Moby Dick is exhausting. A single reading does not entirely reveal what Melvillle, rather frantically, wants to convey.
On
one level, the book is about the narrator, Ishmael, and his 3-year long
whaling voyage. On this level, emphasizing the distinction between
Ishmael and 'Ishmael's voyage', seems necessary. Sometimes Ishmael's
character itself is the story, sometimes Ishmael's character is only
necessary as he is the bearer of the news of this story or voyage. It's
hard to swallow if you read it as either a story about Ishmael alone,
or as a story about 'Ishmael's voyage' alone. You kind of have to read
it as both.
So what does one come away with from just one reading of this mighty book.
For
me, two things. One is the language and writing style of Melville. He
often clarifies his sentences with additional modifying clauses and the
like. There seems to be an obvious joy for him in doing this. He's
not writing with conformity but, rather, to clarify his say. In the
process the sentences are unusually long and u-turn on themselves as
Melville further clarifies an initial thought.
For example, I'll
edit a couple of Melville's paragraphs in a modern sort of cropped or
abridged style, then I'll quote Melville's actual paragraphs.
For all these reasons then, Ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good degree continue the nominal purpose of the Pequod.
Be this as it may, his voice was often heard hailing the
three mast-heads and admonishing them to keep a bright lookout. This
vigilance was not long without reward.
For
all these reasons then, and others perhaps too analytic to be verbally
developed here, Ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good degree
continue true to the natural, nominal purpose of the Pequod's voyage;
observe all customary usages; and not only that, but force himself to
evince all his well-known passionate interest in the general pursuit of
his profession.
Be all this as it may, his voice was now often heard
hailing the three mast-heads and admonishing them to keep a bright
lookout, and not omit reporting even a porpoise. This vigilance was not
long without reward.1
The long
sentences with their modifying clauses don't obfuscate some simple point
but, rather, point out Melville's, rather more involved, intellection
. After reading these long sentences I found myself, in my own
conversations, modifying in order to clarify although not to the extent
Melville does. I was affected by his writing. I don't expect this to be
a long-term effect of having read Moby Dick, just a short-term effect.
The
second thing I come away with is that the theme of the book, which is
often described as being about man's obsessiveness or obsessive nature,
is almost as likely to be about two types of adaptings. Each of these
adaptings is like an opposite to the other.
Ishmael, in adapting to life during this era, is
a bit of a wanderer
. He's
bookish, learned, and seems to avoid most of the standard commitments of
life of this era. He wants to get away from society so to speak. On
the other end is Captain Ahab. Captain Ahab's adapting is of a joining
sort. Ahab is an integral part of the whaling economy of Nantucket,
he's married with a young son, he's Captain of the ship Pequod, and he's
an experienced whaleman within the whalemen community. He can get very
passionate in these roles as opposed to reflecting on them. Ishmael on
the other hand seems to spend 90 percent of his time reflecting on
people, places, and things.
So these two are, sort of, opposites. Unfortunately, having read Moby Dick only once I can't honestly say much more about this relationship. Which brings me to another point.
I have the feeling that any real
understanding of the book requires a minimum of 2 or 3 readings. There
is just too much going on; whaling, mentions of historical figures, mentions of
historical events which have nothing to do with whaling, renditions of
Shakespeare's style of writing, quite a few characters other than
Ishmael. All these things seem to have their peculiar
place in the novel. Understanding their place and their respective
support of the story is hard to do in one reading.
The more
re-readings, the better will be one's understanding of the book. Since
I've only read it once, I can only give a superficial reading
of it.
Also,
it seems the reader is expected to be as familiar with the history of
civilization as Melville appears to be, and if you're not as familiar
with people and events of an historic kind then you probably won't
understand the intricacies of all his allusions. The story will,
somewhat, fly over your head as it did mine. The allusions are frequent
and I didn't stop to investigate any of them. Reading it this way
makes Melville's writing seem like a headlong rush which blows past the
reader without a second thought to the reader's discernment. This
effect is similar to the unstoppable, headlong rush of the whale Moby
Dick.
_____________________
What
follows was posted before I finished the book. Although it's not an
entirely pertinent description of the confusion I sometimes had, it is
illustrative of a confusion that Melville, sort of, brushes aside. His
concern seems for the story not the reader.
So, you take a
date, boyfriend or girlfriend, to a magician's show. The show starts,
the magician is onstage. A female assistant brings out a box to be used
in
the first trick. It's about 5' high X 5'wide. You lean in to your date
and say, 'This is the trick where the girl crawls into the box and out
come 2 girls.' You return to sitting normally and prepare
for the magic. The assistant walks offstage, the sides of the box drop
to the floor resulting in a flat piece of cardboard lying on the floor.
2 other, male, assistants rush onstage and drag the flattened box
offstage. The crowd, somewhat dumbfounded, applauds anyway. Next, the
first assistant returns, delivering a hoola-hoop to the magician. You
lean into your date and say, 'Oh, this is the one in which the girl
disappears as the hula-hoop is dropped over her body.' The magician
takes
the hoop and, with outstretched arms, turning left and right, presents a
good view of the hoop to the audience. He then pulls it apart, showing
the audience the resulting 2 halves of the hula hoop. He then tosses
both halves offstage. Most of the audience gives an obligatory applause
although some, in a bit of a stupor, withhold their applause. Once
again the first female assistant returns. This time she's pushing a
little end table on
wheels with an upside down tophat on the tabletop.
Your date
leans into you and asks, 'Is this the one where he pulls a rabbit out
of the hat?' You smile, a little embarrassed, since the first 2 tricks
are evidence that you haven't a clue as to what's going on. But
she's waiting for a reply so you say, 'I'm not sure. I think this is
the one where he takes the tophat off the table, puts it on his head,
wears it for a few seconds, then tosses it offstage.' Of course, this
is exactly what the magician does. You now have some idea of what it is
like to read Herman Melville's
Moby Dick.
________________
Okay, here's one more metaphor revealing the scope of Moby Dick.
Any
novel is, to some extent, structured. Words form sentences, which form
paragraphs, which form chapters, etc. Most novels are of a common
structure. Say like an office building is a structure, a 2 or 3 bedroom
home is a structure, etc. Sometimes these structures are inviting and
comfortable, sometimes less comfortable. Moby Dick's structure
is similar to the Vanderbilt mansion or, maybe, any ornate, famous
mansion. You approach it with some awe and excitement, it reveals
itself to be vast with ceilings higher than the norm, rooms larger than
the norm, and decorations less simple than the norm. Some rooms you
don't even know what exactly they are about; A drawing room, a tea room,
etc. Finally, you may conclude this is exceptional but I'm going to
return to my 1 bedroom apartment or whatever. In other words, it was
nice visiting but I'm not sure I'd want to live there. So it is with
this ornate mansion known as Moby Dick.
I'll
leave you with this final thought. I'm fairly certain that if Herman
Melville were alive today, among his favorite performers would be the
comedian Gallagher.
Frankly, it's been a rough read. I think I need a break.
1Moby Dick, Herman Melville,
Dover Giant Thrift Editions, ©Dover Publications Inc., Mineola, N.Y., U.S.A., 2003, pg. 178