Moby Dick and September 11th
While reading the final chapters of Moby Dick, I could not help being reminded at several points of the September 11th attacks.
The first thing that made me think of this was the description that opens Ch. 132, preceding the initial attack of Moby Dick: "It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure." A similar idea is found in Ch. 119: "In these resplendent Japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all storms, the Typhoon. It will
sometimes burst from out that cloudless sky, like an exploding bomb upon a dazed and sleepy town." In this section there are also ruminations by the characters (incl. Ahab) on the sheer beauty of the day, as well as descriptions of the grace and peacefulness of Moby Dick swimming accompanied by birds. On September 11th, having been in New York City at the time I can attest that it was indeed a beautiful, "steel blue" day such as that. 81 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. All a prelude to an unthinkable, colossal disaster, just as in Moby Dick.
Something else that made me think of it is when Moby Dick, after decimating the whaling boats, takes aim at the Pequod: that excruciating period of time as Moby Dick approaches, when everyone is aware of the impending disaster (e.g. Starbuck panics that he is about to die), yet is completely powerless to do anything about it and can only watch it unfold. This reminded me so much of watching the video of the attacks, seeing the planes in the sky a mile or so from the buildings, making their inevitable, deadly approach. And the feeling of powerlessness, awe, and horror while watching it all transpire.
While this book is perhaps best-known for its big ideas and broad strokes, what I liked most about it was just these kinds of incisive details and subtle truths, relevant as much today as then and before.
PS - Some have compared George W. Bush's quest to democratize the Middle East to that of Captain Ahab. Interesting, though I think Don Quixote is the more apt metaphor in that case.
