I find it very hard to write about book. Moby Dick is a long, sometimes amazing, sometimes a burden, kind of book.
Since a resume of the action would be more than pointless, I’d like to present the ideas that struck my attention the most.
The honor and glory of whaling 🔗
The entire action of the book revolves about poaching. And, to be honest, I never thought about that kind of activity. And I never thought about poachers or how they think . The nature of this activity naturally creates a feeling of repulsion and while the act of poaching at the time this book came out (and throughout history) had a continuosly changing status, the uniqueness of this point of view does spark some contradictory thoughts. Not necessarily about the ethics of poaching but rather about the people that do it. It was a reminder that all activities, moral or imoral, legal or illegal, cruel or tender are after all, done by us humans.
Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish 🔗
And another thing that I always looked over is that illegal activities have unwritten rules. And whaling does too.
The principal “laws” of whaling are:
- A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it
- A Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it
While these rules may seem queer (a word which I love and which appeared exactly 98 times throughout the book), they became very clear after the parallel between whaling and colonialism made by the author. And after all,
"What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties of the World but Loose-Fish?
What are all men's minds and opinions but Loose-Fish?
What is the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish?
What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but Loose-Fish?
What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish?
And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish,too?"
Motivational quotes in a 1880 book?? 🔗
I was surprised to find a life heuristic in the book. Its no wonder a lone sailor would have such thoughts but I do wonder where the “ups-and-downs idea” was first stated.
There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through
fixed gradations, and at the last one pause: -through infancy's unconcious spell,
boyhood's thoughtless faith, adolescence doubt(the common doom), then scepticism, then disbelief
resting at last in manhood's pondering repose of If.
But once gone through, we trace the round again;[...] Where lies the final harbor,
whence we unmoor no more?
And at the end my favourite quote from the book 🔗
Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!
Final thoughts 🔗
Overall the book was/wasn’t a pleasant experience so it earned a 4/2 stars rating (I have very mixed feelings about it). And I would like to thank Daria for referencing this book.
