August 10, 2010 - Chapters One Hundred Four and One Hundred Five


We are presented again with two short chapters on cetology – here on the fossils of prehistoric whales (perhaps dinosaurs) and on the population of whales and whether it is dwindling. Two references stand out. The shorter is to Shem, the son of Noah from whom the Israelites are said to have descended. In Jewish lore, he is considered the same person as Melchizedek, the king who greets Abraham and after the war on the cities of the plain.

The second reference is lengthier: “whenever it has been convenient to consult one in the course of these dissertations, I have invariably used a huge quarto edition of Johnson, expressly purchased for that purpose; because that famous lexicographer's uncommon personal bulk more fitted him to compile a lexicon to be used by a whale author like me.”

It seems to me that this is an apt metafictional meditation. For once, our narrator and/or author is aware of his/her/their use of a range of vocabulary to tell this story.

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