Moby-Dick discussion

Soon we were running through a suffusing wide veil of mist; neither ship nor boat to be seen.

Well, the November of the soul has slipped into the cold December, taking us from Chapter 46 to 56. Congratulations to the hardy readers who have made it this far! We are approximately half through.

Here are the chapters:
Ch. 46: Surmises
Ch. 47: The Mat-Maker
Ch. 48: The First Lowering
Ch. 49: The Hyena
Ch. 50: Ahab's Boat and Crew. Fedallah
Ch. 51: The Spirit-Spout
Ch. 52: The Albatross
Ch. 53: The Gam
Ch. 54: The Town-Ho's Story
Ch. 55: Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
Ch. 56: Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales

And no jokes about the "Town-Ho" please. laugh.

Odd, isn't it? For a captain to keep stowaways, I mean. "That tiger yellow crew of his." Hmn.

"The First Lowering" has some tour de force writing, in my opinion. The "troubled bit of greenish white water, and think scattered puffs of vapor hovering over it, and suffusingly blowing off to leeward, like the confused scud from white rolling billows. The air around suddenly vibrated and tingled, as it were, like the air over intensely heated plates of iron."

Quite nice, that.

I think I underlined that whole chapter. I loved Stubb (I think it was) encouraging the crew on, and all the other descriptive passages. Very active chapter, but also lyrical.

I think Melville's interest in the Town-Ho's story is his objection to flogging. It's a nice adventure, but one wonders what it has to do with anything. I think that's the answer, though. It has to do with flogging -- yet another brutality common to Western societies. Melville was after all a deserter despite Ishmael's staying on ship.

I'm a little late with these chapters but over all enjoyed them. I agree about "The First Lowering", some wonderful writing there. I'm really liking the immediacy of the whale chapters, the up close and personal feel of the descriptions of the man and whale interactions.

Too much to work I don't have time to write; but I keep on reading. Sooner or later I'll write as well!

Ever the Laggard, I just finished these chapters but have braced up the yards and am sailing hard to catch up.

Does anyone else note that the discussion has fallen off?

What are we then like the Pirates rather than the whalers? ... pirates straightway steer apart, for they are infernal villains on both sides, and don’t like to see overmuch of each other’s villanous likenesses.

There wasn't even any remark about Melville's allusions to the hanging of pirates...

I conclude, that in boasting himself to be high lifted above a whaleman, in that assertion the pirate has no solid basis to stand on. Talk about your gallows humor...

And as to Gamming... I was once addicted to on-line gamming but weened myself away from it.

As to Town-Ho's Story... did anyone else feel that this was told in an unecessarily flowerey way? The whole Dons of Lima construct was a bit off-putting to me.

Perhaps this reaction was in part due to the incredible nature of that part of the story. Having done most of my literary sailing aboard the ships of H.M. Navy (Hornblower, Bligh & Bolitho) this level of familiarity between officers and crew seemed fantastical.

My mistake has been in reading the beautiful, larger print Library of America edition. Easier on the eyes, yes -- but it also stops me from marking up text.

If I switch to the smaller print paperback (as seen in my photo-op), it probably would help. I could ink excerpts when I read them.

Right now my habit is to go whaling every night as I hit the sack. I read stuff and say, "This is great... need to remember it for the discussion," but who am I kidding. Right. Myself.

Hmmm you are sailing the same ship I did, NE. Sailed right through and nary a mark. Great stuff, but where did I put it, relied on memory. Big mistake.

One question for the crew... When Steelkilt and his two fellow mutineers are strung up to the mast and scourged, was Melville drawing a parallel with Jesus and the two thieves on Golgotha? He doesn't actually mention it and Steelkilt's motives were certainly not as noble. I seem to be seeing symbolism in threes lately.

I think this is one of those situations, Stephen, that you could make a case for it if it fit in with a broader interpretation. It doesn't actually matter if it was in Melville's mind consciously, unconsciously or not at all.

That didn't even occur to me, Stephen! I loved the Steelkit story. Now I'll go back and read it. I'm so behind as it is.

I'm ever the laggard but it's partly cause I wander so.
I was curious about the paintings that Melville referred to in chapter 55.
Here's the best I could find of Hagarth's Persues rescuing Andromeda http://www.william-hogarth.com/hogart...

And as to Guido... "http://www.artchive.com/web_gallery/J..."

(Not sure WHY one cannot include the link here as an address)

"matse avatar" turned up no images but plenty of bad music.

http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/cont...

That is what I found. Don't know if it is right though.

Thanks for that Kitty!

I also forgot to mention the reference to Jeremy Bentham the fellow who is still "in residence" at University College London. He had himself mummified and occuies a self styled Auto-icon at the end of the South Cloisters in the main building of the college. Having been to London numerous times I've always meant to visit the old gent but never made it.

He was a bit of a forward thinking old crackpot advocating the decriminization of homosexual activities and... wait for it... equal rights for women. Personally, I think he might have been a movie double for Ben Franklin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_B...

Never heard of the guy. I will have to google it.