ENCOUNTERS
Numbered responses are by ECU students.
Quotations are in red.
Italics indicate instructor comments and questions.
Quotations are in red.
Italics indicate instructor comments and questions.
1. ... Stubb, the old second mate, came up from below, with a certain unassured, deprecating humorousness, hinted that if Captain Ahab was pleased to walk the planks, then, no one could say nay; but there might be some way of muffling the noise; hinting something indistinctly and hesitatingly about a globe of tow, and the insertion into it, of the ivory heel. Ah! Stubb, thou didst not know Ahab then.
“Am I a cannon-ball, Stubb,” said Ahab, “that thou wouldst wad me that fashion? But go thy ways; I had forgot. Below to thy nightly grave; where such as ye sleep between shrouds, to use ye to the filling one at last.—Down, dog, and kennel!”
From Moby-Dick, Third Nortion Critical Edition, edited by Hershel Parker:
"Tow": "Tight little ball of rope yarn, which Ahab punningly takes to mean the wadding thrust down the muzzle of a cannon" (105).
2. A certain curiosity arises when considering whether or not Captain Ahab is particularly sensitive about his leg, which was lost in some form of whaling accident (meaning it was unexpected, disheartening, etc.).
The State of Ahab's Mind
3. Ahab’s sudden realization of his displeasure with something that once brought him pleasure seems to speak to his life. “Oh, my pipe! Hard must it go with me if thy charm be gone! Here I have been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring,” said Ahab. Ahab comes to the realization he has been smoking out of habit, rather than enjoyment, and decides to stop for good by disposing of his pipe. This speaks to Ahab’s obvious displeasure with his entire life. He seems miserable and conflicted constantly.
Consider: Narrative Voice
Stubb Considers Ahab: Protector or Threat
4. Now that Ahab has been introduced, a sense of foreboding feels present for those on the Pequod. This captain that others use to rave about appears slightly unhinged due to his behavior. For example, Ishmael describes the captain as “royalty” in one paragraph but then in the next paragraph, Ahab is ranting about his “dying whale” of a pipe and throws it into the ocean. The fact that Ahab is calm and stoic one moment and throwing a “still lighted pipe into the sea” the next implies that the Pequod might not be under the best management. Other sailors also notice Ahab’s “queer” behavior, doing their best to stay out of his way. It is even said that one should “let the old man alone” and “never speak to him.” This gradual build up creates a sense of suspense and paints an ominous feeling for the dangers to come in later chapters.
Dreamwork
5. Chapter 31, titled "Queen Mab," reminds me a lot of Shakespeare's Queen Mab in Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, Queen Mab is an entity described by Meructio that has been visiting Romeo in his dreams, making him lovesick. In Moby-Dick, Stubb describes to another crew member a dream he had, in which he says, "You know the old man's ivory leg, well I dreamed he kicked me with it; and when I tried to kick back, upon my soul, my little man, I kicked my leg right off! And then, presto! Ahab seemed a pyramid, and I, like a blazing fool, kept kicking at it."I guess my question here is, what dream is Queen Mab bringing to Stubb? Stubb's dream begins with serious tension between himself and Ahab, but when Flask calls his dream "foolish," Stubb responds with, "May be; may be. But it's made a wise man of me, Flask. D'ye see Ahab standing there, sideways looking over the stern? Well, the best thing you can do, Flask, is to let the old man alone; never speak to him, whatever he says. Halloa! What's that he shouts? Hark!" Interestingly, Stubb becomes more loyal to Ahab after having this dream.
Ahab as Ideal Man
6. From the perspective of the crew, getting struck by Ahab’s fake leg is akin to being “slapped by a queen.”
7. . . . after being verbally harassed by Ahab, tells Flask of his dream, in which “Ahab seemed a pyramid.” During the dream, he tried to take vengeance on Ahab by kicking him repeatedly, and until his foot began to hurt; yet, as he delved deeper into his dream, he was visited by a merman that convinced him that he was treated with “good-will.” As the conversation goes on, they conclude that being accosted by Ahab is an honor. Ahab’s ability to send a man into such emotional turmoil from a simple exchange of crude remarks displays a super-natural degree of charisma, and the daring references to his past exploits in previous chapters paint him almost as a kind of demigod.
Gods Live and Dead?
8. In chapter 29, Ahab kicks Stubb for complaining about the sound which Ahab’s [i]vory leg made upon the quarter-deck. At first, Stubb was understandingly upset with having his body ravaged by a limb of ivory whale bone; and yet, he finds himself doubting soon after how this actually made him feel, both titling Ahab ‘queer’ and stating that feels the sudden need to pray for him; “Yes, that was the thought coming up in me; but it would be the first time I ever did pray. It’s queer; very queer; and he’s queer too” (Melville). These feelings were of utmost intrigue to me, making little more sense when Stubb’s identification of Ahab progresses through his Mercutio-esque dream in [which] many dream oddities occur, but the basis is that in where a merman restrains him following some thoughtful pondering about Ahab’s kick, and decides the offense less dire seeing as it wasn’t a breathing limb he was hit with; “And there’s a mighty difference between a living thump and a dead thump. That’s what makes a blow from the hand, Flask, fifty times more savage to bear than a blow from a cane. The living member—that makes the living insult, my little man” (Melville).
He goes on to even goes on to label it an honor when addressing the dream with Flask, later; “Didn’t he kick with right good will? it wasn’t a common pitch pine leg he kicked with, was it? No, you were kicked by a great man, and with a beautiful ivory leg, Stubb. It’s an honor; I consider it an honor” (Melville). This is a lot to digest, and there are many avenues for analysis already but my main question is why would anyone believe that capital punishment is an honor from any source? I get the sense that this may relate to the religious themes within the text in that; punishment is seen as a step within salvation, and we are aware of the importance of religious nature according to the captains of the ship. When coupled with the recurring motif of kings within the text and understanding the socio-religious implications of being royal blood (i.e. anointed or chosen by God) and seeing as the source of the ‘honorable’ punishment is coming from Ahab, I found it doubly intriguing that he is similarly compared to many forms of kings; “How could one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab” (Melville). In combination with what has been previously revealed to us about Ahab and his 3 nights of death followed by resurrection, it’s becoming clearer that Ahab can be interpreted as an allegory for Jesus.
Cetology and the Limits of Science
9. Chapters 29-32 all seem to diverge from Ishmael's narrative. Chapter 29 centers around Stubb and Captain Ahab, chapter 30 is all about Ahab, chapter 31 is Stubb's dream about Ahab, and then chapter 32 takes a really weird turn when a mysterious speaker breaks down the taxonomy of whales. Reading it was a fever dream. I'm not trying to make this a swipe-right, swipe-left thing. I'm just genuinely intrigued by the bizarre content in these chapters.10. Chapter thirty-two of Moby-Dick threw me through a loop . . . . What is the purpose of being educated in cetology? I understand world-building and letting the reader gather new information pertinent to the text, but why does Melville go about it in this manner? For instance, “BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER V. (Razor Back).—Of this whale little is known but his name. I have seen him at a distance off Cape Horn. Of a retiring nature, he eludes both hunters and philosophers. Though no coward, he has never yet shown any part of him but his back, which rises in a long sharp ridge. Let him go. I know little more of him, nor does anybody else...” (Melville Chapter 32)[.] The information is laid out plainly. While this does educate the reader over cetology, why does Melville take a pause from the story to introduce the information now? Would it not be more effective to have this with Etymology and Extracts?
11. Chapter 32 of Moby-Dick is a similar section to the “Excerpts” that we read at the beginning of this book. It is titled “Cetology”, which is the study of whales. He provides several works that mention whales in detail or just in passing, listing “The Authors of the Bible; Aristotle; Pliny; Aldrovandi; Sir Thomas Browne; Gesner; Ray; Linnæus; Rondeletius; Willoughby; Green; Artedi; Sibbald; Brisson; Marten; Lacépède; Bonneterre; Desmarest; Baron Cuvier; Frederick Cuvier; John Hunter; Owen; Scoresby; Beale; Bennett; J. Ross Browne; the Author of Miriam Coffin; Olmstead; and the Rev. T. Cheever.” as some of the authors with works cited. This [provides] information to the readers [who] could not simply type their whale-related questions into a search engine. Melville’s response was to provide thorough information directly into the book.
12, Chapter32 is another instance where I believe we lose Ishmael’s narrative voice and move more into Melville writing an essay over whales. Throughout this chapter we are given three books that describe whales and how countries hunt them, it’s not exactly necessary and Moby-Dick could definitely survive without it. I mean we have 10 pages dedicated to talking about whales by other authors who I assume Melville has probably read.
13. It is also interesting to see how much Ishmael has learned about whales. He lists a great number of species of whales including Huzza Porpoise, Hump Back, and Razor Back.
14. The chapters from this reading of Moby Dick reminded me that Melville's novel is unique among other works. In one chapter, we have a humorous monologue from Stubbs about his wild dreams, and then we end with a huge info bomb about Melville's classification of whales. This book almost has something for everyone, and though Melville's topic and tone shifting could turn away some (particularly critics, I'm sure).
15. . . . the most out of place chapter we have come across. This chapter sees Ishmael, or perhaps more so Melville, categorizing many different types of whales. It is explained that this section is included to “attend to a matter almost indispensable to a thorough appreciative understanding of the more special leviathanic revelations and allusions of all sorts which are to follow,” (113). Ishmael most likely is writing this to the reader as a means to classify the numerous whale species which are to be encountered along the following journey. In this section Ishmael writes as though he is a scholar, categorizing the whales in three separate branches which he thoroughly explains the details of. This section may genuinely be included to enlighten the viewer on the many species and sub-species of whale to be mentioned later, but it also serves to provide another character of the whales. The whales were in many ways a mystery at the time, Ishmael references this several times.
16. In chapter 32, Ishmael continues to talk of cetology as Melville did earlier in Extracts. Just as Ahab was further expounded upon, Melville is now doing so with the whale; he does this not by going into too much detail, but rather by showing how the subject can be quite futile, a “ponderous task,” “unfathomable water,” and an “impenetrable veil” (Ch. 32).
17. It is learned through Ishmael’s detailed account of the
different types of whales, although many people have written about them there is
still a lot of mystery to be uncovered about them. I think Ahab’s story
connects with this chapter to show the reader, why life at sea is one big
unknown that can’t be truly acknowledged unless experienced first-hand.
18. In Ch. 32 Ishmael details his whale organizational system, but I took issue with it immediately because he made a mistake before he even began drafting. Whales are mammals, not fish; “The grounds upon which Linnæus would fain have banished the whales from the waters, he states as follows: ‘On account of their warm bilocular heart, their lungs, their movable eyelids, their hollow ears, penem intrantem feminam mammis lactantem,” and finally, “ex lege naturæ jure meritoque’” (Melville). Penem intrantem feminam mammis lactantem means “the penis enters the female, which gives milk from teats”, or in other words, the defining factors of mammals. Naturæ jure meritoque means “out of the law of nature by right and merit”.
Consider Perpsective and Bias: " . . . Killer Whales: Exception might be taken to the name bestowed upon this whale, on the ground of its indistinctness. For we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonaparte and Sharks included (138).”
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