Just finished the book and there’s so much to unpack.

I’m also reading Nietzsche and I think it really helps to understand the driving force behind Ahab.

We think a thought is the starting point of an action but where do our thoughts come from?

Could just they be some infinite entity known as The Will. There are many types of Will, but it’s been said the one that drives humanity is the Will to Power, to dominate.

Always striving for some great and worthy challenge, but even if we accept that the best we can do in life is strive towards the all powerful goal, and embrace it as our calling, in the end we will all be claimed by the abyss. The waves roll on like they did 5000 years ago.

Pretty cool analysis about Moby Dick from a Gnostic perspective. I think the gnostiscism is "in there" and Melville knew, but I wonder and somewhat doubt this was Melville's underlying philosophy per se. But definetely a nice way to explore gnostiscism and various themes in the book. Another testament to the Moby Dick that this interpretation can be given and supported in a compelling way.

Spoilers below

Upon re-reading this week I spotted this line in The Chase - Third Day:

For an instant, the tranced boat’s crew stood still; then turned. “The ship? Great God, where is the ship?

Bold is mine. I am convinced Melville very deliberately uses the word turned here. This is right off the back of Ahab's famous final speech:

I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! Let me hear thy hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel; and only god- bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed prow, —death- glorious ship!

And of course his other monologue in The Dying Whale:

He turns and turns him to it,—how slowly, but how steadfastly, his homage-rendering and invoking brow, with his last dying motions. He too worships fire; most faithful, broad, baronial vassal of the sun!—Oh that these too-favoring eyes should see these too-favoring sights. Look! here, far water-locked; beyond all hum of human weal or woe; in these most candid and impartial seas; where to traditions no rocks furnish tablets; where for long Chinese ages, the billows have still rolled on speechless and unspoken to, as stars that shine upon the Niger’s unknown source; here, too, life dies sunwards full of faith; but see! no sooner dead, than death whirls round the corpse, and it heads some other way.

It got me thinking about the concept of turning in Moby-Dick. I think perhaps whenever turning is brought it up, it is in the context of the world turning and cycles of life. In the context of the ship, I know some critics have argued that the ship represents civilisation or the human race itself.

Anyone else got any other thoughts on this?

Also anyone have any thoughts on why Ahab says he turns away from the sun, but that the whales do the opposite, when he says in the third passage above "he too worships fire" - I assumed this to mean Ahab does also, but if this is so, then why does he turn away from the sun when whales turn towards?

"Ishmael's thy name, didn't ye say? Well then, down ye go here, Ishmael, for the three hundredth lay."

-Captain Peleg, Chapter 16

This is the only instance, from memory, of someone other than Ishmael saying his name. Obviously, Moby Dick is narrated from Ishmael's perspective in the future. The name Ishmael carries thematic significance to his survival of the Pequod in the epilogue. It would be a massive coincidence for Ishmael to actually be using this name before boarding the Pequod, so I read this quote as Ishmael's selective revisionism over the events of the story.

Are there any other areas in the book that could depict this kind of selective revisionism? Could there be other explanations for this inconsistency?

What do you think?

i got my cat a blobfish bed and this is my friends response.

yes... i AM reading moby dick for the first time. yes, I talk about it because it's.... a choice.

but like... no whales were mentioned and THIS is the response. have I..... become Ahab???

Usually I’m not worried about it because they usually have a sheen, but this one feels kind of delicate and is matte

Good evening you salty old sea dogs. Can anyone tell me if you are aware of any UK vendors selling this recently released edition?

I posted a week or so ago about the “archbishoprick” joke being removed from my Wordsworth classics edition. I just found another edit. Chapter 125 ends with the paragraph that begins “bell-boy, sir; ship’s crier; ding, dong, ding….”
The remaining paragraphs in which Ahab invites Pip to his cabin and is tender to him are all removed. I’m now very curious about this weird edition. Did someone remove these parts because they seemed too gay? The earlier chapters with Ishmael and Queequeg sleeping in the same bed don’t seem to be altered, although I’d have to look more carefully to be sure.

I’ve just purchased what looks to be an originally bound hardcover copy 1967 Norton Critical Edition of Moby Dick. From my research, it doesn’t seem like they made a hardcover edition of this, but the binding looks to be original and seems to match with two other copies of World Masterpieces from 1965 also published by W.W. Norton and Company.

Just wanted to see if anyone knew anything about this, if it looks to be rebound or if I have a very early hardcover copy. Either way, it’s a beautiful copy that I snatched for 4 dollars and will be keeping regardless.

All me live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.

What’s a good soundtrack for sleepy Moby Dick wind down reading?

I’ve got my melatonin on deck and I’d like some recs on background noise.

Im thinking maybe wind and rain sounds? Or potentially some rocking wooden ship ambiance.

Any suggestions? My goal is to fall asleep with my face in my book while I’m listening to Ishmael spin a yarn.

Thank ye

Moby Dick had been calling for me, and when I tore my ACL recently I had (forced) downtime. I felt a connection to the book due to my leg injury and the constant icing to my knee, which reminded me of the coldness of the ocean.

I'd never read it in school -- I just knew that it was a classic, that it was long, there were some chapters about whaling, and that Ahab thirsted for revenge.

Beautiful book. Melville's prose is *chef's kiss*. It was surprisingly approachable. Granted, I needed to check my understanding of what I'd read quite a few times, but I went in with the aim of experiencing a story.

I actually enjoyed the whaling chapters, but that's because I love nerding out with people who are passionate about their craft. Probably about two-thirds of the way through, I realized that these chapters were actually doing a lot of pacing work: whalers are out at sea a lot, and not a lot happens, until it does. And when it does, it's so sudden and messy.

That's how I felt about the ending, too. This whole narrative builds for the entire book only to be smashed and sunk suddenly in three chapters. But I found the chaos vortex that sinks the Pequod to have been the real antagonist, not Ahab or Moby Dick. The chaos vortex extends its tentacles back throughout and manifests itself through the madness of the whaling systems, e.g., the whaling lines surrounding everyone, harpoons everywhere, slippery, dangerous, and absurd work conditions, all the way to the madness of the characters, like poor Pip, and of course Ahab. The Try-Works chapter was my favorite and best illustrated this for me -- it was this macabre, mad scene, made perverse by the fact that the whale's body fueled the fire that rendered it. And then Ishmael almost capsizes the Pequod because he's so transfixed by that scene.

But then on the other hand, there's this subtlety of love, grace, and tenderness being the things that cut through the chaos, like Pip extending a hand to Ahab is the one thing that threatens his monomania. And Queequeg’s coffin, an artifact of love, built for a man who somehow defied death, gets repurposed into a life preserver.

I'm sure I'll pick up more upon further re-reads, but man, not hard to understand why this novel is like, one of the best ones.

Hat hier jemand in Deutschland schon die Faksimile-Ausgabe in Händen? Ich habe bei Thalia und Amazon bestellt und beide sagen, das Buch sei noch nicht lieferbar.

It’s very good. It is one to one with my 1930 print. I wish the paper was slightly less white but It’s quite good. One note of caution the dust jacket is nice butwill definitely need a Mylar or Brodart protection. Mine got smudged in transit and it does not come off, I will get a replacement tomorrow but wrap it before you use it. Great value for the money in my opinion.

Found it in a op shop, I don’t know the value

I just finished reading chapter 55 and I think it is such a gorgeous chapter. I don’t know what about it spoke to me but the simile along the lines of painting a whale that isn’t in its full glory is like trying to paint a wrecked ship just really made me think. Ishmael seems interested in the truth of whales versus how they’re depicted, which made me realise I don’t actually know a lot about whales. I rely fully on other peoples descriptions and experiences but I will never entirely know until I have a firsthand experience. It’s amazing !
Let me know if anyone else feels this way

I've heard that modern audiences hate Ahab and root for MD because 'whaling bad' thing (please don't get me wrong, I don't support whaling)

But, after finishing the book, I found Ahab to be... Empathetic, I guess?

He manipulated his crew into following his orders out of fear, but, strangely, I noticed none of them hated him for it. Even after he revealed he had loving family, it's still weird no one decided to rebel him. Did I miss or misunderstand something?