The Brutality in Whaling: Moby Dick Chapter 67 – 92

'The Pequod', Used in the Film 'Moby Dick', c.1954

by Jack Sullivan

The whale’s anatomy

(part 2 – the 1^st part is in the previous chapter post)

After being killed, a whale’s body would be slain. Its head would be hung on the side of the ship. One remarkable aspect of sperm whale is how it can live both at equator and at the pole with the same lungs and warm blood as in human being. It is because the nature provides it with thick ‘blanket’ as skin, which is called ‘blubber’. The more interesting analysis is about sperm whales head—which is more noble than the right whale’s—and its eyes, which are located on both sides of the head, instead of on the front.

One aspect of sperm whales that nobody knows, is the substance of its spout; is it water or vapor? As sperm whale’s outer skin is poisonous, men cannot touch it to investigate, and so it remains a mystery. But Ishmael believed it’s vapor, which signified with deep thoughts, and thus makes sperm whale a profound being :D. He also thought sperm whale is the most devoted animal because of its ‘fluke’ tail.

One very important article comes from sperm whale is ambergris, a waxy and highly fragrant substance used in perfumery and other cosmetics products. It is actually produced from the bowels of a whale with dyspepsia!

The noble creatures that are treated barbarianishly

Whale hunting used to be much more honorable in the past when they treated whales as noble creature. Now they were cruelly slain after being caught. The Pequod met a blind whale one day; this too was killed cruelly by Stubb. Ishmael also criticized the use of lance pitch-poling, which produced an even crueler effect to whales than harpoons. Stubb could even made jokes about the poor whale while it was slowly dying.

One day The Pequod met a herd of whales which swam in a giant circle. Ishmael’s boat was carried away into the centre of the circle; where he saw an amazingly calm group of young and nursing female whales with their babies. It was an amazing sight, but then one wounded whale entered the circle and replaced the calmness with panic moves, from which the boat could narrowly escape at the end.

The dark ‘superstitious’ of whale hunting

The Pequod met another whaling ship—Jerobeam—whose passenger was a lunatic man who believed himself as the incarnation of Gabriel the Archangel. He prophesied once that hunting and killing Moby Dick would be doomed as it was the Shaker God incarnated. And the prophecy came true, as a mate was killed while the Jerobeam was hunting Moby Dick.

Though not its assignment, Captain Ahab instructed his men to hunt a Right Whale too. It turned out later that Ahab—of Fedallah’s advice—wanted to hung its head on the opposite side of the sperm whale’s to ‘protect’ the ship.

My random thoughts

In many occasions, Melville has explained about the nobleness in whales, especially Sperm Whales. Now the question is, can killing a whale be justified by our conscience? In an occasion the Pequod hunted a blind whale—quite a pitiable view—and killed it. Look at how Melville described about it:

“For all his old age, and his one arm, and his blind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in order to light the gay bridals and other merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to all.”

Is killing an animal is really wrong, then, while we can utilize its organs for our daily lives? Didn’t God create them for our needs? Why killing a whale is brutal while killing a cow isn’t? Why eating whale’s meat means cannibalism while eating a cow’s isn’t? I think, to answer these questions did Melville wrote this book, well….one of his purposes. I believe the only answer we can get is our own conscience. When we kill the animals to feed ourselves, it’s natural; but killing them for enriching us, or for putting the blame of our misfortune, that is a murder! Why killing a blind-pitiable whale is right for someone (Flask) but wrong for the other (Starbuck)? Again, it’s all about conscience, as illuminated by these dialog right after the blindness of the whale be known:

Flask: “A nice spot! Just let me prick him there once”

Starbuck: “Avast! There’s no need of that!”

Sperm whale’s ambergris is another proof of Melville’s genius in finding deep philosophy in whaling:

“Now that the incorruption of this most fragrant ambergris should be found in the heart of such decay; is this nothing? (….) ..how that we are sown in dishonor, but raised in glory.”

And isn’t that how we are in the presence of God? Sinners but redeemed nonetheless to see His glory.

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The Whaling Philosophy: Moby Dick Chapter 48 – 66

Finally…some actions!

When the first sign of whales came, the crew looked at five mysterious strangers besides Ahab, but had no time to mind it, as they must immediately lower their boats for the whale hunt. Unfortunately thick mist fell upon the sea, and through the mist and the increasing wind before a storm, they went nearer to the whale. Starbuck instructed Queequeg to attack, but the whale escaped, only with a scratch from Queequeg’s harpoon. Their boat collapsed and drenched all the crew before help from other boats came, and took them return to the ship. This was Ishmael’s first experience in whale hunting, and after the life and death moment, now he realized and was much prepared for the great risk of the voyage.

It was clear now that Ahab has snuggled those five crews on board. Fedallah, the Oriental hair-turbaned, was the most interesting mystery around. Meanwhile, for several nights a single white jet often appeared within the waves, seemed to taunt the Pequod to sail further to follow it. It felt ghostly, and everyone thought it was Moby Dick. Ahab often stayed sleeplessly for nights because of that, and on the whole, it created a ghastly aspect for the crew.

One morning the Pequod’s men had an apparition of a giant white creature which they thought at first was the White Whale, but it turned out to be a giant squid. Nonetheless the apparition has struck them. And finally, their first catch was done by Stubb, who caught and killed a Sperm Whale.

Have any other ships met Moby Dick?

The Pequod met another whaling ship, the Albatros, and on their question about the White Whale, Captain Ahab suddenly looked terrified. Ishmael then told the strange affair of the Town-Ho whaling ship that has once had an encounter with Moby Dick, and it turned out to be a divine moment in their trouble.

The fishery handling system

Ishmael criticized the fishery system invariably used in whaling ships, where harpooners, not only were they needed to pitch darts to the whales with all their power, they were also responsible to pull the oar during a chase, which often exhausted them already before the fight. Ishmael believed that harpooners must be relieved from pulling the oar job in order to save their energy. He also pointed up the danger of using the second (back up) harpoon which was connected to the first one with a line.

Consumption vs cannibalism

Ishmael also remarked sailors who ate sea creatures he has just killed as outlandish. He questioned whether this was not—in a way—a cannibalism. He also criticized how sharks were massacred only to get its skin (?).

The whale’s anatomy

It is difficult to draw the exact structure of a whale, and for centuries people have failed to do that. They could never catch the majestic and noble aspect of whale, and thus it remained unpainted, unless in whaling voyage though with a very high risk. (to be continued in next chapter post)

My random thoughts

Chapter 51 is my most favorite chapter so far! It makes me quite shudder to imagine the serene atmosphere on Pequod at those nights when the single white jet appeared. I wanted to quote some phrases here, but it’s impossible to get the exact feeling without reading the whole chapter. I believe I haven’t read one so intense chapter like this one, of which, every words and sentence brings deep meanings.

Melville’s point of view about cannibalism is early interesting. I have been wondering why he described Queequeg’s savage side very detailed, but now I understand his real aim. I think he wanted to highlight the irony of how civilized people despised cannibalism, while they often do worse things than that. They perhaps don’t eat their own kind, but couldn’t rapaciousness and brutality in killing innocent creatures be regarded as savagery?

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My Own History Reading Challenge 2014

As you might have known, I will be hosting a new challenge next year: History Reading Challenge 2014. Actually, history is one of the book genres I’ve been dreading all these times. But lately my curiosity over histories has been increasing; partly because The Well-Educated Mind, in which there are a lot of reference of good history books. So, I was encouraging myself to create and host this challenge. All but one book I have picked for this challenge are from WEM’s recommendation, and the other one is related to my interest in ancient Rome theme, particularly Cicero.

For now I will take the Scholar level, and plan to read at least these 6 books.

The Professor and the Madman – Simon Winchester

This one (I will read Indonesian translated version) is the only existing history book in my shelf before I decided on the challenge. I have been collecting the other four one by one during the last several months.

Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Roman Lives – Plutarch

Actually The Well-Educated Mind recommends reading  both Roman and Greek Lives, but being dreadful of histories, I’m not sure whether I will enjoy Plutarch. So, I will try the Roman’s first (because Roman is always my weakness :D), and if I like it, I might go for the Greek’s too.

Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician – Anthony Everitt

Among the many Roman statesmen and heroes, Cicero is my favorite. This book is one of my most exciting choices!

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbon

I have a mixed feeling about this one. I bought it right after I decided on the challenge, and have been my most exciting choice, but having browsed a few first pages, I realized that this book would need a very thorough reading. Hopefully I can enjoy it at the same time.

The Prince – Niccolò Machiavelli

This one is in my The Classics Club list, so….it’s killing two birds with one stone.

--LAST UPDATE--

I have finally decided the sixth book for this challenge:

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West – Dee Brown

Since reading Winnetou series, I have a tender spot in my heart about the Indian, so I think this book would be a perfect read for the challenge, to understand more about the Indian history.

If I still have time, I might read Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra as well, and that means I can take an upgrade to the Historian level.

How about you? Interested in reading histories? You are invited to join the challenge: History Reading Challenge 2014. You only have one history book on your bookshelf? That’s OK, you can register in the ‘Student’ level, and can upgrade the level later on if you like.

My Personal Readathon

As I have mentioned in my The Classics Club Sync Read post the other day, I have been determined to have a personal readathon from Monday evening to Tuesday evening, as it was a national holiday in Indonesia on the 5th of November. Twitting my intention, one of my Indonesian blogger fellows, Astrid, expressed her interest in joining me. So, from Monday evening we were on our silent readathon; being determined to read as much as we could, while texting each other our progress every now and then. 

My choice was David Copperfield, and what a choice I've made! David Copperfield turned out to be a very enjoyable reading from the beginning. I was mixed between crying and laughing during the readathon, and at the end, found myself to have swallowed not less than 177 pages! It might not be very impressive to you, but in my lately pace of reading, it was an achievement. And I'm proud of myself for it.

My complete readathon progress is like this...

Monday, Nov 4th

18:56 - Started p. 11 (I have read the first ten pages few days ago).

20:16 - Stopped at p. 31, I was too sleepy to read those tiny fonts, and so I stopped and got to sleep early.

Tuesday, Nov 5th

06:45 - Began p. 32.

11:05 - Stopped at p. 97 to prepare for lunch, and had lunch.

11:28 - Started again from p. 98 after lunch.

13:00 - Stopped for a while at p. 122, to give my tired eyes some rest, while I was tidying my bedroom.

13:43 - Resumed the reading from p. 123.

14:44 - Stopped again to have some rest at p. 140.

15:39 - Started from p. 141.

16:10 - Stopped at p. 149, took a bath and had some 'bakso' (meatballs) snack :)

16:56 - Started again from p. 150.

18:13 - Stopped for dinner at p. 167.

18:37 - Restarted from p. 168.

19:37 - Stopped at p. 187, my eyes were very tired, and the story met a new phase here, so I guess it's a best point to end the readathon.

So, overall, I have read 177 pages during 24 hours, with all the pauses. I must thank Astrid for accompanying me in this readathon. Really, knowing that someone else was reading with me at the same time, encouraged me to keep going on. It was really fun, Astrid! Let us do another readathon some other time!

History Reading Challenge 2014 – A Sail to the Past

It’s now two months before New Year; time to think of another challenge! ;) After long enough being in the comfort zone of novels and plays, I decided to challenge myself next year to move onto non-fiction, but still in the story-of-the-past area; meaning that I’m going to read HISTORY. Would you like to accompany me in this yearlong sail to the past? This is the general outline of the challenge:

What books to pick?
Challenge levels
How to join?
Optional analysis – more challenge!
Giveaway

**What books to pick?**

1. Pick one or more History books written by historian(s)—must be pure non-fiction; historical fiction is not allowed.
2. It has to be a work through investigation and researches, and not only collecting and listing historical data.
3. Biography is permitted, but not Autobiography, as I think autobiography lacks the objectivity of a history.
4. I’m not an expert in this area (history), so you are more than welcome to correct or add something if I’m wrong.
5. Frankly speaking, I don’t read many histories yet (and that’s why I’m creating this challenge), so I might not be the right person to consult with, about whether this or that is a pure history or not. For reference, you can consult these lists:
100 Best History Books
Goodreads’ Best History Books

Note: The 100 Best History Books is more reliable than Goodreads list, as Goodreads created the list from people’s labels, and it is proved sometimes not accurate. So, be careful before picking a book, you better check the synopsis first or even better…google it! :)

**Challenge level**

I have set several levels to challenge ourselves along the year:

Student : read 1 to 3 books

Scholar : read 4 to 6 books

Historian : read 7 or more books

**How to join?**

1. To join in, you must have either blog/Facebook/Goodreads where you can post your thoughts.
2. Pick one of the level suits you, and post about this challenge in your blog, or just comment in this post. You can mention books you’d like to read too—but no obligation (I’m only curious!). Of course, you might change the level or the books later on along the event.
3. Register through the linky below (you might put the link to your challenge post or just your blog/FB/Goodreads URL).
4. Place the challenge banner somewhere on your blog, linking to this post, in case others want to participate too.

**Optional analysis – more challenge!**

After reading and reviewing, you might want to add more challenge to your history reading. As I am working on WEM project, I picked these analysis questions from the project that would be interesting to work on. Go to the analysis questions

Of course you can choose to work on all of it, or parts of it, or none at all. It’s optional, anyway. But….your efforts would well rewarded, as in the end of the challenge, every analysis post would be included in….

**Giveaway**

I will provide a master post with a linky, where you can put all your posts (review and/or analysis). At the end of the challenge I will pick randomly 2 (two) winners (one from review posts and one from analysis posts) to win: history book(s) of your choice max. $15 from The Book Depository.

**Analysis Questions**

Note: The questions might not suit all history books, so you’d better pick only the related ones for each book.

Who is this story about?
Guiding questions: (you don’t have to answer all questions, you can answer your own way)
- Are they individuals, group of people, or entire nations?
- If individuals: Is the history focused on a single person, or on a network of individuals who may be related by blood or some other tie?
- If group of people: How does the historian distinguish them: by nationality, gender, age, class, job, economic status?
- In both cases: Is the historian telling you a ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ history? In other words, is it focusing on wealthy, influential people, political power? Or on ordinary people and their daily lives?
- If entire nations: What is distinctive about each nation? How do its people envision themselves: as warriors, men of learning, farmers, free people? And how (in the historian’s eyes) is the nation better (or worse) than other nations?

What challenge did this hero/ine (from above question) face?
What challenges the ability of the central character(s) to lead full lives?

Who or what causes this challenge?
The historian’s task is to answer this question; does he/she succeed in doing so?

What does it mean to be human?
Guiding questions: (you don’t have to answer all questions, you can answer your own way)
- A history always highlights one particular aspect of human beings as central.
- In this history, how are men and women portrayed?
- Are they essentially workers, patriots, members of families, businessmen, rational animals, children of God?
- What is their central quality?
- To what must they aspire in order to be human?

Why do things go wrong?
Guiding questions: (you don’t have to answer all questions, you can answer your own way)
- What causes one set of people to be challenged or persecuted by another?
- What motivates the oppressors?
- Why do people live in squalor?
- What motivation does the historian give to his/her wrongdoers?

What is the end of the history?
Guiding questions: (you don’t have to answer all questions, you can answer your own way)
- How is the end different from the beginning?
- What is the goal of the historical story?
- What does the historian see as the ultimate shape and form of humanity?

And now, have a good sail to the past for the whole year! (don’t forget to register via the linky below!)

The Classics Club Sync Read: David Copperfield

This is my first participation ever in The Classics Club Sync Read. David Copperfield is in my list, and is one of the books I’ve been longing to delve in. Last year I also read a Dickens (Great Expectations) in December, and it was very enjoyable moment. So, I think I will repeat that again this year. Perhaps Christmas holiday is the best time to read Dickens? :)

Fortunately, The Classics Club is hosting a sync read from November 1^st through December 30. So, I will start reading David Copperfield today, but this will be a very slow read because I’m still with Moby Dick too at this moment. I’m really looking forward to the Christmas holiday, though, when—I hope—I can dedicate most of my time at home with Dickens! :) A very tempting way to end the year, don’t you think?

the copy I'll be reading

So, do you want to join the Sync Read? Or have you read David Copperfield? Do you like it?

P.S. Just realized that November 5th would be a national holiday (moslem's new year) in Indonesia, so I'm going to have my personal readathon of David Copperfield starting at 7 pm on Monday, and ending at 9 pm on Tuesday. Let's see how many pages/chapters I'd be able to swallow! ;)

Let’s Read Plays: Wrap Up Post

The saddest moment of hosting an event is…. when you have to end it. :( For twelve months we have been having fun with plays: reading, exploring, discussing, or even shopping! :D. I am very grateful I have ever started this event and challenged myself to read plays; something I was dreading years ago—“how a drama script could be read as a book?” But in the process, I began to enjoy plays as well as I do with novels. Special thanks to Dessy, my co-host who created such a beautiful button (oh, I wish it doesn’t have to be plugged off from my sidebar), and to all participants; your reviews introduced me to so many plays I want to read, and your enthusiasm is really infectious.

Now, the statistics….

Signed up participants = 24

(including me & Dessy)

Active participants = 16

(two of the signed up participants have erased their blogs, the others never submitted their reviews :D)

Participants completed the challenge = 3

(read at least 12 plays)

Listra = 12

Fanda = 13

Melissa = 12

Plays reviews = 84

(Most read plays):

Julius Caesar = 5

The Importance of Being Earnest = 5

Character Thursday for Plays Meme posts = 22

(I stopped the meme unexpectedly on June—my fault! :( —otherwise it could have been more than that)

My own result….

Plays read: 13 (9 Shakespeare; 1 Greek—Euripides; 1 Oscar Wilde; 1 Anton Chekhov, 1 George Bernard Shaw)

Most favorite: Julius Caesar

Most failure: Romeo and Juliet

Plays I’d like to read next: Aeschylus’ Agamemnon; Aristophanes’ The Birds; Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus; Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; Wilder’s Our Town; Williams’ A Streetcar named Desire; Miller’s Death of A Salesman; Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral; Wilde’s and Chekhov’s plays and many more… :))

Last but not least…. we still have the…

Giveaways!

#1: Character Thursday for Plays Meme Giveaway

From 22 posts, here is the winner (picked by random dot org):

Maria (Hobby Buku’s Classic)

Congratulations Maria!

#2: Dessy’s Closing Giveaway (still open until November 30th)

If you haven’t participated, there are still one whole month to prepare the requested task, jump to Dessy’s post to learn about it!

So now… :( I guess it’s time to say good bye to Let’s Read Plays, and all the yearlong fun of reading those plays! Again, thank you all for participating, for sharing the fun, and for inspiring each other! Love you all, guys….

P.S. You are welcomed to post a wrap up in your blog if you like (not mandatory) and share the link here. Or at least, you can share your outcome, your experience, your feeling, even your critics during Let’s Read Plays, via the comment box.

P.S.S. (sadly) I won’t host another plays event next year, but you can count on me that I will be hosting ANOTHER intriguing reading challenge—just keep on checking my blog for the next few days ;)