Day Forty-Five

5/15

The Book: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

ISBN: 978-1-59308-018-1

Suggested By: Patrick Garcia

Where: Home

When: 9 - 9:45P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 9 - 64 (55)

The Lead In: Reading this book is a thrill. I can’t explain what Moby Dick means to me. It’s a legendary book about a legendary whale. It’s the quest for what cannot be obtained. It’s the drive to conquer that which will defeat us. I love the book in theory, hope the book lives up to the rap.

The 411 on the 55: The book begins with Ishmael deciding its time to go to sea. His description of the meaning of the sea to humanity is interesting and almost essay-like. The words flow well and the whole of the first chapter is descriptions of why the sea is important, both to Ishmael and everyone else.

Ishmael arrives in New Bedford, Massachusetts (hometown of longtime friend, Randy Monty) looking for a ship to set sail on. He hits a couple of inns and when he finds one to his liking, all the beds are taken. The inn keeper offers to let him split a bed with another sailor, but Ishmael is opposed to the idea. Eventually, he gives in. He climbs into bed and falls asleep before the other sailor shows up.

In the middle of the night, the harpooner finally returns to his room. Several things go against him. First, he’s black. Two, he sells shrunken heads. Three, he’s tattooed all over. Four, he threatens Ishmael with his tomahawk. After the confusion settles, the inn keeper introduces him as Queequeg and Ishmael, somehow, goes straight to sleep.

Line of the Day: (Ok, actually a paragraph. Read it, please.) “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago-never mind how long precisely-having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on the shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. 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.” pg 27

The Fact on the Fiction: “Leviathan is a concept album by sludge metal band Mastodon, released in 2004 by Relapse Records. The album is based on the Herman Melville novel Moby-Dick, with songs: “Iron Tusk”, “Blood and Thunder” and “Seabeast” released as singles. Three magazines awarded it Album of the Year in 2004.” Wikipedia