Moby-Dick or, The Whale in fiction files redux

May 10, 2010 Jimmy rated it really liked it

Shelves: year-1850s, novel, male

It's intimidating enough to read Moby Dick... it's almost as intimidating to try to write anything interesting about it. Although writing about it might not be so bad if reading it is any indication: I found myself pulled into the first 200 pages or so; I was pleased to be met with accessible characters, lofty but humorous language, and a laid back plotlessness (they don't get on the ship until a quarter of the way into the book!). It almost read like a children's book with very archaic words an

It's intimidating enough to read Moby Dick... it's almost as intimidating to try to write anything interesting about it. Although writing about it might not be so bad if reading it is any indication: I found myself pulled into the first 200 pages or so; I was pleased to be met with accessible characters, lofty but humorous language, and a laid back plotlessness (they don't get on the ship until a quarter of the way into the book!). It almost read like a children's book with very archaic words and complex sentence structures. So this tome was really much more pleasant to wade into than its reputation would suggest. It's not until I got into the thick of the whaling specifics that I started to understand where that reputation came from.

As for the whaling parts: I found them fascinating too, for the most part: but fascinating in a different way. I have a theory that the whaling parts are used as a simulation of real-time passing. So you're drifting along in the sea and nothing happens for weeks at a time. That's sort of what reading this book is like. While Ishmael is giving you a (always very subjective) lesson on the different types of whale blubber, you're drifting out in the open sea, and nothing much of note is happening. Every once in a while something small happens, or you cross paths with another ship, and it feels like a relief.

And some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher, except to sell by the cartload, as they do hills about Boston, to fill up some morass in the Milky Way.

My second theory, as the above quote suggests, is that whaling here is used as a metaphor for EVERYTHING. This isn't much of a theory, as any dumb dumb would notice it, more like an obvious observation. When Ishmael talks about anything whaling related, he uses flowery and biblical language, obviously tying the current subject (whaling) to many other levels of life. He makes comparison over comparison, in an excess of like-nesses. But for the reader, it doesn't have to stop there. The in-depth-ness and passion of his study makes the subject matter applicable to a wide range of interpretations. At one point Ishmael says,

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.

But I disagree. I think if someone were to truly put their minds into the investigation of flea minutiae, if it had as impassioned an ambassador, it too can become a metaphor for many things, and be interpreted as a comment on modern life. I'm convinced the magic doesn't come from within the whale, but within Ishmael himself, inside of his obsessive compulsive mind where the white whale rolls its wide bulk.

Ishmael, not being a very experienced whaler, quite ridiculously overcompensates in his effulgent praise of whaling, where whaling holds a disproportionately noble, sacred place above all other trivial ways of eking out an existence. It is inside of Ishmael's obsession that Ahab's own obsession of Moby Dick comes to life. Thus, which is the greater? I read this as part of an online group read (Infinite Summer style), and one of the more enlightening posts was on this very subject of Ishmael's subjectivity.

And Ishmael isn't content with just narrating what he knows, he narrates as if he were omniscient. Parts of the book are like a play where each character has his Shakespearean monologue. Often Ishmael tells you exactly what they are thinking too, down to very personal details that he probably just imagined for the purpose of creating more drama in his story. It's hilarious, and the whole chapter-written-as-one-act-play thing really amused me because it felt like Melville was throwing the kitchen sink into telling this story. Or rather, creating many entrances into building up the story yourself.

One thing I found a little disappointing was that a lot of the other characters, even ones that you'd think would have a bigger role like Queequeg, don't get much development, and often 20 chapters would go by without one mention of him. It felt a little lonely sometimes, all alone inside Ishmael's head without the company of the others.

Ahab's fate, much foreshadowed, finally comes to a conclusion in the last 50 pages or so, in exciting chapter after exciting chapter. But not until Ahab shows a very human, less intimidating side of himself when he recalls his childhood. Alas, like a special features DVD, this review comes with an alternate ending. Enjoy: alternate ending ...more

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Dec 17, 2009 nathank rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"A magnificent book. It's about so much more than just a whale and a captain. It's an encyclopedia of whaling. The story is told in such beautiful prose that many times I found it hard to believe that an actual person wrote it. The only challenge is the very complex writing structure. I've never seen so many semicolons." ...more

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