Books

Moby Dick and All things Shining

I read Moby Dick for the first time in either 8th or 9th grade. I remembered it as an action thriller about whaling where Ahab got his come uppence. I also remember that it was slow moving and difficult to get into. I wrote a book report about it and I missed the whole thing, as I reflect on it now. The reason I am rereading it again for the first time is because it is a main part of another book on the list- "All Things Shining" which I will probably reread after I finish Moby Dick. A third book on the list, "The Wheelwright's Shop", was also mentioned in the book. One thing leads to another... interesting. More to come as I figure it out.

I understand now why this book was so difficult. Melville is close to Shakespeare in his poetic style and word usage. He has great soliloquies and displays wonderful passion, and profound darkness in this great tragedy even as he describes the qualities of whiteness as applied to Moby Dick.

I just finished chapter 88, and I see more and more why this book was difficult, at any age. I know the outline of what happens. Suspense is building in me. 88 chapters and according to my kindle I am only about two-thirds done. If I were to count the chapters  wherein adventure lies thus far, probably there are ten or twenty that actually tell the story.

The rest is a virtual manual about whales and whaling. Ishmael starts out applying for a job on the whaling ship, and to that point, his experience has been with merchant ships. It's is astounding how  he manages to put in his memoir- Moby Dick- such great detail about everything: the face of the whale, the whale's tail, the breathing apparatus of the whale, the sperm mist, the kinds of whales, where they are found, the whaling boats, the whalers themselves, and so on. In between all of this he tells the tale of the pursuit of the great white whale and the monomaniacal captain Ahab. When I first read this, I was unable to appreciate all the details that Ishmael brings out. I wanted adventure, not a how to book about whales, and that frustrated me.

And I would not call this (as one of those popular how-to books) "Whaling for Dummies". It is challenging, and I realize that  whaling takes brains and brawn if it is to be done at all. I guess I prefer that it not be done. The size of the whales hunted in the 1800s seems to be much larger than those around today. Is that because those whales were older, lived longer  and whaling was more difficult then than it is now? And today, whales in general  are  severely depleted because modern hunting makes an uneven playing field.

I took time off from Moby Dick to re-read "All Things Shining" which got me into Moby Dick. ATS is an attempt to put meaning into life that for many has become meaningless. The authors trace human responses to situations from the gods of homer, through monotheism and Jesus, Augustine, Dante, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche and others. Generally, they claim, while with the homeric gods, there was a response of wonder and gratitude to the things which happen in life (all because of playful gods), with the arrival of Christianity, there was more of God's will which determined things, and the acceptance of that will. A person could go against that will and sin, but better not. This is illustrated in Dante's Divine Comedy. This attitude continued through the time of Aquinas and declined with the enlightenment period and the work of Descartes. People took more responsibility for making things happen, and exercising free will, regardless of the will of God.. With Kant, the responsibility extended to placing meaning on life according to subjective perceptions, and further devolved into nihilism (no meaning to life) with Nietzsche. ATS suggests that persons can overcome this nihilism by searching for the shining things in life, although all things do not shine. The authors of ATS use Melville's whaling saga to illustrate the various characters coming to grips with life, coping with it, and shining or not shining through it.

Moby Dick is an iconoclastic type novel, and when Melville writes to his friend about the terrible book he is writing, he is describing the iconoclastic nature of the book, I think. Melville is putting many different notions of religion on an equal par, allowing for small totems to be the same as the almighty that is preached from the pulpits of presbyterian churches in New England.

The authors of ATS interpret Melville as a way to put meaning back into life by accepting all kinds of gods as acting in modern life. And so they suggest that we look for the shining things in life, and remind us that all things do not shine.

I do not accept the premise that: "God is dead, therefore life is meaningless." God may be dead, but for me life has meaning. It may not be to divine the will of God and so act in life. Rather life has meaning because we are here. We have each other to care about, to work for, to make life better. It does not have to end with a heavenly aura where we all get along in an afterlife. We appreciate the beauty, the love, the shining, and move on, having done what we could to foster and enhance it all. Perhaps Melville moves us toward this attitude. I am not convinced of that. Maybe ATS is a valid attempt to do that, and again, I am not convinced in all the conclusions reached in that book. To give meaning to life by resurrecting the Homeric gods is substituting where no substitution is needed. Things happen, we should have an attitude of wonder, thankfulness, look for the shining, and most of all we should shine.