Whaling for beginners. (Moby Dick - Herman Melville)

Member Name: thegoldencat

Product:	Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Date:	18/11/08 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An epic, haunting adventure yarn that stays with you.

Disadvantages: Some of the whaling explanations go on a bit.

Overview
Regarded as one of the finest works of western literature ever committed to page Moby Dick is, on the surface at least, the tale of Ishmael and his voyage upon the whaling ship the Prequod, captained by Ahab and seemingly bound for oblivion. There is much more to this book than what floats on the surface of the page however, as almost everything portrayed is densely laced with additional symbolistic meaning.

Review
I did not want to read this book. It seemed a precipitous and overall unpleasent prospect. A dry, old out-dated tome about whales. And it seems that this is a fairly common conception. Any doubts I had were soon allayed once I began reading.
Let us begin at the beginning and one of the most famous opening lines in literature.

"Call me Ishmael."

We are introduced to Ishamel and learn more about his peculiar ambition of joining a whaling boat as the first few chapters wash over us. We're soon introduced to Queequeg a harpoonist of the vessel Prequod, a ship Ishmael is desirous to join the crew of. The two become firm friends. At this point one could be forgiven for thinking that this is how the tale will continue, through the eyes of Ishmael, and that would be no bad thing. Hes certainly an interesting character. Soon enough both are aboard the Prequod captained by the near legendary figure of Ahab and are setting off into the unknown. And it is to Ahab that the book quickly shifts focus. Captain Ahab is a man governed by his singular desire for revenge against the white sperm whale that wrecked his previous ship.

Obssession is a major theme in this book. Possibly the principle theme. Captain Ahab will hunt Moby Dick to the very ends of the earth and is willing to sacrifice everything in his unholy pursuit of this beast. Ultimately the whole crew become caught up in, and at the mercy of Ahabs blind fury and lust for revenge against a white sperm whale.

Moby Dick. The White Whale. Seemingly a force of pure malevolence that destroys any ship that comes near. What then can we make of this. Is Ahabs struggle accross time with this whale a depiction of "The folly of fighting fate" or "Mans struggle against nature." Well ultimately we will never know and nor does it especially matter for reading, absorbing and coming to your own conclusions is kind of the point. (Not like Lost, that show has no point.)

This is a symbolistic novel. Everything in it has some extra meaning to it that may not at first appear obvious. You need not grasp the deeper depths of the story to appreciate it though. You can just read it as a straight forward whaling voyage story and still find enjoyment. But there is depth here such as I have never seen in a book.

You will soon discover that Melville likes to reference things in his work. Now its unlikely that you will 'get' many of his references unless, that is, you are well aquainted with the ins and outs of various ancient mythologies and religious texts. That said, this is far from essesential. It doesn't hamper understanding of the plot one jot if you don't get any of these references. I would however recommend Wikipedia as a reading aid. To sum up then; these references add a sense of grandeur and consequence to the events portrayed whether you understand them or not.

Characterisation seems to be a secondary concern for Melville. He seem more concerned with the epic, presenting everything on a grand scale. Dialogue is mostly kept to a minimum. Introductions to three of the main characters is handled with customary aplomb. We are given only cursory descriptions of the personalities of First Mates: Starbuck*, Stubbs and Flask and left to garner other personality details through snatched conversation and actions. Ahab of course is characterised by his single-minded purposefullness. This means we are not bogged down in trying to remember the personalities of the many characters and free to just go with the flow.

Everything is constantly flowing in Moby Dick. The Prequod becomes a living, breathing entity much like the whale it pursues. What with the never-ending mechanical workings of the ship, the to-ing and fro-ing of the crew and the vital business of keeping watch for whales you eventually feel like a member of the crew yourself, watching things at ground level, even sharing in the breathless excitement when one of the animals is sighted. Such levels of immersion in a book is rare, and as a reading experience this should be treasured and savoured because literature doesn't get much better.

Its hard to get accross the utter magninficence of Melville's prose. The stunning, soaring, poetic beauty of the words printed on the page. I hate to gush but I assure you its warranted. You will often find yourself pausing just to say to yourself;

"Damn, somebody wrote this?"

At times I was so pathetically in awe of the power and genius of some passage or other, that I wanted to write down quotes just so that I could remember them.

This is a an epic tour-de-force of a novel. A work of profound and almost faultless brilliance near unparralled in terms of achievement in literature.

Its not all plain sailing though. Melville seems to think he's underselling you with his descriptions of events within a sphere few will be familliar with, (whaling) and feels the need to devote large sections and even whole chapters to bland straight- description and explanation of terms and procedures. This is all quite unnessecary and the reader is just left hanging on, desperate to get back into the main story.

But if this book can bore you so, and plumb such lowly depths, surely then it must have some truelly incredible highs. If, that is, I am so unequivocally convinced of its greatness.

And I am.





*-Starbucks is actually named after the character in this book. This came after the name Prequad was mooted and understandably rejected. Nobody would buy coffee from "Prequads."

Summary: A true classic.