Alright - let's get back to melville and MD.
I hope we didn't scare you off with discussions of the profane or Brants about Religion, but then again - HM included both in his novel and amazingly people are still reading it!
Now that we got some of that out of the way I'd like to outline a few things I am going to go into over the next few weeks - This is a random list that will grow and change but here's a few hot-Button issues I am going to tackle -
-America - Probably the biggest theme of MD - how our country found itself from it;s infancy until 1850 when Melville wrote MD and how it has evolved since then into 2011 according to themes presented in the novel
-More religion and philosophy -including but not limited to Zoroastrianism, quakerism, Calvinism, the nature of the Parsee (fedellah), discussions on destiny, fate, good vs evil, the omnipotence of God, the irrelevance of God, the ambivalence of God, the religion of Queequeg and Idolotry, discussions of the Weaver God and the use of the Loom, etc
-The treatment of africans in MD from the perspective of three characters - Daggoo - the Noble Strong fearless african harpooner, Pip, the young cabin boy, and Fleece - probably the most caricatured person in the book, but an important one who melville allows to still subvert the domination of his oppressive leaders.
-One of my favorite subjects in Moby-Dick..... THE GAM
I am going to break down every gam and show how the Pequod used the info gleened from the meetings with other ships and how each one could be a modern warning to any of us on how to listen to the advice of our peers to better achieve our goals...
- The Discussions of The coffin, the markings on the coffin, the tattoos of queequeg and the mysteries of symbols that "tantalized' Ahab and continue to tantalize us all.
-The continuing scarcity and importance of ambergris
- The Suicidal thoughts of Ishmael that Launched this whole journey and the suicidal terrorism of Ahab and how one man's successful suicide (ahab) convinced the other (ishmael) to keep on living
And many more -
BUT Let's Recap a few things I've stated already that may or may not be Revolutionary in Melville and MD studies but at least are an attempt at finding new pathways out of this Labyrinthine novel
Here are my bullet points so far
1) You gotta read Moby-Dick
2) you should read as much scholarship about it as you can - You are robbing yourself if you do not examine my 3rd to 7th posts which briefly discuss "My Moby-Dick Library." If you're local I will lend you my copies for further reading
3) you can't discuss the book without examining the interaction of Cultures and the "Melting Pot" that was the Pequod and that IS America
4) Ishmael and Queequeg's relationship was more metaphorically wedded than physically wedded
5) Ahab's relationship with pip was inappropriate -
6) Pip was branded as Coward in the novel but HM meant you to figure out that he was the most regal ie, "the meek shall inherit the earth'
7) No true spiritual person can find truth without criticizing and disbelieving religion, questioning authority, speaking truth to power, and constantly reexamining their own beliefs
8) I invented the "BRANT" :)
9) Bob Dylan based "Mr. tambourine Man" on Chapter 110 of MD
10) 'Bob Dylan's 115th Dream' is a riff on him meeting the cast of the pequod - and is pulled directly from Chapter 115 of MD
11) The use of 'blackface' and minstrel acts were, are, and always will be inappropriate and insulting but in chapter 2 of MD Melville inserted a heretofore unrecognized coy example of ishmael in blackface in his attempt to let his narrator 'commune with', not insult, african-americans.
12) So Far Charles Olson's 'Call me Ishmael' is the best thing written on melville because it is wild and crazy - and this 'Brant' was created and is profane because there's no way to tackle a wicked book without being a bit wicked about it - JTM
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