I'm positing that Philbrick is AGAIN making a few bucks off MD and I applaud him, nay may be jealous of him, but NPR wrote that his new book is a "Passionate " argument for reading MD. Google the NPR article - it is nice and his interview is pleasant and he does rightly claim that MD is our "American Bible" which I respect and concur with. In fact a few weeks ago I jotted this down in the Stacks of the Downtown Minneapolis Library and I'd like to add it to my blog as a new entry. NPR, take notice - if you want "passion" here it is -
NEW Blog Post - The Passion of the MD Fan
First and crucially you must assume MD by HM is in fact a true account of a certain point in American history. A climactic moment about the first century of this hallowed soil of ours - and tho set on sea - it is about soil - About the land we call home - about the lengths men will go to protect and defend America. It is not a war story - please forgive those obsessed with battle - those moments are regrettably important to our country but anyone who dedicates their lives to battle has certainly lost the war, if you will. No disrespect to any soldier - there are necessary times for that. Yet it must be remembered why those wars are fought. but I digress.
Moby-Dick is one of the most accurate histories of America. Truer and more beautifully wrought than most other attempts at encapsulating the search for truth. The quest for beauty.
If you haven't read it -try -if you have - pick it up and thumb through it again. For some it may be easy, others confusing.
I found my introduction to it in a class devoted for a month solely to it. This is my best recommendation as an intro. And feel free to skip around, skip and come back to parts. Read about it.
And tho Melville has many many other great works - forgive me here... Ignore them!
This text is much more crucial to our history - even more so and I say this with no apologies - more so than the King James Bible.
Time and Place my friends - time and place - the KJB, like many religious tracts, contains valuable nuggets of wisdom, endearing stories, and many many contradictions, false histories, and most importantly (tho not the fault of the Bible itself) - it lends credence to misinformed hateful people around the globe - like a poorly formed mirror reflecting the best and worst of mankind. If you read it with love for your fellow man may you find happiness but if that love ever turns to fear or hate or (even worse) PITY for anyone -ANYONE - you have fallen into the trap of idiots the world round - and I've lived too long to apologize for this but yes - if you take ANY tract as an incentive to judge or hate - you are stupid and your stupidity has caused all of the woes for which good people must rise against and waste precious moments of their own searches for joy and truth and beauty to defend the world against your vile stupidity. You'd think by now - 2011 - people in America could unbind themselves from the chains of mistranslated readings of religious texts but we have short memories and every life cycle every generation is born again and begins anew and repeats it again and still teaches these heresies as FACT.
I SHOUT FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP RIGHT NOW! Let it be known, my beloved country - Do us all a favor and shelve the Bible for awhile - Pick up Moby-Dick. Preach Moby-Dick. Shout crazily on street corners Moby -Dick - Teach it to your children.
And read into it what you will - yes there are dangers out there -yes there are misguided leaders, yes there are well-intentioned christian men too weak and unable to stand up to treachery - yes there are capable men of other or no religions who are justifiably deserving of equality and employment and joy and work and recognition as Americans as much as the so-called 'Puritans' - and we - all of US - as a SHIP - as HUMANS - are caught at odds - at times lost - at times bountiful - at times filled with certainty and at best filled with DOUBT - and let the lessons of doubt be the greatest lessons we know as Americans - Horrible men have attempted to find CERTAINTY in the BIBLE -
May the best of you find ambiguity - nuance, paths to further explore - and may we as Americans (Nay HUMANS) realize - please, finally -that we are okay not "Knowing," not being "Right" all the time.
Because let me tell you - no - let yourselves find - That Moby-Dick stands alone as uniquely historic Americana because you can spend your life with this book and it will vex you and inspire you and hopefully allow you to realize that certainty can be lethal - That doubt can be freeing. And may our Planet one day Unite freely as humans but for now - at least as Americans - may we rise with doubt - with our collective 'not knowing' and venture, Nay SAIL, into the Destiny of this GREAT LAND - this Imperfect IDEAL - this UNCERTAIN UTOPIA -
And may we never find pure happiness. But may - as our forefathers so inspiredly wrote in the Declaration of Independence - may we forever
PURSUE.
JTM
