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
banishes the slave and Ishmael to the desert, where they wander for an extended
period. But God listened to their pleas (“Ishmael” means “God hears”) and
protects them through their ordeal, later provides Ishmael a wife, and makes
him ruler of a nation. In the novel, Ishmael is destined to wander not the
desert but the sea yet is protected through the climactic sea battle between
Ahab and Moby Dick that destroys Ahab and the rest of the Pequod’s crew.
Moby Dick is filled
with discourse about the interplay of fate, free will, and chance – with
Melville offering a remarkably simple analogy – as well as the man versus
nature theme. It also features writing styles that are alternately light and humorous,
densely poetic, and highly descriptive. It’s a long read but a great and
stimulating adventure.
Like Ishmael, I am
drawn to the water, and wonder at times whether we drink from a cocktail of
choice, fate, and chance, or of only one or two of those ingredients. As soon
as I figure that out, I’ll let you know.
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