The Leviathan -- Reading Moby-Dick

"Call me Ishmael."

 

So begins Hermann Melville's Moby-Dick, with perhaps American literature's most recognizable opening line. Arguably the first great American novel (with the most enigmatic hyphen), the book is not a light read, and never meant to be. Melville's vast vocabulary alone makes reading and comprehension a daunting challenge, let alone his constant references to the Bible (e.g., the biblical name Ishmael comes with its own connotations), Shakespeare, and anything that has anything to do with seafaring. The experience reminds me of the time I read Thoreau's Walden. Both books were written at times when books were supposed to be savored rather than merely consumed. With that in mind, I found myself not bored by the forty some chapters on whales and whaling, or the late arrival of its main characters, or the meandering musings of Ishmael the narrator; indeed, it was wholly captivating and enthralling, a journey of discovery in every sense of the word.

 

No need for spoiler alerts when I say that the book is about one man's obsession with one whale, and the battle that proves the man less equal. It's a simple story. How Melville tells the tale and fills the book with wonders and wondrous characters is truly the reason why Moby-Dick remains popular to this day, and not just with academics.

 

Captain Ahab, singularly obsessed with the albino sperm whale known as Moby Dick, who apparently chomped off his sanity along with his leg, is no Captain Hook. There are depth and profundity to his anguish and determination. In a beautifully written soliloquy late in the book, we learn of his young wife, his regret and longing, and even his doubt. A cartoon caricature he is not, for madmen seldom inspire. Captain Ahab may be going mad, but he remains charismatic and commanding, and knows why he is driven to the end of the earth and the brink of insanity.

 

Moby Dick does not show up until the last few chapters of the book. Before we meet this utterly worthwhile nemesis, Melville entertains with a sailing adventure that takes readers from Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts all the way to Japan and beyond. While the hunt for Moby Dick casts a gloomy shadow over the journey, the book has no shortage of fun, wit, or humor. There is one particularly delightful chapter that describes how the crew prepare whale oil for storage. The men have to squeeze and break up large oil droplets, elbow deep in the vat that holds the oil, in a room lit by whale oil in the bowel of the ship. Lost in this tedious and hypnotic process, the men often inadvertantly squeeze and massage each other's fingers and hands, as if performing some unnamed brotherhood ritual, full of love and camaraderie.

 

Seafaring has never been easy, and whaling seems particularly dangerous. A whaling trip in the old days often meant at least 3 years at sea. Men do it because they have to support the family, because they have no other means of making money. Ahab, he does it because he wants to...In his singleminded chase of Moby Dick, he leaves himself and the entire crew at the mercy of the great white whale and the unforgiving sea, although he thinks otherwise until the very last minute. Like Shakespeare's Macbeth, Ahab also receives three prophecies regarding his own fate, prophecies so vague as to make him feel invincible, just like Macbeth. Ventures like this rarely have happy endings.

 

"It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan."

 

With another biblical name -- the ship Rachel, whose captain is frantically searching for his lost son, thus ends Moby-Dick in an elegant epilogue, a fait accompli with unspeakable poignancy.

 

Read Moby-Dick, it will not disappoint.