GEM’s Reviews > Moby Dick > Status Update

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering lurks in all your horribles!”

“Yet there is hope. Time and tide flow wide.”

Ch 37 “Sunset”: Big anger.

Stark tone shift in the book. Was previously very conversational and somewhat silly. Now that they’ve boarded the ship, there seems to be an interlude of thought with lofty and grandiose musings of democracy, what makes a man, etc. Wondering if this tone will be used to distinguish Melville’s voice from Ishmael’s? I miss Queequeg.

I’m having fun reading this book.

It is a good pun to ship Queequeg and Ishmael.

What compels one to sea? The endless processions of the idea of the whale himself, and the grand hooded phantom of life. How to go into the sea? Not a passenger who pays, a Captain who commands, or a Cook who feeds, but as a sailor who obeys/breathes the first air/is paid. Why else? We are drawn to the sea. And delusion of choice from unbiased free will and discriminating judgement. Be on friendly terms with horror.