Great Expectations

Moby Dicks looks satisfied and frustrated all at the same time!

It was a good question in class what we thought about the ending of Moby Dick. Of course the reasonable side of me knew that Ahab and Queequeg would die and Ishmael obviously lives, and how else would the book kill off both Ahab and Queequeg without killing everyone off??? But a part of me held on to the hope that the foreshadowing was a fake out, that it wasn’t leading to the ultimate demise of the ENTIRE ship!

The important question here is, could Ahab have turned around after his touching conversation with Starbuck???

I want to scream YESSSSSS, but really what I know is that while I would have been happy to no end, I think if that would have happened I would have been ill satisfied with the result. We needed to see the ending we did. We needed to see who would win between Moby Dick and them. Yet, should we all have known that Moby Dick would win? That this mythical creature was not to be destroyed by some ship, that whale is bigger than man, and if they have a vendetta against man, it’s obviously who loses.

So if we were only to conclude this epically long book with three chapters of Moby Dick and the TOTAL destruction of the ship… did we need every single one of the 500 pages?

What was the point I guess is what I’m getting at. Paglia would said that it’s some sexual protest, and that maybe it’s more of a story about the masculine journey and not about the climax. Maybe it’s an establishment of Melville’s anti-woman literature… Whether or not it is actually some sexual protest I do agree with Dr. Campbell’s interpretation of “The real honeyed crotch in which we all drown is the womb-tomb of mother nature”. I can see the honey crotch as the sea, where everyone sits at the masthead and feels lost in eternity, where everyone is literally lost at sea. 

My Video!

Ok, awkward Ashina-- ignore her. Just listen to Stubb XO

But like I said, you can skip through the middle, but you should at least listen to the end :)

STUBB!

I fell in love with you this week.

Since he is really the only character adding light-heart humor to this story I can’t help but latch on! I guess I’ll start with the Doubloon…

 “Humph! In my poor, insignificant opinion, I regard this as queer…What then should there bin this doubloon of the Equator that is so killing wonderful? By Goldconda! Let me read it once. Halloa! here’s signs and wonders truly!” (333).

Stubb

Ah, my kin, what is SO killing wonderful?!

I am constantly rejuvenated by his expressions, and love hearing his stories through out the book. This section of the book was definitely more Stubb filled, which in turn did make it so Ishmael wasn’t there at all, we are ten chapters from the end and still my heart yearns to know more about Ishmael. But honestly, I’ve had to leave any affection for him and Queequeg, since we hardly see them, and taken to heart someone new.

What really made me fall in love with Stubb, in a terrible way I suppose, since he is duping the Rose Bud, however, his manner of going about it was hilarious, I think I can forgive him his dishonesty for his ingenious plan.

I tried to find a voice clip of this chapter on youtube so that other people could appreciate the humor as much as I have, however, I couldn’t find anything sufficient, so I have gandered to make my own. The sound isn’t great, and there’s nothing really for you to watch, and you should definitely skip the middle and get straight from his nose comment to the conversation he has with the captain, but I have no skills in this area, so you get what you get!

The Pequod meets the Rose-bud is chapter 91, and starts on page 312 if you want to follow along. The narrators voice really captures what I imagine would be Stubb's tone, and humorous approach to this seen. He also does a wonderful impression of the voice of a man who is plugging his nose because of a vial smell, which adds so much to this scene! At no point while reading this book did I think I would be laughing out loud-- alone in my car! Thanks Stubs!

… The video is still loading on youtube, but will be posted promptly after this! J

FREE WILLY : Bringing back the 90's!

This is what I think of when I think of whale hunters, and also this reflects how I feel whales interact with humans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9loq49S4do

Inspiration is... Right Whale

On the one hand I can’t help but thinking “MELVILLE, whhhy do we need to know the difference between the Right Whale’s head and the Sperm Whale’s head?!”, but on the other hand while I barely made it through reading about the Sperm Whale head’s description I rather enjoyed his continued visual analogies of the Right Whale’s head.

In case you were wondering, the Right Whale is for realz, and outrageous looking.

First favorite: “And in this same last or shoe, that old woman of the nursery tale, with the swarming brood, might very comfortably be lodged, she and all her progeny” (265).

Thank you Melville for calling the woman in the shoes’ children a brood and her progeny… I loved it, and hence forward when referencing to this nursery rhyme I will describe it as such. But really I mean, why so comfortable in this whale’s mouth? I don’t think the old woman in the shoe would much prefer the ocean to land. Also, think of the fights for fish that would go on in his mouth!

In case  you don't remember the nursery rhyme. How sad the old lady looks, in the rain, and living in a smelly shoe!

According to my research I think this is the pigmy version of the Right Whale (so smaller)... it doesn't look that homely to me.

UM ALSO, Melville, I can’t stop quoting you: “ But if this whale be a king, he is a very sulking looking fellow to grace a diadem. Look at that hanging lower lip! What huge sulk and pout is there!” (265). YES, I do believe that it would most certainly have occurred to me that his lower lip was too much sulk and pout to be a king!  You are hilarious sometimes, and it’s only in these moments that I wake up and say “he just made an excellent point about that whale!”.

And then finally I think, “where do you come up with this stories?”: was there that much evidence of the Peruvian coast in that whale’s markings or is this just providing an example of how happy an imagination a whaler must have while at sea for three years: “Probably the mother during an important interval was sailing down the Peruvian coast, when earthquakes caused the beach to gape” (265). How shocking was this sight? Did this Right Whale look so abnormal that we are now looking to the yawn during pregnancy where things may go array that the fetus might come out looking like any shocking sight the mother beheld? (Footnote).

You know, for dramatic purposes :) ... near a coast after an earthquake.

Ok Melville, you got me, sometimes whale descriptions can be very amusing. 

Can you see my soul?

It’s funny to me that the first similarity I thought between Moby Dick, and The Blithdale Romance was the character’s continual noted ability to see people’s souls. Of course in Moby Dick my example with Ishmael determining Queegueg’s character to be good despite his outward harsh appearance; and in The Blithdale Romance, Coverdale determining the character and the soul of Priscilla and Zenobia.

This was a curious similarity to me, because it is feeling more and more like a characteristic I will find in American Novels of the 19^th century: this continual reference to reading someone’s soul. I can’t think of a 20^th or 21^st century novel that I’ve read that decided to reference to one’s soul as an accurate descriptor of someone’s character. In this case I think it might have more to do with the change in society. My thought is that maybe while we still believe in the possibility of knowing ones’ soul to be good or bad, there are so many other factors we don’t trust the intuition of soul reading anymore. Maybe in the 19^th century it was just accepted that the soul was transparent through ones’ body.  

Have we as people reached a point where the barest of intuition cannot be trusted? And whether or not we believe ones’ soul to be good or bad doesn’t influence our opinion because people have changed so much?  Because society demands of us not a simple good or bad souls, but beyond your instinctual being, demands corruption and camouflage of real person (hair dying, make-up, social norms, trendy clothes)-- there by making the soul a faulty determinant.

But lets be clear, these are merely extreme speculations on reasons why literature characteristics might have changed. I still believe once I know someone I can feel their soul. However, there are many who have become so false in their reality and there is nothing real that I could read through to their soul.

Can you see their soul, or are they just über attractive people posing for a picture?

Foundation of Sisterhood: Jealousy Complexes

Priscilla is envious, but does Zenobia look Green?

 

I know the complex well: admiring the other sister for the traits that you do not have, being jealous of different parental treatment, and being pissed when she takes everything that you call your own. Zenobia: the sensual, intelligent, beautiful older sister, while I find the most admiral of all the characters is not on the receiving side of such intense jealousy. In fact, it seems she continually displayed passive contempt to her half-sister Priscilla, who by the by, is somewhat of a twat (according to current standards). Though I suppose I can concede Priscilla is in possession of many of the qualities one of highest womanhood should posses-- submissiveness being her leading quality! And it seems this quality is the winner of hearts among the men in the end, though until then it’s fairly unclear to the reader as to who’s heart belongs to whom. While it was unclear to the audience, I’m certain it would have been clearer to Zenobia’s character that Priscilla was favored. And here begins her complex… 

First off, it’s hard for me to speak of this nature since I, like most I assume, am so much more in favor of Zenobia and her interesting nature. But there it is, her half sister who is half her intellect, and much younger in age is favored by the two men in her life. Not to mention the fact that Priscilla was not abandoned by her father, but in fact was raised by him, while Zenobia was left and thought to be an orphan. If that isn’t enough to create jealously of your sister, what is?

But while Zenobia does play harsh jokes on her half-sister she does spend all of her time with her, even if part of it is in passive aggression that Priscilla seems completely unaware of.  I have to admit their relationship most of the time seemed on the whole a very real sister relationship, not one that is born of pure jealously.