Moby Dick online reading group, Chapters 60-68

Whale meat for sale in Norway. (Creative Commons photo, source.) 

This week:  Chapters 60-68, “The Line” through “The Blanket”

We are now about halfway through Moby Dick. So we are making progress in quite a long novel.

Chapter 60 "The Line"

Some of the "nonfiction discussions of whaling" chapters don't do much for me, but I thought this was a wonderful chapter, full of vivid details and great descriptions of the dangers of whaling. So many great sentences, such as:

"Thus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its complicated coils, twisting and writhing around it in almost every direction. All the oarsmen are involved in its perilous contortions; so that to the timid eye of the landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest snakes sportively festooning their limbs."

And:

"But why say more? All men 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. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side."

The next few chapters are certainly bloody affairs. The vegetarian readers among us must feel validated by the chapter in which Stubbs munches his whale steak, a dinner lit by whale oil. 

I am not a vegetarian but I don't believe I have ever eaten whale meat, and I'm not sure I would feel comfortable munching on it. According to the Wikipedia article on whale meat, eating whale generally seems to be on the decline, e.g., "In Norway, whale meat was a cheap and common food until the 1980s. It could be used in many ways but was often cooked in a pot with lid in a little water so that broth was created and then served with potatoes and vegetables, often with flatbrød at the side," and "In modern times, whale meat is rarely eaten in Japan. A 2005 poll commissioned by Greenpeace and conducted by the Nippon Research Centre found that 95% of Japanese people very rarely or never eat whale meat."

A Wikipedia article on whaling in Norway says, "Recently, the Norwegian whaling industry has met increasing difficulties because of falling demand and weak recruitment. Norwegian anti-whaling groups seem to prefer to hold a low profile and watch over the slow death of the industry, instead of raising their voice and polarizing the debate." It also says, "According to opinion polls by Opinion in 2009 and 2010, about 80% of Norwegians have eaten whale meat. About 32% ate it once or twice a year. 7% (2009) or "under 5%" (2010) of Norwegians eat whale meat often (more than once a month)." And also, "The number of active Norwegian whaling boats has dropped from 350 in 1949 to around 20 in 2016 and 11 in 2017." But hundreds of (minke) whales are still  caught every year. 

In the comments for Oz' entry last week, Oz in the comments quotes a Cary Loren essay on Charles Olson and Ezra Pound: "Olson’s great themes can be found in the ultra-individualist, anarchist and transcendentalist style of Melville."

It seems interesting that in the last paragraph of "The Blanket," Melville goes from discussing whale blubber and explaining the blubber's property of providing insulation to provide a lecture on the value of individualism: "It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter’s, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own."

Next week: Please read Chapters 69-74, “The Funeral” through “The Sperm Whale’s Head.”