I love the way Emerson's sphere of influence is broadened here. I would also like to think of the appearance of "not-Ahab" in Chapter 44 not as an error, but a fully intentional manifestation of the inseparable existence of Ahab with Moby-Dick. The referenced passage from Chapter 42 sets us up for this nicely. Melville admired the "deep-diving" of Emerson; Ahab's out-of-body experience might be viewed as a wonderful anti-transcendental image of Emerson's "transparent eyeball" state. I have also reached the age of Ahab, and may now have to take the journey again myself. Thank you.
Poor Ahab just can't tap into the "perpetual presence of the sublime" that RWE feels under the stars at night. His nighttime meditations take him to much darker places, eh?
My working theory is that Emerson was the advance guard of the American Renaissance—that he saw all the literary possibilities, before anyone else, but maybe because he was trained as a minister, decided on a fairly narrow and abstract path for himself. There's also a series of entries where he basically maps out Thoreau's whole literary and intellectual career long before he even met Thoreau.
I always saw the novel as a metaphor for the USA. Always and for ever searching for enemy’s , always ending at the bottom of the sea. I understand my readings is not even scratching the surface of this great novel. So i will make the journey once’s more. Wish me luck.
For your next assignment, Mr. Crain, I would like you to draw out the correspondences between MOBY-DICK and, ahem, WHITE NOISE.
Have you actually read every word or even most of the words in CLAREL? If so, dude . . . .
Such a lovely piece. Thank you for writing it. Decades ago I put WHITE-JACKET in print in a Signet Classics edition. It is strange how few very literate people are not aware of TYPEE, OMOO, BENITO CERENO, etc.
Lol, it’s been a few decades since I read “White Noise” so I’m due for a re-read! Indeed I have read every word of “Clarel,” and will even argue that it’s great in its very odd and cryptic way. Wrote about it in my essay “Melville’s Secrets.” Once you give in and accept the Miltonic sentence structures and the bristly texture, the weird emotional miasma is mesmerizing. Co-sign on the early Melville novels needing more play!
Wow! I read Moby Dick again several years ago as a well-seasoned adult and was just as flummoxed by the ordeal as I was as a HS senior. I'm all about good dialogue, believable dialogue and admire writers who can craft it so that its doesn't get in the way. Nobody talks or has ever talked the way these characters do. Neither Melville nor Pat Conroy has the knack. I'll stick with Larry McMurtry's earlier stuff.
I love the way Emerson's sphere of influence is broadened here. I would also like to think of the appearance of "not-Ahab" in Chapter 44 not as an error, but a fully intentional manifestation of the inseparable existence of Ahab with Moby-Dick. The referenced passage from Chapter 42 sets us up for this nicely. Melville admired the "deep-diving" of Emerson; Ahab's out-of-body experience might be viewed as a wonderful anti-transcendental image of Emerson's "transparent eyeball" state. I have also reached the age of Ahab, and may now have to take the journey again myself. Thank you.
Great idea to put Ahab's madness in parallel with the "transparent eyeball" passage. Thanks!
Poor Ahab just can't tap into the "perpetual presence of the sublime" that RWE feels under the stars at night. His nighttime meditations take him to much darker places, eh?
Those correspondences are really kind of eerie… The American undermind.
My working theory is that Emerson was the advance guard of the American Renaissance—that he saw all the literary possibilities, before anyone else, but maybe because he was trained as a minister, decided on a fairly narrow and abstract path for himself. There's also a series of entries where he basically maps out Thoreau's whole literary and intellectual career long before he even met Thoreau.
Please tell me you're writing a book that will elaborate this theory?
I’ll add it to the list of books I should write!
Hahah... Heard. This one should get pride of place, though.
I always saw the novel as a metaphor for the USA. Always and for ever searching for enemy’s , always ending at the bottom of the sea. I understand my readings is not even scratching the surface of this great novel. So i will make the journey once’s more. Wish me luck.
For your next assignment, Mr. Crain, I would like you to draw out the correspondences between MOBY-DICK and, ahem, WHITE NOISE.
Have you actually read every word or even most of the words in CLAREL? If so, dude . . . .
Such a lovely piece. Thank you for writing it. Decades ago I put WHITE-JACKET in print in a Signet Classics edition. It is strange how few very literate people are not aware of TYPEE, OMOO, BENITO CERENO, etc.
Lol, it’s been a few decades since I read “White Noise” so I’m due for a re-read! Indeed I have read every word of “Clarel,” and will even argue that it’s great in its very odd and cryptic way. Wrote about it in my essay “Melville’s Secrets.” Once you give in and accept the Miltonic sentence structures and the bristly texture, the weird emotional miasma is mesmerizing. Co-sign on the early Melville novels needing more play!
I cheered for the whale.
Before overthinking further , read the Knickerbocker original and spend a winter in Bequia learning the harpooner's trade
https://x.com/RussellSeitz/status/1955814987651272870
Wow! I read Moby Dick again several years ago as a well-seasoned adult and was just as flummoxed by the ordeal as I was as a HS senior. I'm all about good dialogue, believable dialogue and admire writers who can craft it so that its doesn't get in the way. Nobody talks or has ever talked the way these characters do. Neither Melville nor Pat Conroy has the knack. I'll stick with Larry McMurtry's earlier stuff.