July 9, 2019 - Chapter Fifty-five

In this chapter, we return to an extended study of cetology. Here, Ishmael seeks to disabuse the reader of the false images of whales provided in the previous literature to people who have never seen a whale in person. First, it’s important to note that a chapter such as this one without illustrations lacks something in translation – I’m appending below an image of the Hindu avatar Matsya, to which Ishmael refers early in the chapter. The other thing I noted here is the reference to the bones of Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism. In fact, it isn’t the bones of Bentham that are kept to this day at University College London – it is his mummified body, which is wheeled out (apparently, I can’t confirm 100%) for department meetings, with his votes even recorded (“Professor Bentham abstained”).