Call me Ahab?

[steven somsen]

I've always been intrigued what this book is really about. All explanations I've read sofar always are sort of superficial or higly intellectual. They never really responded with me.
Recently I came across Jed Mckenna's second book: Spiritual incorrect enlightenment. I don't consider this (Mckenna's) a well written book but then my main interest is not literature but something else. Mckenna's perspective is difficult (for the mind) but throws a very intrigueing (to me) light on the something else Ahab/Ishmael/Melville was after: truth, freedom, waking up from the dream....
Liberté ou la Mort.
What an example this Ahab is. And what a book Melville has written.

Steven Somsen

[gallantentry]

IMHO: The idea behind Ahab reflects man on the journey or road of bitterness as revenge might have it. This is a 'copy' if you will, not literally but much of the idea behind the book of Jonah and the whale. Ishmael was warned by Elijah, and ignored God's warning. When man ignores God's warning he often prepares a storm and a fish of immense proportions to get our attention and turn our life back to Him. God used Ahab and his hardened heart to discipline Ishmael for his disobedience. This is a book of God's sovereignty in spite of ourselves, He will accomplish that which He wills in spite of our rebelliousness to Him. It is also a story of God's salvation...we all go through storms in our life, we all have whales we seek to destroy in our past, but we must choose to leave the past and in many cases forgive. Many people like Ahab are angry at God for allowing us to suffer, and when all we can see is the suffering on our part, then we become bitter and selfish like Ahab. We have Many philosophies in this literary masterpiece. I perceive that Melville was a Christian.

[gallantentry]

The reply was intended for a different poster. Sorry...

[Kafka's Crow]

Just finished reading Moby Dick. I dodged it throughout my university years but now I am amazed by the sheer depth and singular precision of the vision here. I think Melville is after his own whale in this book. This whale is called 'The Great American Epic.' The novel is obssessed with one idea. There is so much possibility, so many ways the story could go but it takes the road never taken in American Literature: the epic genre. The use of Quaker speech is a medium to convey epic grandeur. Ihab reminds of Shakespeare's Lear and Milton's Satan. The aboslutely singular focus on whale and whaling is like Ihab's obsession for Moby Dick. The writer has found his subject and sticks to it single-mindedly. All other themes pass through the book. There are Biblical overtones and references, there is the theme of friendship, bravery, adventure, discovery. There are so many directions the story could take but Ihab keeps it focussed on Moby Dick as Melville keeps it focussed on the epic genre although at times he crosses the boundary over to the mock-epic. Melville is sailing in the ocean of American Literature after the great epic which totally consumes him and his work here. Does he succeed or does he fail like his protagonist? The great book does really fizzle out in the end without reaching the tragic heights of a great work of this sort. All Biblical references are to borrow the grandeur of the Old Testament writings. This does throw the reader off course but these references come and go like so many other themes. I don't think that it is a religious or even a traditionally 'moral' work. It is a thoroughly literary work, it is about great literature, literary creation and a soul consumed by the dream of literary greatness.

[ktr]

it was like, about the civil war dudes, come on. he saw it coming, the whale = slavery.

[Kafka's Crow]

it was like, about the civil war dudes, come on. he saw it coming, the whale = slavery.

Wasn't it about 9/11? "He saw it coming."