This week: Chapters 15-20, e.g. "Chowder" through "All Astir."
So, how do you like Moby Dick so far? I am really enjoying it. Very vivid.
"It is not down in any map; true places never are."
A paragraph about last week's section of the book, if I may.
The "Whalemen's Chapel" in New Bedford is based on a real church, The Seamen's Bethel in New Bedford. It's part of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. The Wikipedia entry explains, "Established in 1996, the park encompasses 34 acres (fourteen hectares) dispersed over thirteen city blocks. It includes a visitor center, the New Bedford National Historic Landmark District, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Seamen's Bethel, the schooner Ernestina, and the Rotch–Jones–Duff House and Garden Museum." A very cool place to visit, as I found when I went there quite a few years ago.
As for this week's passages, the description of the clam chowder served to Ishmael and Queequeeg at the Try Pots made me want to eat some of it. And cod is some of my favorite fish; I cook cod for supper all the time. I wondered how closely the recipe in the book comes to the New England clam chowder which I've eaten many times. I remarked in my earlier postings about how vivid the descriptions in the novel are, and I had a very clear sense of the supper they were eating.
In one of his comments to Eric's post last week, Oz wrote, "This marks my second journey through Moby-Dick. Some books, like this one, I don't feel I've read until at least the second go-round."
The books that I like the most are ones that I have been moved to re-read. I'm pretty sure I've only read Moby Dick once, and that was maybe about three decades ago.
Nantucket is the island in red in this map of Massachusetts. Public domain map, details here.
I was surprised that Ishmael anticipated the whaling voyage might last for three years. That seemed like an awful long period of time to sign up for. An article about the whaling life at the New Bedford Whaling Museum website says, "The larger a vessel, the greater distances it could travel. The whaling schooner, the smallest whaler, generally undertook 6-month voyages, while brigs, barks, and ships might be at sea for three or four years. The longest whaling voyage is believed to be that of the Ship Nile from 1858 to 1869 — eleven years!"
Next week: Our guest blogger will be Oz Fritz. Please read Chapters 21-34, "Going Aboard" through "The Cabin-Table."
3 comments:
I'm enjoying it immensely. Melville describes things incredibly well which sets the atmosphere and mood and does make the scenes very vivid and alive.
Ishmael gets reminded of death again after entering the chowder restaurant. Soon he will die as someone living on the land, a kind of ego death.
I am enjoying Moby Dick as well so far, I find it entertaining and surprisingly easy to read.
I was also surprised like you to learn that those whaling voyages were counted in years rather than months. All the more surprising seeing how landing a job on such a ship does not even seem a particularly good source of income!
When discussing the salary in ‘The Ship’, Bildad insist repeatedly that Ishmael’s lay should be the 777th. This strongly suggest to me looking for a cabalistic meaning.
I thought Ishmael in the ‘Ramadan’ chapter was turning completely hysterical, and being somehow out-of-character, at least from what I had gathered about his personality thus far. I thought the situation pretty comical when Queequeg, perfectly silent and motionless, would be seen by Ishmael as having a “really frantic” religion that “is a positive torment to him”.
In the same chapter, I was shocked to discover that according to Queequeg himself, he apparently indeed is an actual cannibal. I had until now assumed that this term was used in a generic way to call someone from those far away and exotic lands, let’s say an ‘outdated’ and uneducated view on people like Queequeg.
Elijah in the chapter The Prophet reminded me of ‘Elijah is coming!’ from Ulysses.
The most striking thing to me in these chapters was Melville's odd comedy: the chowder discourse, the bickering between Peleg and Bildad and Ishmael's hysterics over Queequeg's "Ramadan." I found the religious discourse very interesting as well.
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