"Ignorance is the parent of fear, and being completely nonplussed and confounded about the stranger, I confess I was now as much afraid of him as if it was the devil himself who had thus broken into my room at the dead of night."
—from chapter 3 of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, "The Spouter-Inn"
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This chapter is rich. A lot happens.
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It opens with Ishmael as "art critic." Then we meet Jonah the bartender. Foreshadowing and more foreshadowing.
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We meet Bulkington. I understand that Bulkington is a favorite character of many readers, although I've never understood why. ("...for some reason a huge favorite with them...") In fact, I know that he will appear later, and Melville tells us as much, but I never seem able to remember him. I guess the question to myself is: Why?
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We meet Queequeg, which is a great scene, and gives us a couple of great quotes.
"It's only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin."
"[H]e has just as much reason to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."
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