Ishmael's heartsong:
"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball."
—chapter 1, "Loomings," Moby-Dick
3 comments:
That 1st paragraph battles with the opening to 100 Years of Solitude as the Opening Paragraph I would most like to have written.
I was reading a piece about fantasy novels, which was helpful in reforging my notion of tropes. My beef with many of them I think is not the trope of the Redeemer-Hero, but the Theme of such. When I detect a Redeeming Hero of fantasy (on a Quest, usually) I often put the book down.
Moby Dick is different, for it is not a Quest for Redemption, but rather a Quest for Damnation. And that really sums up Melville's genius for me.
Melville definitely turns quite a bit of our expectations "on their heads." Moby Dick doesn't quite work the way I think it will (even after many readings), which is one of the main reasons that I believe I keep returning to it. It resonates and challenges and resonates some more.
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