Anyway, whales. Ishmael really seems to like whales and so does Melville. I guess it had to come with the territory when writing a book about a huge, white sperm whale. I decided to make a pie-chart of the amount of information given on whales compared to everything else.
So, back to whales. Obviously the whale head that Ishmael keeps going on about is pretty symbolic and can tie into the shrunken heads seen earlier in the book being sold by Queequeg. But then Ishmael seems to talk about more than just whale heads. He also classifies whales. What I found odd about that was that he uses his own kind of classification. He doesn't use the scientific classifications, but he classifies the whales as if they are books. Which is interesting because Moby-Dick is a pretty big book about a whale and a whaling ship, both of which are things he writes down. This could tie into our discussion of how the whale is the text. It is a book about whales, but the whales are books.
So are we reading a book about reading? In a way we are. If you look back at my pie-chart, I have a section called "References to other Works." Melville seems to be planting a lot of information from other literary sources (Shakespeare, the Bible, and Chaucer for example). His footnotes also show that he is using books on whaling in order to write a book about whaling. So are we reading a book about whales or a book about reading. I guess it is up for discussion, but I for one feel like we aren't really reading. I feel like we are digesting a whale from the tale to the head.
I love your post it is very creative. I agree with you in that we might be reading about reading. Since at the beginning Melville was writing this for the purpose of monetary gain, I can't really say what the purpose of his book was. If I had not known that he was doing it for money I would have said he was providing his audience with a tale of his travels. By way promoting reading on whales since at that time that is where the money was at.
ReplyDeleteWe can also infer that for him whaling was important because it was what intrigued him. When someone is intrigued by some idea they are most likely to share it with others so they too can enjoy it. People in that age had a lot of time as discussed in class, therefore describing the art of whaling was something that caught their fancy. Now in 21st century American society we like a fast pace and prefer to see action right away before anything is explained. We are a society that has less time in their hands and are unable to appreciate the detail most of the time.
My other theory is that Melville might likes to saturate his books with details on whales and what he loves. He does this to try and keep himself out of the story.
What is the true reason for his organization of this book? I could never know, but it would be interesting if there was a way we could know what his purpose was.
It's true--we are reading about reading, as we talked about in class the other day, and the literary references are really important.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of Ishmael in this novel is surprising. Here he is the narrator (most of the time), yet we know little about him. We don't even know what he looks like. He's just sort of there witnessing some of it. Very odd.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, this was quite an entertaining post.
ReplyDeleteSecond, you raise the interesting point that we know next to nothing about Ishmael. This point was brought up at one point in class, but I think it deserves further scrutiny.
I feel like modern literature spends the text doing two things: describing characters and settings and what things look like, and telling us what is actually happening.
Even while Ishmael described Queequeg in quite vivid detail, why does he never speak of himself or reflect on his own experiences, save the one about his stepmother? Melville doesn't really seem to focus on that, and he doesn't really seem to focus on action much either. Granted, there is an actual plotline, and things are happening, but it's surprisingly insignificant compared to how much of the book is spent describing objects or ideas. There are chapters on rope, the harpoon, the crotch, whales, sperm whales, right whales, whale heads, and whale tails.
Why would Melville feel this necessary? Was he trying to prove his knowledge? Reach a certain page count? What may his motives have been for writing such an unorthodox and dense novel?