Tag Archives: week 5

The Weight of Guilt

Posted on by
1

“Terrors upon terrors run shouting through his soul. In all his cringing attitudes, the God-fugitive is now too plainly known. The sailors mark him; more and more certain grow their suspicions of him, and at last, fully to test the truth, by referring the whole matter to high Heaven, they fall to casting lots, to see for whose cause this great tempest was upon them. the lot is Jonah’s; that discovered, then how furiously they mob him with their questions. ‘What is thine occupation? whence comest thou? thy country? what people?’ but mark now, my shipmates, the behavior of poor Jonah. the eager mariners but ask him who he is, and where from; whereas, they not only receive an answer to those questions, but like wise another answer ti a question not put by them, but the unsolicited answer is forced from Jonah by the hard hand of God that is upon him.” (pp. 51)

This moment in Chapter 9 of Moby-Dick hits harder than I expected for a book about chasing a whale. Melville tells the story of Jonah and it suddenly feels way too real. Jonah’s on a ship in a storm, everyone’s panicking, and they start casting lots to figure out who’s to blame for the chaos.

What’s wild is how Jonah reacts. The sailors only ask him basic stuff; who are you, where are you from, what’s your job? But Jonah doesn’t just answer. He confesses. He blurts out the truth they didn’t even ask for, like it’s been eating him alive. And that’s exactly Melville’s point.

This isn’t just about a guy running from God. It’s about how guilt works. You can try to hide, run, deny—but when it builds up inside you, it demands to come out. Jonah’s not undone by the sailors. He’s undone by his own conscience. It’s that moment when you can’t lie to yourself anymore, even if nobody else knows the full story.

Melville nails something super relatable here: the fear of being found out, but even more, the unbearable weight of knowing you’ve messed up. Jonah’s story becomes all of ours. We’ve all had that moment where guilt catches up, and the truth just spills out.

Etymology and Extracts – Moby Dick

Posted on by
Reply

For this week’s reading, I understand all the warnings now about how Moby Dick is a difficult and boring read. I could not really grasp the entirety of what I was reading, but I am sure that as I continue on, I will better understand it.

From what I could gather from the readings, the way the Etymology sections starts off creates an important question as to the lack of inclusion on all matters of whaling and the ocean, and whether that assists in the lessening of the significance of either. Melville’s telling of whaling and exploring the sea, while not entirely non-fiction, but also not entirely fictional, may create a gap in the reader’s understanding of the extent of the dangerous and unintentionally frivolous travels of the ocean. The quote, “While you take in hand to school others, and to teach them by what name a whale-fish is to be called in our tongue, leaving out, through ignorance, the letter H, which almost alone maketh up the signification of the word, you deliver that which is not true” by Hackluyt announces the importance of the accomadations made towards important areas of information for the benefit of assisting our learning of it in our own language. While somewhat off topic, we can see this in translations of many other texts, for instance: The Grettis Saga, which has been translated into various different languages. In the beginning of each of these books there is a disclaimer made by the translators that the significance and the grammatical choices made in the origonal texts are often lost through translation, making the texts become modified and in theory, un-truthful in their translation of the original accounts.

Week 5: Toes in the Water

Posted on by
3

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.

Chapter 1 – The relationship with the sea.

Posted on by
4

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.

Posted on by
2

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.

Sub-Sub-Librarian kinship and a love of research

Posted on by
1

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

Posted on by
1

“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). 

Melvilles Warning

Posted on by
2

Herman Melville’s “Etymology” and “Extracts” preceding chapter one provides an insane amount of insight and context before starting the story of Ishmael. Although the etymology can be easily cast aside as readers usually begin with the first chapter, I believe Melville intended for the etymology and extracts to be read and be taken seriously (to an extent) as it provides context on how to approach the monstrosity of the book itself. Melville outright lets the reader know that he isn’t reliable and to read between lines. TO CLOSE READ! It’s genuinely insane how much thought went into the extracts as a warning to readers to NOT take his word seriously as you would the bible. “Therefore you must not in every case at least, take the higgley-piggledy whale statements, however authentic, in these extracts, for veritable gospel cetology. Far from it.” (Extracts, paragraph 1) This warning gives a whole new meaning to reading the book and what it means to simply read any book. You must read between the lines and manipulate sentences to unlock their true meaning. This is a huge reason why I think this novel is important now as it was when it was published and many years later. There will always be a new lens to unlock, something for the reader to question, and new interpretations to be discovered. Taking this and applying it to how you read the novel takes pressure off its size and focuses on what you, as the reader, take from the story at hand. 

Now with the Extracts taken into consideration, the first sentence beginning chapter one can be picked apart, despite its simplicity. “Call me Ishmael” (Melville, 3) The narrator is starting the story with a friendly greeting but giving the reader a pseudonym. This can be simply the narrator being just friendly. But also revealing Ishmael’s narration as a flawed one and possibly unreliable. Melville put deep thought and detail in the information preceding the first chapter and I thank him for it. 

week 5: chapter 3

Posted on by
2

Something I found most interesting, and in a way, quite entertaining was Ishmael’s obsession with his roommate- the harpooner, Queequeg, as seen in Chapter 3. He only knows about this mysterious man from what the landlord had told him, and was already forming ideas about him even though he had not met him yet. Whether the landlord was telling the truth or just trying to scare him, Ishmael should’ve formed his own opinions on the harpooner through his own experience with him. This can relate to society, both then and even now, about how people should go out and gain their own experience so they could think for themselves rather than listening and going based on other men’s thinking. Ishmael says, ”Ignorance is the parent of fear, and being completely nonplussed and confounded about the stranger, I confess I was now as much afraid of him as if it was the devil himself who had thus broken into my room…” (pg 24). When you don’t know something, you fear it. And like Ishmael here, because he was unfamiliar with the man, he started panicking and freaking out. He was psyching himself out for nothing, for example when Queequeg was telling him to get into bed, Ishmael says about him, “He really did this in not only a civil but a really kind and charitable way” (pg 26).

He also goes on to say after meeting him that, “the man’s a human being just as I am: he has just as much reason to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” (pg 26). Ishmael was getting scared of his roommate for no reason because he ended up being a nice man anyways. This is why it is important to, yes, take other’s opinions into consideration but to also go out and gain the experience yourself, that way forming your own opinions and thoughts are true and genuine. I also want to add that Ishmael jumping to conclusions was also reasonable. He is going to be sharing a bed with a complete stranger. So, it is understandable to think the worst. 


“Call me Ishmael”, Reveling in an Obscure Identity

Posted on by
2

There is a lot to discuss within our first chunk of reading for Moby Dick, but I want to focus on one passage and then try to expand.

Before I do this, I thought it was curious how our narrator uses the pseudonym of “Ishmael”. He asks us to call him this, which made me look into the significance this name. Turns out it was a biblical reference used. Ishmael was born unto Abraham with Sarah’s hand maid Hagar. After, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, and she asked Abraham to expel the hand maid and her child into the desert. Though blessed by God, Ishmael became an outcast. This can open up discussion about the word “outcast” and how “Ishmael” ventures to meet people aboard a ship who have a common goal: whaling.

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off–then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

“This is my substitute for pistol and ball.”

This is a huge sentence. I could have paraphrased it lol. What he is saying is that instead of inviting suicidal and/or fatal temptations, the sea is where he can find respite. Only the ocean can provide him this. We get this passage literally on the first page, so you can see how important the ocean is to our “Ishmael”. Arguably, this is an early glimpse of the feelings that our protagonist portrays to the natural unknown world on the horizon.