I’ve just finished re-reading Moby Dick , Herman Melville’s American masterpiece about Captain Ahab’s battle with destiny, madness and the great white sperm whale that demasted him of a leg. It’s one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever plowed through. Ishmael, the book’s narrator, signs on to be a shipmate on the whaling ship Pequod for a three-year expedition because he’s drawn to the sea as a way to clear his head and experience the ocean’s vast wildness. As fate would have it though, Ahab, captain of the Pequod , has no intention to harvest as many sperm whales as possible, but to hunt down and kill Moby Dick. I’m fascinated by literary names. Ahab was named by his “crazy mother” after a biblical king of Israel who devoted himself to the worship of false gods. Like his namesake, Captain Ahab is devoted to the maniacal pursuit of his false god, vengeance. Ishmael in the Bible was the bastard son of Abraham and his wife’s slave Hagar. Abraham’s wife Sarah banishe