I. In this riff: Chapters 33-35 of Moby-Dick. II. (Re: Above—I just finished Ch. 36 of Moby-Dick, “The Quarter-Deck,” which is like, too good. Too loaded. Ahab erupts. Up until now I’d just been riffing on what I’d read, trying to keep it simple, but “The Quarter-Deck” needs its own riff.) III. Ch. 33, “The Specksnyder.” Specksnyder is a strange… Continue reading Your identity comes back in horror | Moby-Dick reread, riff 10
Nor, perhaps, will it fail to be eventually perceived, that behind those forms and usages, as it were, he sometimes masked himself; incidentally making use of them for other and more private ends than they were legitimately intended to subserve. That certain sultanism of his brain, which had otherwise in a good degree remained unmanifested;… Continue reading Even to idiot imbecility they have imparted potency | Moby-Dick
I. In this riff: Chapters 28-32. II. I just finished Ch. 32, “Cetology,” which ends with this marvelous sentiment: God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught—nay, but the draught of a draught. III. (Ishmael makes good here on one a sentiment he expresses at the chapter’s outset: “any… Continue reading God keep me from ever completing anything | Moby-Dick reread, riff 9
I. In this riff: Chapters 23-27. II. Ch. 23, “The Lee Shore.” In what is possibly the shortest chapter of Moby-Dick, Ishmael pulls a metatextual move, declaring that “this six-inch chapter is the stoneless grave of Bulkington.” Bulkington is actually one of the first named characters in Moby-Dick. He shows up in Ch. 3 (“The Spouter-Inn”),… Continue reading Whaling may well be regarded as that Egyptian mother who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb | Moby-Dick reread, riff 8
I. Look. Moby-Dick is a long book. Not all of these riffs are gonna sing. II. (I might have had a glass or two of red.) III. Chapters 20, 21, and 22 see The Pequod supplied, boarded, and piloted away from Nantucket out into the wide watery world. They are not especially memorable chapters. IV. (There are a few… Continue reading First kick | Riff 7 on rereading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (All Astir/Going Aboard/Merry Christmas)
I. In this riff: Ch. 17, “The Ramadan,” Ch. 18, “His Mark,” and Ch. 19, “The Prophet.” II. “The Ramadan” again underscores Moby-Dick’s theme of death and resurrection. In Ch. 16, “The Ship,” Queequeg shuts himself up in his room to undertake a “sort of Lent or Ramadan, or day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.” This “Ramadan”… Continue reading Humbug or bugbear | Riff 6 on rereading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (The Ramadan/His Mark/The Prophet)
I. Two short chapters followed by a rather long one, as we almost nearly maybe might head out on the great whaling voyage! II. Ishmael and Queequeg arrive at their titular destination in “Nantucket,” Ch. 14. Ish gives us a story—which I think is entirely fabricated, but I could be wrong—about Nantucket’s founding (emphasis mine):… Continue reading Oblique hints | Riff 5 on rereading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (Nantucket/Chowder/The Ship)
I. “A Bosom Friend” (Ch. 10) is another one of the remarkable key early chapters of Moby-Dick. It twins Ch. 4, “The Counterpane,” book-ending Ishmael’s Wild New Bedford Nights with Queequeg. II. While Ishmael’s largehearted acceptance and quick love for Queequeg probably does not seem as eccentric to contemporary readers as it might have been to… Continue reading No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world | Riff 4 on rereading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (A Bosom Friend/Nightgown/Biographical/Wheelbarrow)
I. Chapters 5 through 8 of Moby-Dick are all pretty short and showcase the novel’s ever-shifting moods. Ch. 5, “Breakfast,” brims with humor and energy, which extends through Ch. 6, “The Street.” However, by the time we get off the street and into “The Chapel” (Ch. 7), Ishmael takes a sober, somber turn, meditating on… Continue reading All these things are not without their meanings | Riff 3 on rereading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (Breakfast/The Street/The Chapel/The Pulpit/The Sermon)
I. Much has been made of Ishmael’s first night with Queequeg, and I don’t aim to add to it in any estimable way. Ch. 4 of Moby-Dick—what I take to be a key chapter, although there are probably too many supposed keys to this great big book—Ch. 4 of Moby-Dick, “The Counterpane,” begins: “Upon waking… Continue reading Nameless, unimaginable, silent form or phantom | Riff 2 on rereading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (The Carpet-Bag/The Spouter-Inn/The Counterpane)
I. I last reread Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick in full way back in 2013. II. I’ve read chunks and excerpts of it over the intermittent seven years though—there’s always some bit in it that calls to me, prompted by events personal, political, cultural. I read Melville’s 1846 novel Typee during the beginning of 2020’s quarantine,… Continue reading The great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open | Riff 1 on rereading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (Etymology/Extracts/Loomings)
From The Dead Don’t Die, 2019. Dir. Jim Jarmusch; cinematography by Frederick Elmes.
SUNDAY There are seven Sundays in Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick (Ch. 3 (four instances), Ch. 7, Ch. 85, and Ch. 112). MONDAY There are two Mondays in Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick (Ch. 2 and Ch. 13). TUESDAY There are no Tuesdays in Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick. WEDNESDAY There are no Wednesdays in Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick. THURSDAY There are no Thursdays in Herman Melville’s… Continue reading Distribution of days by name in Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick
Yes, we became very wakeful; so much so that our recumbent position began to grow wearisome, and by little and little we found ourselves sitting up; the clothes well tucked around us, leaning against the head-board with our four knees drawn up close together, and our two noses bending over them, as if our kneepans… Continue reading Then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal | Moby-Dick
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own. However, nothing dispirits, and nothing seems… Continue reading Vast practical joke | Moby-Dick
Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not thy back to the compass; accept the first hint of the hitching tiller; believe not the artificial fire, when its redness makes all things look ghastly. To-morrow, in the natural sun, the skies… Continue reading There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness | Moby-Dick
Biblioklept 