peace and joy of remaining ignorant and secure in isolation. Though he says “God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!”, I don’t think its meant to be taken literally; he is not suggesting that we stay isolated on our Tahiti despite the horrors of the half known life because that would go against what he is doing. He has fled from his own insular Tahiti in breaking down the the perception he once had of his now beloved “savage” Queequeg, and he constantly questions the preconceived notions he’s had of Christianity, the whiteness of the whale, the ocean itself. “Thou canst never return!” but would he really want to return to the suicidal ideation of his life on land.

One last note, this final passage reminds me of a quote from Dracula: “I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me!” It has the same kind of desire to remain ignorant and hold onto some semblance of happiness when in this sea of wonder. Ultimately, Jonathan Harker would’ve fallen victim had he chosen to remain ignorant of the truth, in the same way Ishmael would’ve likely left this mortal plane if he had not pushed off of his own insular Tahiti.

Intro to Steve Mentz

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This week’s reading was interesting as usual. The blue humanities is a new and foreign concept to me, but since we have started talking about it, I am very curious to know more. I have also been attempting to consolidate a definition of it in my head; a more material idea of it. Steve Mentz writes, “I emphasize these specific oceanic margins because of my commitment to linking human-sized encounters to planetary scales. Bringing a little splash of my local Atlantic into a global scholarly conversation will keep these thoughts tangible and direct” When I read this quote, I thought it was a good example of what I understand to be the meaning of blue humanities: a current (see what I did there) that studies people’s relationship with water. Steve Mentz talks about water in his article “A poetics of planetary water: The blue humanities after John Gillis,” but makes a point of grounding (can’t escape it) his musings about this substance in a human perspective. He says that highlighting this relationship is what will keep his thoughts “tangible and direct.” It is interesting how in a conversation about fluidity, distortion, and other unstable qualities of water we find it so necessary to land these ideas onto something more solid, otherwise we won’t be able to understand them. We have to merge the familiar with the unfamiliar to be able to process new knowledge. Our thought processes aim towards finding clarity when water mostly offers distortion, and we fight against it because the water is not our home. Then again, water is transparent, and even though sometimes the ocean is so deep your eyes can’t see the bottom, when you’re there floating in the middle of the great blue, what your eyes detect underwater can only be described as a clarity. Maybe blue humanities can offer us that clarity even though it may not be in the grounded way we are used to. 

A Poetics of Planetary Water:

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Just reading the title of this article, I was already curious on how the use of “poetics” would be specifically applied to the study of water. I figured, since the ocean is often associated with the unknown and undiscovered, that its metaphorical sense was solely the reason to apply poetics. However, this article redefined the use of poetry as “powerful tools…because poems originate in and are directed to individual humans while also imagining vaster scales” The multiple ways one can interpret a poem creates a natural fluidity that coincides with the ever-changing nature of water in all forms.  This free-framing mindset helps to break away from the confinements of categorization. Of course, poems can be categorized but their interpretation and point can differ vastly depending on who is reading it, when they’re reading it, and how they’re reading it. 

My favorite example came from the article’s analysis on Hamlet, regarding the scene where two characters are pondering about the clouds in the sky. “The hybridization that Polonius accomplishes as cloud-reader, in which he starts with an initial identification, camel, then bends it into two new forms, weasel and whale, essentially follows a hybridizing theory of interpreting forms of water.” One character interprets the sky differently from the other, much like how the sea can simultaneously mystify and terrify. This scene encapsulates the ideal that water defies categorization—yet it is an essential and ever present aspect of our human lives. 

Gillis once described the coastline as “humankind’s first Eden,” so now I wonder—is the sea the place where we were to be cast out from Eden? Or is the Sea itself Eden, and we have cast ourselves out of it.

Extra Credit:Steve Mentz Questions

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1.) What importance does Blue Humanities hold for you? How would you say this topic works along existing fields of marine science?
2.) Despite a primary focus on the ocean, are there any other bodies of water that you think humans can explore just as in depth?
3.) Why does poetry offer such a lens into planetary waters in comparison to essays or other academic leaning books?
4.) Are there any other notable authors you look towards when speaking about or studying Blue Humanities besides Melville or Gillis?
5.) If you could chose one word to describe human relationship with the ocean, what would you pick and why?

Extra Credit Mentz Questions

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  1. What other oceanic studies were there before the rise of blue humanities?
  2. How much does the study of the ocean in blue humanities include life in the ocean and how they interact with it?
  3. How are places such as aquariums and Sea World viewed from a blue humanities perspective?
  4. What are some consequences that may arise if we were to ignore blue humanities?
  5. Can a similar approach to the ocean in blue humanities be applied to other frontiers, such as the desert?

EXTRA CREDIT: QUESTIONS FOR STEVE MENTZ

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While you may never read this post verbatim, Mr. Mentz, I thought that I might address you directly here. We were given an extra credit assignment for this class, instructed to create 5 questions that we might want to ask you for your visit next week. While I may not know much about the Blue Humanities, there is something inherently interesting about them, something alluring that makes me want to learn more. So, my questions are:

  1. If there was a single word in the English Lexicon that you could change from terracentric to aquacentric, which word would you choose and why?
  2. Was there a particular piece of media that inspired you to pursue the Blue Humanities?
  3. What is an essential piece of media to consume when beginning the journey to understanding Blue Humanities? This can be fiction or fact, but it should be something that a person needs to spend time analyzing.
  4. What is your definitive edition of Moby Dick?
  5. What piece of media has done sincere harm to the Blue Humanities? How should one engage with this piece of media?

Thank you for taking the time to visit our class and impart on us wisdom regarding the Blue Humanities! I look forward to Tuesday, though I will have to miss the larger event due to a conflict in my schedule.