Saturday, May 28, 2011

Recap So Far and Future Goals

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

Friday, May 27, 2011

Read These in Order Please

I'm just learning how to write this Blog - No wait I am calling it a "BRANT" now because I'm just an amateur 'ranting' about my interest in all the facets of the great text that is MD so this is my 'web rant' or Brant -
anyways to truly appreciate it please go back to the earlier posts and read in order - the first two are not necessarily pertinent but please start at "My Moby-Dick Library" or if you are a Bob Dylan fan then begin at "Dylan/Melville - a study in affinity"


or if you are a college professor or scholar or journalist or member of the Melvile society read those pages first and then go to the audio files -  thanks- I'm just making this up as I go along but I hope I can commune with other fans and scholars of the book and we can glean some new wisdom from this Old Yarn -
perhaps we can take it outside like a rug and beat all the dust off it - or to overkill the metaphor maybe we can beat it like an old sofa until  quarters (of knowledge) come tumbling out from within its crevices...   You never know... JTM

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Melville Scholars only - audio file

I had to go outside my blogger site to get this published - this is another idea I had about Moby-Dick - please check this out if you're a melville scholar and tell me if I may be right (Of course I think I am right either way... but I'd like your feedback) This is not meant to be offensive - just an obvious reference Melville made that was coy - and prior to me saying it, I've never found it in any Melville scholarship.
thanks for listening -JTM


NOTE- SCROLL DOWN AND READ Ishmael in blackface post first

http://jimmoran69.podbean.com/#

I'm Coining "BRANT" MO-FO's

I got this great review of MD from the fantastic MD- themed tumblr, "Iron-Bound Bucket"
 This clip is from  ----  Methodist review, Volume 34, 1852






Which leads me to what I  hope to be one of many inventions and neologisms that I will attempt to Create here on my blog - which HENCEFORTH is really not a "web log" anymore - I'm realizing my passion for Moby-Dick is too intense and my opinions and conjectures are too outsider to really be 'logged' -
And because in sports radio and other medias, anytime any one goes off the 'deep-end,' it is said of them that they are "Ranting."

The Pequod Sails in Deep waters so therefore so must I.....

Welcome to my "Web Rant"  or  my BRANT!!!!

let's begin -


If you're still reading this after my previous meandering profanity-laced tirade-filled posts then thank you for hanging on - As I hope you can see, I really do love this much ballyhooed text that is Moby-Dick. I guess one reason is that it contains a lifetime of ambiguities and is open to so much interpretation that it is inevitable that it CANNOT BE SOLVED.
Puzzling?, yes. Tiresome?, at times. Worth it?, always. 
It brings me quickly to other things in our culture that cannot be solved and the biggest ones are Religions. I tend to bash them on occasion, I'm not gonna lie - but not from a hatred, but more from the acknowledgement and yes, even the respect that I acknowledge that many (the successful ones) of them were created akin to a great piece of art - that is - with craft, with passion, and yes with just enough ambiguity that even tho you realize they are full of shit, you can't really prove it. I respect that about religion. What I don't respect is when the religion - which is for all intents and purposes, just a well-crafted story, becomes a commodity that humans trade in - that is they sell pieces of faith to each other, and buy more from their congregations, and the markets become filled with stories that to the rational human being are just  good stories (well- spoken Myths) but now are, to the holder of misguided faith, all of a sudden worth more than the humanity around them. The blind faith in the eyes of the faithful is now a Truth - and their truth now has a price - and that price is intolerance and ignorance and often hate of those that don't have as much spiritually invested in that bit of faith that they spent so much time 'buying.'

And I'm getting just old enough but still young enough to be done with those that bought their faith at a high price in the past and are now upset it is worth nothing - or even worse, those in our culture who got a good deal on their supposed bits of truth, ie -they bought in at a low price and are NOW trying to Unload their bullshit on the world for a profit.

Which thankfully brings me back to Moby-Dick. I'm not going to claim I am certain of Melville's exact spiritual proclivities but he sure as shit was nice enough not to shove any of them down our throat in his novel. He played with religion. He kept it diverse. He discussed many of them. He panned a few. Queequeg's he may have even made up. And though the pious may have been slightly put-off, even Melville left just enough ambiguity for you, the reader to figure out your own ideas. And I think in the mind of many religious people that is the most WICKED thing an artist can do - Let you make up your own mind. Because by definition of you trying to sell me a line of someone else's Myth as Truth, that is something you certainly have never done :) JTM

Dylan's 115th dream Lyrics

I was emailed and asked to print the lyrics to Bob Dylan's 115th Dream -
they are easily found on the 'interweb' but for fun Moby-Dick comparison Reading here they are
Remember - you heard it here first - Chapter 115 of Moby-Dick is called - "The Pequod meets the Bachelor"
I believe BobDylan took that idea and ran with it---- that is,  ran WILD with it :)


Bob Dylan's 115th Dream


I was riding on the Mayflower
When I thought I spied some land
I yelled for Captain Arab
I have yuh understand
Who came running to the deck
Said, "Boys, forget the whale
Look on over yonder
Cut the engines
Change the sail
Haul on the bowline"
We sang that melody
Like all tough sailors do
When they are far away at sea.

"I think I'll call it America"
I said as we hit the land
I took a deep breath
I fell down, I could not stand
Captain Arab he started
Writing up some deeds
He said, "Let's set up a fort
And start buying the place with beads"
Just then this cop comes down the street
Crazy as a loon
He throw us all in jail
For carryin' harpoons.

Ah me I busted out
Don't even ask me how
I went to get some help
I walked by a Guernsey cow
Who directed me down
To the Bowery slums
Where people carried signs around
Saying, "Ban the bums"
I jumped right into line
Sayin' "I hope that I'm not late"
When I realized I hadn't eaten
For five days straight.

I went into a restaurant
Lookin' for the cook
I told him I was the editor
Of a famous etiquette book
The waitress he was handsome
He wore a powder blue cape
I ordered some suzette, I said
"Could you please make that crepe"
Just then the whole kitchen exploded
From boillin' fat
Food was flying anywhere
And I left without my hat.

Now, I didn't mean to be nosy
But I went into a bank
To get some bail for Arab
And all the boys back in the tank
They asked me for some collateral
And I pulled down my pants
They threw me in the alley
When up comes this girl from France
Who invited me to her house
I went, but she had a friend
Who knocked me out
And robbed my boots
And I was on the street again.

Well, I rapped upon a house
With the US flag upon display
I said, "Could you help me out
I got some friends down the way
" The man says, "Get out of here
I'll tear you limp from limb"
I said, "You know they refused Jesus, too"
He said, "You're not Him
Get out of here before I break your bones
I ain't your pop"
I decided to have him arrested
And I went lookin for a cop.

I ran right outside
And I hopped inside a cab
I went out the other door
This Englishman said, "Fab"
As he saw me leap a hot dog stand
And a chariot that stood
Parked across from a building
Advertising brotherhood
I ran right through the front door
Like a hobo sailor does
But it was just a funeral parlor
And the man asked me who I was. 

I repeated that my friends
Where all in jail, with a sigh
He gave me his card
He said, "Call me if they die"
I shook his hand and said goodbye
Ran out to the street
When a bowling ball came down the road
And knocked me off my feet
A pay phone was ringing
It just about blew my mind
When I picked it up and said hello
This foot came through the line.

Well, by this time I was feed up
At tryin'g to make a stab
At bringin' back any help
For my friends and captain Arab
I decided to flip a coin
Like either heads or tails
Would let me know if I should go
Back to the ship or back to jail
So I hooked my sailor suit
And I got a coin to flip
It came up tails
It rhymed with sails
So I made it back to the ship.

Well, I got back and took
The parkin' ticket off the mast
I was ripping it to shreds
When this coastguard boat went past
They asked me my name
And I said, "Captain Kidd"
They believed me but
They wanted to know
What exactly that I did
I said for the Pope of Eruke
I was employed
They let me go right away
They were very paranoid.

Well, the last I heard of Arab
He was stuck on a whale
That was married to the deputy
Sheriff of the jail
But the funniest thing was
When I was leavin' the bay
I saw three ships a-sailin'
There were all heading my way
I asked the captain what his name was
And how come he didn't drive a truck
He said his name was Columbus
I just said, "Good luck".

copyright- bob dylan

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

DYLAN/MELVILLE - A Study in Affinity - Part II

If you began here go back to my last post - the first about Dylan and Melville -  and begin reading there- Thanks- JTM

This is a continuation of some random connections between Moby-Dick and Bob Dylan - some obvious, some obscure and after a few hours of web research I have found  a couple more references to MD by Dylan that I wanted to share. I'm sure there will be more - in a way it seems pretty easy to surmise that any successful artist trades in allegory, borrows from the past, steals tidbits of past poets, drops names in current works, and generally continues the storytelling tradition that fed their own love for it in the beginning.
 reminds me of this - which was found on the web a few years ago...


Anyways I think the term I like is   Synchronicities


These are a few more synchronicities about Dylan and MD/HM gleaned from the web


1)  Bob Dylan's Biography
This is from the blog "common sense dancing'  -    the link is 


http://commonsensedancing.blogspot.com/2009/03/bob-dylan-chronicles-volume-one.html


The writer describes his reading of "Bob Dylan's Chronicles -Volume One"


"Some paragraphs read like Dylan lyrics in paragraph form. Consider the description of Izzy Young, the proprietor of The Folklore Center, a periodical that covered folk music: 

"Young was an old-line folk enthusiast, very sardonic and wore heavy horn-rimmed glasses, spoke in a thick Brooklyn dialect, wore wool slacks, skinny belt and work boots, tie at a careless slant. his voice was like a bulldozer and always seemed too loud for the little room. Izzy was always a little rattled over something or other. He was sloppily good natured. In reality, a romantic. To him, folk music glittered like a mound of gold. It did for me, too . . . I couldn't imagine what Izzy's battles were. Internal, external, who knows? Young was a man that concerned himself with social injustice, hunger and homelessness and he didn't mind telling you so. His heroes were Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Moby-Dick, the ultimate fish story, was his favorite tale."


2) Bob Dylan's Movie - "Masked and anonymous"

This is a great article about the film by Sean Wilentz      The link is 

http://www.sonyclassics.com/masked/sean-wilentz-essay.html

and it includes a great paragraph about Allegory and Dylan and Melville - the blog typeface won't let me copy and paste it here but READ IT - 

3) Minstrel acts - Dylan references again -
The same writer from before wrote the book -"Bob Dylan in america" and in a blog he pretty much proves that Bob Dylan had the same love for the character of Pip that I do in MD. At least he proves it in my mind - read this 
link-
http://seanwilentz.com/tag/masked-and-anonymous/
here's a short quote from it...
 “Love and Theft,” Dylan’s superb album of 2001, almost certainly takes its name from Eric Lott’s study of blackface minstrelsy with the same title.  Bob Dylan in America’s chapter about the album picks up the theme and describes Dylan as a modern minstrel, with the racism expunged. Elsewhere, the book discusses Dylan’s admiration for the [...]"

Brilliant!! and read future posts by me about the use of blackface in Moby-Dick that no scholar has ever unmasked (if u will) but I am about to - yes, ill-advised or not, there IS a scene in MD where HM has Ishmael put on "blackface" to 'pass' not in a  comedy minstrelsy way but in a very coy way - but we'll get to that later....

4) Moby-Dick "Shout-out"
in a funny, almost throwaway line from the song "lo and behold" by Dylan he sings out the line -What's it to yaMoby Dick?"

5) Ishmael and St. Augustine
 This is a bit of a stretch but there's also a great Dylan tune " I dreamed of St. augustine" that you should listen to. Strangely enough if you read a passage from the book "

A Dictionary of biblical tradition in English literature

 By David L. Jeffrey, you can read what St. augustine
 had to say about Ishmael in the bible - again I cant copy and paste it but here's the link - I hope it works -

http://books.google.com/books?id=zD6xVr1CizIC&pg=PA382&lpg=PA382&dq=st+augustine+ishmael&source=bl&ots=04zQgLODXm&sig=kLw2rgBZ0QImMlbStuylaVIOGOM&hl=en&ei=K1TdTfS8Mqfk0QGR_vjNDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=st%20augustine%20ishmael&f=false

if its not loading just google the book and read the Ishmael page - it's awesome as Ishmael history anyways - regardless of Dylan

6) "Time out of Mind" - melville shakespeare and Dylan - the triumvirate :)
For this last connection between Dylan and Melville I have to thank a writer I can only find named "harauo"
here is his link and  it's a genius find -
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=56673

Here's a quote from it -
"A more recent event is the phrase "Time Out Of Mind" which is the title of Dylan's 1997 (slighty overrated) album. One of the paragraphs in Chapter 87 of Moby-Dick also begins with this phrase"

Wow! great find - I only disagree with the "overrated" comment - I think that album was, yes, later in Dylan's career, but I'll put it up there with his best when all is said and done.
Anyways Here is dylan borrowing another line from MD - and the crazy thing is that Chapter 87 , " The Grand Armada" is a chapter where Melville DIRECTLY quotes shakespeare - borrowing from King Lear (remember that is where HM got the idea for PIP from) he quotes,
"* To gally, or gallow, is to frighten excessively—to confound with fright. It is an old Saxon word. It occurs once in Shakespeare:—
"The wrathful skies
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
And make them keep their caves.
Lear, Act III, sc. ii"


I am going to take this chapter further and "Bring it All back Home" to my theory that "Mr. tambourine man" was written by Dylan about Chapter 110 in MD. Here's proof - in this same chapter 87 there's the line - "But how now? in this zoned quest, does Ahab touch no land? does his crew drink air? Surely, he will stop for water. Nay. For a long time, now, the circus-running sun has raced within his fiery ring, and needs no sustenance but what's in himself. "

"Circus-running"  - there is your direct use of 'circus' in 'MR.TM' by Dylan -  and in Chapter 110 queequeg's eyes were described as "But as all else in him thinned, and his cheek-bones grew sharper, his eyes, nevertheless, seemed growing fuller and fuller; they became of a strange softness of lustre; and mildly but deeply looked out at you there from his sickness, a wondrous testimony to that immortal health in him which could not die, or be weakened. And like CIRCLES on the water, which, as they grow fainter, expand; so his eyes seemed rounding and rounding, like the RINGS of Eternity"

There's your "Mr.TM" line "circled by the circus sands"

and Yes, it was poor PIP who was "driven deep beneath the waves"(MR.TM) to emerge Queequeg's savior.
SO, in closing if you want to attribute Mr. tambourine man to 'drugs' you'll need to find another scholar who'll support that bs theory because, honestly - IT AIN"T ME BABE, it ain't me you're looking for, babe!



DYLAN/MELVILLE - A Study in Affinity

It was Bob Dylan's birthday yesterday. Actually just a few hours ago... He turned 70. Two nights ago I was at a local irish pub here in minneapolis and I met an irishman who referred to himself as "fresh off the boat" - yes it surprised me to hear a man in his position actually use that phrase but what with postmodernism and the use of the 'meta' we all can relax and just be... wow, how zen---
anyways - This young irishman told me he ventured to Minneapolis of all places for two reasons - One because he listened to Bob Dylan's cd collection "the bootleg series" and it made him leave his ancestral home and go to where Dylan was born and Two - because he heard there was a thriving economic scene here in Minneapolis for people to cash in on a) the irish and b) dylan himself. I was impressed with his misguided fanhood and drive and equally cynical of his motive but he did say something I loved - something that I never considered other than maybe a wishful subconscious  sentiment -  he said -
"What you Americans Don't realize is that Bob Dylan is your William Shakespeare"

Now, I'd take that as a witticism from an academic - or a writer, or a literary critic - seems like a bit of cultural currency one can spend at a dinner party - but I've been to dinner parties and no one has the balls to say that - even the aging hippies - and truth be told if they did I'd think they were just high - not cause it's not true but because I believe drugs hamper your intent in the artistic community not endorse them but that's me - aging (reformed) hippie...

 Anyways - The previous parts of this ranting post you can discard for fucksakes but let me get to The Point -
Bob Dylan read Moby Dick. AND  Bob Dylan's art was forever transformed by it. This is a Melville and MD blog not a dylan one but dylan - like shakespeare,  leaves no stone unturned - and unrolling, if you will.
Yes - I James Tigue Moran am about to unleash upon the world a few Melvillian/ Dylan nuggets that (as far as I can find on the web or in research) have never been said. Now I'm hesitant to do so what with copyright law probably not extending to this blog forum but WTF if you want to steal my material so be it - here is the first place it is proclaimed and for that I am proud.

And if you're reading and are in possession of a guggenheim fellowship or grant - please email me - like Olson, I will do you proud...

So - here's my theory - Bob Dylan read Moby Dick in the early sixties - right before he recorded the music for "Bringing it all back home" and in fact probably prior to that before the album "Another side of Bob Dylan - maybe even well before that - Rock and roll critics love to give so much credit to psychedelia and narcotics and whatnot in art but how deceived they are - drugs are often there - but so are schools and books and mothers and lovers and travel and angst and creativity - show me any song about "drugs" and I'll show you a rock star that made a lot of money off stupid people. Fact - we all know a lot of stupid people on drugs that never could write a poem or sing a bar or play a chord - to attribute any piece of art to drugs is to be uninspired.
I say this because if you research the song, "Mr. Tambourine Man" by Dylan you keep hitting this wall of drug references being the motif or if your lucky a rimbaud reference or a vaudevillian actor sometimes making an appearance  but here's the truth -
Dylan wrote the song about a chapter in Moby-Dick. Chapter 110 to be exact, "Queegueg in his Coffin" - In my opinion the best chapter in MD - and the 'key to it all' that AHAB was searching for throughout the whole novel. Go back to my pictures of my first copy of MD and you will see a paper clip inserted onto a page that fell out of the novel that I attempted to preserve - it is a page right out of this chapter - because it is a page I've read more than any page in the book - a page that Bob Dylan read with similar fervor in the early 1960's. THIS is where Melville trumps shakespeare  - William Shakespeare hinted in his works that the court jesters- the fools, the comic relief characters surrounding the kings were actually dispensing wisdom - that they were actually smarter and more regal than the kings themselves - Not a hard path of thought if you consider the fool had to get where he was by cunning and the king was most likely inbred into his position - but WS is all coy and hints eternally... and Melville continued this hinting with the character of PIP - the cabin boy- poor coward pip, young black, slave , minstrel, weak, wait, BULLSHIT - regal pip - pip a boy among men - a boy who transforms in the novel from boy to man - from coward to hero from castaway to Captain's consort- the only character who grows within the course of the novel - ishmael forever is aloft dreaming his dream, Ahab is forever chasing the high he never finds, queequeg is even steadfast in his 'savage' even-keeled approach to life not unlike starbuck who is as dumbed by his christianity as queegeg is satisfied with his wildness. NO, PIP is the character who Melville makes a man. Speak not of him as a coward - he, the shaker of the tambourine, the soothsayer who saw GOD's 'foot upon the treadle of the Loom' No pip goes from boy to Man within Chapter 110.

Fact:: Queequeg was dying -

It was all over - he was ready - In his wisdom he called upon the carpenter to build him a coffin just like the ones he saw in New bedford and nantucket - just like the canoes that his people on KOKOJoko or ROKOJOKO were set adrift on as they died -  The coffin was built - the ritual was set - queequeg lay in his coffin and began to die - the swirling ship sailed on  - queegueg lay 'branded' (tattooed) in the coffin with his god yojo and his pipe and his loincloth and his boot heals that he took so long to put on early in the novel - he laid to die -
BUT prior to dying a young man arose from the shadows and sang him an elegy - he beat his tambourine in time and sang and danced for queegueg who was sleepy and near death, he sang for him to find a better world on the other side and to find an alternative universe there where Pip is no longer a coward where pip has a voice where life has a purpose where death cannot find you - and queequeg ALMOST DIED BUT he arose and decided it was not his time - he , in fact had other business to attend to on shore - (business that i will discuss later in my soon to be completed novel....) NO, queequeg was rescued by this boy pip - this 'coward boy' who from henceforth in the novel becomes a seer - becomes a revelator - Becomes a Man -

AND BOB DYLAN picked up on this change of pip - he saw the transformation - he put the guitar and the microphone in QUEEQUEG's hand and the voice that sings 'Mr. Tambourine Man' is Queequeg's
This is queequeg describing what happened to him in chapter 110 -

listen...


Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you
Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship
My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin’
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you
Though you might hear laughin’, spinnin’, swingin’ madly across the sun
It’s not aimed at anyone, it’s just escapin’ on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin’
And if you hear vague traces of skippin’ reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it’s just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn’t pay it any mind
It’s just a shadow you’re seein’ that he’s chasing
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you
Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you
Copyright © 1964, 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992, 1993 by Special Rider Music

Play the song if you own it - read chapter 110 in MD AND THEN play the song. 
That's my theory  - and the facts - enjoy ---JTM


oh wait, if your doubtful of my theory then WHY is it that the song on "Bringing it all back Home" immediately prior to"Mr. Tambourine Man" is 'Bob Dylan's 115th dream'  a song about America and a young verile man like dylan partying with a whaling boat's crew headed by a 'captain A-RAB' - describing  a mad journey into a city of normal society by this young bachelor man and his crazy whaling friends - armed with harpoons - listen to "Bob Dylan's 115th dream'  -it is replete with MD references.  It's a no-brainer - so why has no one ever connected Chapter 110 with 'Mr. tambourine man?'  I'll tell you why - because no one ever realized but me that 'Bob Dylan's 115th dream" is about the 115th chapter of Moby-Dick - the chapter entitled, "The Pequod meets the Bachelor" - I guess Bob Dylan fancied himself the bachelor in the young 1960's and no one was ever lucky enough to get the joke until now -

Damn - that's just the start of MD references in Dylan songs from here on out - but these two are by far the most important. '115th dream'  is an obvious - "Mr. Tamb. Man ' is my gift to you - young readers -  Happy birthday Bob dylan - and also to my brother Joe - he shares a birthday with America's shakespeare - fitting that it was him that gave me my first copy of shakespeare too...  
Listen to the song - read chapter 110 - repeat...


and remember this stanza -
"Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow"
JTM


Thursday, May 19, 2011

My Moby-Dick Library Part IV

again- if you are starting here - go back to the first post entitled - "My Moby-Dick Library"

Hold the Presses!!! Alas our MD Library is not complete (of course in reality it will never be...) because I have unearthed a few more Melvillian texts.

you must be getting weary, dear reader, but let us finish this mental nourishment -

here are a few more I recommend -

Two year before the mast - this was published in the 1840's and Melville read, and most likely- borrowed, from it


this is another retelling of the wreck of the whaleship essex - this time from the youngest surviving member of the crew and a few others



Okay - I need to issue a Mea Culpa - I feel bad cause in a previous post I may have 'brushed off' this book but that wasn't fair - didn't mean to throw philbrook under the proverbial bus so I ran out and got a copy of this and damnit I'm gonna finish it :)


This is a really cool bio - especially the chapter entitled - "Infants, boys, and Men and Ifs eternally'

This is pretty academic but nice - especially as you trace the character of Pip back to 'the fool' in King Lear - I believe Melville made Pip much more regal than most scholars think - and Markels in this book makes a good case for the history of the intellect rather than the history of time -- Borges is smiling somewhere...


The Errant Art of Moby-Dick
A quote from the back cover of this sums up the content and the mode of its delivery -"Combining Heideggerian ontology with a sociopolitical perspective derived primarily from Foucault, blah blah blah'
This book is like grad school homework from hell but you'll be smarter for attempting it - I do recommend reading this even tho the book has the pomposity to begin with a quote from that other gas-bag of a novel -"Gravity's rainbow' - oh, wait, am i now throwing Pynchon under the bus? U bet and don't get me started on Davy Wallace, gas-bag extraordinaire.



This is a cool book about Twain - echoing the scholars of MD who posit that Ahab and ishmael may have been black or mixed as well - I believe Melville invoked a bit more humanity in his black characters than Twain did and this book may (a wee bit) come across as an apologist text for him but it is interesting enough to read.

Monsieur Melville -by Victor-Levy Beaulieu

This is pretty fascinating  - Embarrassingly enough, I admit I bought it at a used bookstore thinking it was a biography of Melville and even made it a bit through it before realizing it was a novel - Strange text showing the author's passion for MD and HM - part bio -part history- part criticism - part psuedo-reality---- it is one of a kind. Full disclosure - the author has a checkered public past of saying dumb things about race and nationalism but his story is unique and his apparent love of his home of quebec comes through.





This set is in three volumes and holds a trove of pictures, art, and history that is lacking in many other actual literary histories. Coming in around 650 pages in total, it is a book much longer than the book it is about - Now that is Love! - JTM

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

My Moby Dick Library Part III

Note - If you are beginning here - go back and start at 'My Moby Dick Library' the first post and read in order - thanks

Alright - let's wrap this up - as I hope you can see I am an AMATEUR fan, scholar, and book collector - by no means is this list academic or definitive - these are just some 'shout-outs' from the dark, if you will, to certain books that I believe will enliven the mind when you are pondering MD. You could spend a fortune on first editions, rare signed copies, and mint condition texts of the novel but if you read some or all of the books I herein describe - you'll be mentally richer than doing the former.

That being said - these last books are not MD or Melville texts - no they are completely unrelated but somehow in a borgesian librarian way they offer connection to reading, analyzing, and enjoying that which you have already read or will read in the future - and again not definitive, just a few I pulled off my shelves to recommend  -

I may not even describe most of them - perhaps I will just show them and let you peruse as you wish -
good luck chasing the whale - JTM






No Island is an Island -  this is one of the best lectures I have read - discussing the idea of Utopia and originality and everything that is worth thinking about - read it!








Alongside Melville and Borges (and maybe Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Robert Hunter) Lawrence Ferlinghetti blows my mind - if you have a chance,  GO to City Lights in San Fran...






 This poster makes me laugh - This is why you can never make a great MD movie - especially if you're trying to sell it as another 'Jaws'

Good book on cities with a melville quote in its intro






 Very informative read on the past and future of Cape Cod









One of my favorite spots in NYC - a collection of treasures from all over Europe - and sometimes I imagine the journey these antiquities made by ship over the Atlantic - must have been no small feat









Ok - thus ends the lesson - i'm gonna leave you with another of my passions - food - and like stubb devouring the whale in Chapter 65 of MD - I too enjoy a bit of seafood prepared well - due to legality and good taste, I'm not about to eat a whale but I'm not above sampling the fiends that abound around that great leviathan below - Here is the zenith of zen food preparation - The Nobu cookbook - Enjoy JTM