Day Fifty-Three

5/24

The Book: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

ISBN: 978-1-59308-018-1

Suggested By: Patrick Garcia

Where: Home

When: 9:30-P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 517- 572(55)

The Lead In: God, I wish I was a whaler.

The 411 on the 55: In the science section of the reading today, Melville discusses wether of not whales will ever go extinct. He agues no because they can always retreat to the Arctic, where it would be much more difficult to get them (global warming, be damned). 

There is another chapter that is very play-like, with scene description and such. Melville moves between the styles flawlessly. It almost seems like an exercise in a writing class. “OK, now right this chapter as if you were writing a play.” It’s good, well-done, and an interesting approach to a relatively long book.

A leak is found in the oil barrels in the hold and Starbuck tells Ahab. Ahab tells him off and commands him out of his presence, not wanting his hunting of Moby-Dick to be slowed. Starbuck argues, and eventually wins. While the barrels are hoisted, Queequeg catches a fever. He gets progressively worse until he finally calls for the carpenter to make him a coffin. He has all of his things gathered and placed in it, including food and whatnot. And then, he recovers.

Ahab has a huge harpoon made, to kill Moby-Dick and, in a heathen display of awesomeness, has his harpooners put their own blood on the barbs. How very un-Christian of him! His streak for craziness gets ratcheted up later as he sleeps in his whale-boat, watching over a slain whale. He awakes and raves about only being able to be killed by rope, and nothing else. Sort of a prophecy of sorts. He’s a loony.

Line of the Day: “In this Afric Temple of the Whale I leave you, reader, and if you be an Nantucketer, and a Whaleman, you will silently worship there.” pg 529

“There is one God that is Lord over the earth, and one Captain that is lord over the Pequod.” pg 547

The Fact on the Fiction: In 1841, Herman Melville sailed out of New Bedford on a whaleship, living the life of a whaleman for 18 months. The classic novel, “Moby Dick” is the result of his voyage. The end of the novel, where Moby Dick rams and sinks the Pequod is modeled after the real-life experience of the whaleship Essex, which was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale. Much of Moby Dick can be considered factual, based on Melville's experience. Google Timeline