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.
You some great points here about the reading– really smart insights:
“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)” and “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.” I would like to see you keep going with these smart insights– to push towards a So WHAT claim– an argument about what you see and why it matters. Keep going!
Hi Jesmond! I like how you said that Melville is crazy enough to focus on one thing and go deep into it. I don’t realize how massive the whaling industry was in the 19th century. It was literally their world. To see the way that they intersect and interpret the whale as a being is interesting to see. Thank you for sharing, you made really good points!
The last part of your blog really resonated with me from thinking about this anonymous sub-sub librarian. There is really something traditional about this scholarly preservation but also special and unconventional at the same time. Not necessarily “culture” but more so on that train of a normal process for scholarly preservation at that time. Without the librarian, there would be no life to the beginnings of the whale, simply because it stands societally conventional rather than a unique moving process that doesn’t start as the rest of other novel beginnings…. if that makes sense.??Thank you for sharing!