Chapter 117, "The Whale Watch," to Chapter 124, "The Needle."
By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger
Chapter 118 suggests Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle when Ahab says to his quadrant, “Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be tomorrow noon.” Or perhaps it just suggests the limits of science.
In the late 1980s I heard Ray Bradbury talk about his experience writing the screenplay for the John Huston film of Moby Dick. He felt a little apprehensive as he began the project since he had not read the novel before. He went to the library and picked up a copy, and he felt relief as he leafed through it. He thought, “This is just Shakespeare and the Bible.” These do not seem like the only influences on Melville, but they certainly seem like big ones. When Starbuck stands outside the cabin of the sleeping Ahab and imagines Ahab bound in chains, it made me think of the fate of Iago in Othello, especially in the Orson Welles film. (Of course, Bob Wilson loved Welles’ stage production of Moby Dick Rehearsed.)
I think of the Bible when reading the prophecies in Moby Dick, especially the prophecy about how Ahab will die. I wonder when reading the Bible how Pharoah knew about the coming of Moses, leading him to murder the Jewish infants. If one treats the Bible and Moby Dick, one can see the authors creating prophecies which may or may not come true.
Next week: Please read Chapter 125, "The Log and Line," to Chapter 130, "The Hat."
6 comments:
I didn't know Bradbury wrote that screenplay. the quote from chapter 118, "The Quadrant" could also suggest facing an immense Unknown which, of course, seems apropos for models of Quantum Physics.
Ahab observes the quadrant's (an instrument for sea navigation) "numerous cabalistical contrivances."
The end of this chapter, speaking of the eventual dissolution and demise of physical life also seems a "cabalistical contrivance":
"Old man of oceans! of all this fiery life of thine, what will at length remain but one little heap of ashes!"
"Aye," cried Stubb, "but sea-coal ashes–mind ye that, Mr. Starbuck–sea-coal, not your common charcoal."
Note, Stubbs reply to death and dissolution shows three instances of the s+c letter combo. The exchange between Starbuck and Stubb given here could be seen as the alchemical "solve et coagula" formula, another s + c.
There's a lot of foreshadowing of the Pequod's fate in this section, with Starbuck emerging as a particularly interesting and sympathetic character who opposes Ahab's dangerous obsession.
Ahab speaking here, near the end of chapter 119 "The Candles", seems to have briefly transcended his own character and obsession to reach the core of being:
"In the midst of the personified impersonal , a personality stands here. Though but a point at best; whenceso'er I came; whereso'er I go, yet while I earthly live, the queenly personality lives in me, and feels her royal rights. But war is pain, and hate is woe. Come in the lowest form of love, and I will kneel and kiss thee, but at thy highest, come as mere supernal power; and though thou launchest navies of full-freighted worlds, there's that in here that still remains indifferent. Oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee."
This sounds remarkably profound to me and seems a bit paradoxical coming from the "bad guy", Ahab. This morning a cable news talking head compared Trump to Ahab because of his obsession with tariffs. "Good" Ahab quoted here rightfully says: "war is pain, and hate is woe" – even a trade war causes pain.
I saw a cartoon on Facebook that I had to share, so I put it at the bottom, below Eric's post.
The way I interpret Ahab’s motives in chapter 118 indeed suggests the limits of science to me.
“Thou tellest me truly where I am – but canst thou cast the least hint where I shall be?”
What Ahab wants here isn’t an instrument for measurement, but an oracle, based on the belief that the future can or should be accurately predicted.
Lon Milo DuQuette, in his Book of Ordinary Oracles, tells us that “oracles don’t show you the future or answer your questions. They are simply devices that announce the status of the Great Now. When you consult an oracle, you must somehow see the future or hear the answer to your question in that announcement. That can be very difficult...or as simple as opening your eyes.” Ironically, Lon also quotes Stephen Hawking saying “the laws of science do not distinguish between the forward and backward directions of time”, suggesting that perhaps someday, science might be able to produce an instrument able to ‘predict the future’, or what would look like that to us that live in spacetime.
Interestingly, as pointed out by Eric, this same chapter (and in fact many other in the book) do indeed foreshadows Ahab’s fate (“what will at length remain but one little heap of ashes!”). We can surmise that Ahab was simply too lost in his obsession to ‘open his eyes’.
Melville, as the omniscient writer, has more distance to see clearly, and so much appears preordained from the beginning that Moby Dick the book seems to not distinguish between the forward and backward directions of time.
The ‘Candles’ chapter finds a soliloquy by Ahab that contains numerous instances of vocabulary related to eyes and seeing. Because he can capture and then extinguish flames, Ahab sees himself as being in control of this element. “But thou art but my fiery father; my sweet mother, I know not.”
Cabalistically, the Father can indeed be connected to Fire, which makes the Mother the Water element. It’s unfortunate for Ahab that he does not see the problem in knowing more about fire than water when being on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
Water also connects to the emotional side of a person, and Ahab clearly isn’t in control of his emotions. For not being a balanced individual, for ‘not knowing’ his emotions, he is about to encounter, totally unprepared due to how blinded by his monomaniacal fiery spirit he is, the monster that lies deep inside the great sea of the unconscious.
My previous comment came up as Anonymous. I don't see Ahab as a straight up villain subject to a simplified reduction. I think he does show some control over his emotions up to a point. For instance, he eventually capitulates to Starbuck's rational position in chapter 109 regarding looking for the sperm oil leak despite clearly and emotionally not wanting to. In "The Candles" chapter he addresses: "Oh! thou clear spirit of the clear fire" and later just the "clear spirit" (c + s) which, to me, suggests God more than the element Fire. He doesn't know his mother because she died when he was a baby. In the passage I quoted previously he states that the queenly personality lives in him. The Queen Tarot cards correspond with water.
The clear fire that spurred his soliloquy comes from the phenomena known as St. Elmo's Fire called "corpusants" here and gives the chapter its title. Some interpretations compare Ahab's speech to the debate between God and Job. In the previous chapter, "The Quadrant," Ahab seems to lament his fate (he clearly hasn't read his Nietzsche): "Well, well; I heard Ahab mutter, 'Here someone thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine; swears that I must play them, and no others.'" Then Stubb, says" And damn me, Ahab, but thou actest right; live in the game, and die in it." Stubb appears to foreshadow Leary's (and Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game, & Steppenwolf) game theory of life.
Back to "The Candles" though Job's rebellion may be suggested, we find a direct reference to the "Book of Daniel" chapter 5 with: "... when God's burning finger has been laid on the ship (with the corpusants); when His 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin' has been woven into the shrouds and the cordage" (Shrouds and cordage gives another s + c).
In Daniel 5, the Chaldean king Belshazzar has a feast using cups stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem in which they praise pagan gods. A mysterious hand writes (over against the candle stick) strange words on the wall that baffle the king. He summons all his astrologers and magicians to tell him what they mean but none of them can; someone suggests asking Daniel. Dan tells him the words and their meaning:
Mene = "God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it."
Tekel = "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."
Peres = "Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."
Belshazzar rewards Daniel, but then gets slain that night. Though it doesn't say who killed him, I doubt it was a great white whale. Still, this prophecy seems to foreshadow Ahab's fate.
Post a Comment