June 4, 2019 - Chapters Eleven and Twelve


Our continuing twin themes of racism and homosexuality emerge again in these two chapters. Here, Ishmael and Queequeg continue to lie in bed with Queequeg smoking his tomahawk pipe and telling Ishmael about his life back on his home island, presumably in the Pacific. Queequeg, it turns out, descends from island royalty and could accede to the throne of his home island should he want to. He does not, however, although he remains distant and suspicious of living among whites.

In Chapter Twelve in particular, Queequeg is drawn as an archetypal noble savage – a sort of combination of paternalistic racial stereotype and probably some degree of actual admiration first promulgated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the French theoretician of social contracts. If 18th century European Enlightenment culture seemed stifling to some, the noble savage provided a nice counterpoint for how living without the trappings of politics and society could yield true happiness – or something like that. How well or poorly Queequeg adheres to this stereotype remains to be seen.

You can read more on the idea of the noble savage here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 31, 2019 - Chapter One Hundred Thirty-five (pp. 555-561)

Lest we think we’ve seen the last of Fedallah, he appears in this, the third (and final) day of the hunt of Moby Dick – in a manner of speaking. Rather, he appears lashed to the white whale’s back when he sounds once again. Ahab cries, “"Aye, Parsee! I see thee again.—Aye, and thou goest before; and this, this then is the hearse that thou didst promise.” Ahab might believe he will survive this final encounter; he certainly believes that this third day will be the final day of the hunt. There is, after all, a certain finality about the number three.
Read more

The Idea

Image
It's a pretty straightforward idea. One novel ( Moby Dick , by Herman Melville), one summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day inclusive), around six pages per day, one blog post per day of roughly 100 words (perhaps more) on what I've read and observed. I meant to do this a few years ago and kinda pooped out. This year I'm going to try it again. Wish me luck.
Read more

August 27, 2019 - Chapter One Hundred Thirty-three (pp. 537-541)

Image
Finally, the chase begins. In the first part, which ends with the destruction of Ahab’s boat by the white whale (he said ironically), we get this: “But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia's Natural Bridge.” As we have already been told, Moby Dick isn’t actually all white, as the image below of said bridge shows us. The question is why the whale is referred to as white when it clearly isn’t. Curious readers should probably consult the chapter entitled “The Whiteness of the Whale” once again.
Read more