WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.220 Okay, let's unpack this. I want you to imagine, 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:05.139 just for a moment, that you are standing on the 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:08.480 absolute edge of your life. And I don't mean 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:10.339 that metaphorically. I mean you are standing 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:13.000 right on the precipice of the known world. Behind 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:17.359 you is everything safe, your job, your warm bed, 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:20.079 you know, the predictable, boring rhythm of land. 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:22.440 Oh, my routine. The routine. And ahead of you, 00:00:22.519 --> 00:00:27.120 it's just a void. It is a vast, freezing, howling 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:30.670 ocean. And it's filled with monsters that are 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:34.250 quite literally large enough to smash a wooden 00:00:34.250 --> 00:00:36.689 ship into toothpicks. That's a terrifying image 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:38.570 when you frame it that way. I mean, most of us, 00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:40.450 when we stand on that edge, we take a step back. 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:42.909 Of course. We choose safety. You choose safety. 00:00:43.049 --> 00:00:45.670 Exactly. But imagine you don't step back. Imagine 00:00:45.670 --> 00:00:47.649 you look at that black water and you think, yes. 00:00:48.109 --> 00:00:50.710 That that is the cure. Right. You sign your life 00:00:50.710 --> 00:00:53.090 away for three, maybe four years to live in a 00:00:53.090 --> 00:00:55.329 floating wooden factory that just smells of blood 00:00:55.329 --> 00:00:57.490 and grease just to chase the biggest creature 00:00:57.490 --> 00:01:00.469 on Earth. That is the headspace we are entering 00:01:00.469 --> 00:01:04.170 today. And that distinction is so vital for the 00:01:04.170 --> 00:01:06.670 characters we're looking at today. This leap 00:01:06.670 --> 00:01:09.930 into the unknown isn't. It's not a career move. 00:01:10.090 --> 00:01:12.370 It's not a gap year. Right. It is a psychological 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:14.950 necessity. It's a survival mechanism. Welcome 00:01:14.950 --> 00:01:17.950 to the Deep Dive. Today we are tackling a beast 00:01:17.950 --> 00:01:21.129 of a text, a true leviathan. We are looking at 00:01:21.129 --> 00:01:23.909 the opening movement chapters 1 through 24 of 00:01:23.909 --> 00:01:27.829 Herman Melville's Moby Dick or The Whale. And 00:01:27.829 --> 00:01:30.170 I can feel people tensing up already. I know. 00:01:30.349 --> 00:01:32.909 But before you have flashbacks to high school 00:01:32.909 --> 00:01:36.060 English class and, you know. Dry symbolism. Let 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:38.120 me just stop you. We aren't just retelling a 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.140 story about a fish. Not at all. In fact, if you 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:42.260 read these opening chapters with fresh eyes, 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:44.659 you realize the whale is barely even a concept 00:01:44.659 --> 00:01:47.260 yet. It's a rumor. A phantom. A phantom, exactly. 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:49.579 What we're really looking at is a singular, incredibly 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.400 detailed account of a man named Ishmael. We're 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.140 examining the anatomy of a decision. Why does 00:01:55.140 --> 00:01:58.659 a man abandon civilization? It's a story of deep 00:01:58.659 --> 00:02:01.000 depression, strange economics, and probably the 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 most beautiful, unlikely friendship in American 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.299 literature. And the vibe. We have to set the 00:02:06.299 --> 00:02:09.020 scene for you because it is so specific. We aren't 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:12.159 in the modern world. We are in mid -19th century 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:14.659 New England. It's winter. Freezing. It's freezing 00:02:14.659 --> 00:02:16.960 cold. The streets are gritty. And the entire 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:19.419 world runs on whale oil. That is the crucial 00:02:19.419 --> 00:02:21.539 context we always forget. I mean, we live in 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:24.439 a world of electricity and LEDs. But in 1851, 00:02:24.539 --> 00:02:26.340 if you wanted light in the darkness, if you wanted 00:02:26.340 --> 00:02:28.539 to read a book after sunset, if you wanted a 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:31.199 lighthouse to function, you needed the whale. 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:33.780 This was the petroleum industry of its day. It 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:36.819 was. But imagine if drilling for oil required 00:02:36.819 --> 00:02:39.680 you to row a small boat up to a living, breathing 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:42.139 dinosaur and just stab it with a spear. Yeah, 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:44.759 it puts the danger of modern industry into some 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:48.080 perspective. So our mission today is to unpack 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:50.539 the psychology of the loomings, that initial 00:02:50.539 --> 00:02:53.199 urge to go to sea. We're going to analyze the 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:55.439 strange societal mix of whaling port like New 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:57.419 Bedford, meet the cast of characters boarding 00:02:57.419 --> 00:03:00.900 the ship Pequod, and figure out why this 170 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:02.759 -year -old story feels so incredibly urgent right 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:05.520 now. And it matters because it's a look at human 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.419 nature under extreme pressure. It is about the 00:03:08.419 --> 00:03:11.379 confrontation with the other people and things 00:03:11.379 --> 00:03:13.340 that are terrifyingly different from us. Right. 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:16.020 And ultimately, it's about how we try to find 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:18.659 meaning in a universe that seems largely indifferent 00:03:18.659 --> 00:03:21.340 to whether we live or die. So let's jump right 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:23.520 in. Segment one, the psychology of loomings. 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:26.979 The book opens with, I mean, maybe the three 00:03:26.979 --> 00:03:30.599 most famous words in literature. Call me Ishmael. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.879 It is so deceptive in its simplicity, isn't it? 00:03:33.879 --> 00:03:35.599 Call me Ishmael. I mean, stop and think about 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:37.599 what that actually means. He doesn't say, my 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:39.919 name is Ishmael. Right. He says, call me. Call 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.360 me. It immediately sets up this specific relationship 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:46.340 between the narrator and us, the reader. It feels 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:48.520 like an alias. It feels like a persona he's adopting 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:50.520 just for this story. It's like he's inviting 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.000 us into a secret. And the name itself carries 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.740 so much baggage. Oh, massive baggage. Biblically, 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.650 Ishmael was the outcast. The son of Hagar, you 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:01.270 know, sent away into the desert. The wanderer, 00:04:01.270 --> 00:04:03.590 the man whose hand was against every man and 00:04:03.590 --> 00:04:05.889 every man's hand against him. So before he even 00:04:05.889 --> 00:04:08.909 tells us a single fact about his life, he has 00:04:08.909 --> 00:04:12.710 told us his identity. I am the exile. I am the 00:04:12.710 --> 00:04:15.150 one who doesn't fit. Precisely. And he tells 00:04:15.150 --> 00:04:17.149 us right away why he's doing this. He doesn't 00:04:17.149 --> 00:04:18.629 say he wants to get rich or see the world. He 00:04:18.629 --> 00:04:21.310 says, it is a way I have of driving off the spleen 00:04:21.310 --> 00:04:23.629 and regulating the circulation. Right. And he 00:04:23.629 --> 00:04:26.649 describes this very specific, very heavy state 00:04:26.649 --> 00:04:28.709 of mind. He talks about finding himself growing 00:04:28.709 --> 00:04:32.310 grim about the mouth. I love that phrase. grim 00:04:32.310 --> 00:04:34.629 about the mouth. It's such a physical description 00:04:34.629 --> 00:04:36.889 of sadness. You can literally see the frown, 00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:39.410 the set jaw. It's so evocative. But then he goes 00:04:39.410 --> 00:04:42.050 even deeper. He says, whenever it is a damp, 00:04:42.209 --> 00:04:46.209 drizzly November in my soul. That is just poetry. 00:04:46.730 --> 00:04:49.170 A November in my soul. We've all felt that, right? 00:04:49.209 --> 00:04:51.870 That gray, heavy, penetrating feeling where nothing 00:04:51.870 --> 00:04:54.550 seems to have color or warmth? Absolutely. It's 00:04:54.550 --> 00:04:56.430 a description of clinical depression, really. 00:04:56.610 --> 00:04:58.910 And Ishmael describes the symptoms of this soul 00:04:58.910 --> 00:05:02.050 sickness with frightening clarity. He says he 00:05:02.050 --> 00:05:05.129 finds himself involuntarily pausing before coffin 00:05:05.129 --> 00:05:07.850 warehouses and bringing up the rear of every 00:05:07.850 --> 00:05:10.740 funeral I meet. That is dark. He's literally 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:13.139 stalking funerals. He's drawn to the imagery 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:15.839 of death. It's very dark. It implies a fascination 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:18.699 with the end. And he admits that his hypos, his 00:05:18.699 --> 00:05:21.339 hypochondria or low spirits, get such an upper 00:05:21.339 --> 00:05:24.160 hand of him that he requires a strong moral principle 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:27.079 to prevent him from deliberately stepping into 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:29.000 the street and methodically knocking people's 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.639 hats off. So he's not just sad. He's aggressive. 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:34.899 He's pent up. He's got this violent impulse he's 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:37.500 trying to control. He is volatile. And this is 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:40.339 the key to the whole opening. realizes he is 00:05:40.339 --> 00:05:42.720 dangerous to himself and others and his solution 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:46.199 isn't therapy which didn't really exist and it 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:49.300 isn't medication it's the ocean he calls it his 00:05:49.300 --> 00:05:52.360 substitute for pistol and ball precisely which 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:55.199 is so stark he references cato the roman philosopher 00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:57.040 who committed suicide by falling on his sword 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:00.949 ishmael is saying very clearly I am suicidal, 00:06:01.170 --> 00:06:03.230 but instead of killing myself, I am going to 00:06:03.230 --> 00:06:05.569 throw myself into the wildest, most monstrous 00:06:05.569 --> 00:06:07.829 environment possible. He quietly takes to the 00:06:07.829 --> 00:06:10.129 ship. Yeah, it's a form of passive suicide or 00:06:10.129 --> 00:06:11.949 maybe a gamble with fate. You know, if the ocean 00:06:11.949 --> 00:06:14.949 kills me, fine. If it spares me, I'm cured. But 00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:17.810 he argues he isn't alone in this feeling. He 00:06:17.810 --> 00:06:21.350 pivots to this beautiful observation of the water 00:06:21.350 --> 00:06:23.810 gazers in Manhattan. This is one of my favorite 00:06:23.810 --> 00:06:26.589 passages in the entire book. He describes the 00:06:26.589 --> 00:06:30.029 city of Manhattan, belted round by wharves. And 00:06:30.029 --> 00:06:32.730 he asks us to just look at the crowds. It's Sunday. 00:06:33.389 --> 00:06:36.449 Commerce has stopped. And what do people do? 00:06:36.709 --> 00:06:39.949 They go to the water. Thousands of them. Thousands 00:06:39.949 --> 00:06:42.949 of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Yeah. 00:06:42.990 --> 00:06:46.170 He says they are posted like silent sentinels. 00:06:46.410 --> 00:06:48.949 They leave their desks, their counters, their 00:06:48.949 --> 00:06:51.709 lath and plaster lives, which I guess means their 00:06:51.709 --> 00:06:54.310 artificial indoor lives. Yeah, their sheetrock 00:06:54.310 --> 00:06:56.069 lives. And they just go stand at the edge of 00:06:56.069 --> 00:06:58.649 the water and they just look out. What fascinates 00:06:58.649 --> 00:07:00.970 me here is the insight Ishmael offers on why 00:07:00.970 --> 00:07:03.550 we do this. He suggests there is a magic in water. 00:07:03.829 --> 00:07:06.449 He says meditation and water are wedded forever. 00:07:06.730 --> 00:07:08.850 You can't separate them. He even brings up the 00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:11.689 myth of Narcissus. He does. Narcissus, the figure 00:07:11.689 --> 00:07:13.610 who fell in love with his own reflection in the 00:07:13.610 --> 00:07:15.750 fountain and then drowned trying to embrace it. 00:07:16.009 --> 00:07:18.129 Ishmael suggests that what we all see in the 00:07:18.129 --> 00:07:21.810 water, in rivers and oceans, is the ungraspable 00:07:21.810 --> 00:07:23.949 phantom of life. It's the key to everything. 00:07:24.649 --> 00:07:26.910 We are looking for something deep within ourselves 00:07:26.910 --> 00:07:29.449 that we can't quite catch, and we feel like the 00:07:29.449 --> 00:07:32.050 answer is in the deep. So Ishmael decides to 00:07:32.050 --> 00:07:35.149 go. He's going to chase that phantom. But he 00:07:35.149 --> 00:07:37.089 makes a point of saying he doesn't go as a passenger. 00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:39.629 He goes as a simple sailor. This is a critical 00:07:39.629 --> 00:07:41.730 distinction in the text about status and pride. 00:07:42.170 --> 00:07:44.910 He notes that passengers pay, but sailors are 00:07:44.910 --> 00:07:47.110 paid. He calls it the difference between paying 00:07:47.110 --> 00:07:49.610 and being paid. And he has this little riff on 00:07:49.610 --> 00:07:52.170 how weird it is that we look down on being paid. 00:07:52.290 --> 00:07:54.829 He says the act of paying is an infliction. It 00:07:54.829 --> 00:07:58.189 hurts to part with money. But being paid, that's 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:00.980 urbane. That's sophisticated. He's flipping the 00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:03.120 whole class structure on its head. He mentions 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:04.879 he was a schoolmaster before this. Right, he 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:07.560 was a teacher. Making the tallest boy stand in 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:09.180 awe of you. And now he's going to have to jump 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:11.360 when some captain says jump. He calls it the 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.560 universal thump. The universal thump. It's a 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:15.899 very stoic philosophy. Everyone gets thumped 00:08:15.899 --> 00:08:18.199 by someone. He says, who ain't a slave? Tell 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:20.980 me that. By submitting to the discipline of the 00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:23.509 ship. By giving up his ego and just being a set 00:08:23.509 --> 00:08:26.230 of hands, he's actually finding a weird kind 00:08:26.230 --> 00:08:28.769 of freedom. He's letting go of the burden of 00:08:28.769 --> 00:08:31.649 being someone. Exactly. But there's also this 00:08:31.649 --> 00:08:34.850 sense of destiny here. He talks about the fates. 00:08:34.990 --> 00:08:37.929 Yes, the invisible police officer of the fates. 00:08:38.409 --> 00:08:40.929 He imagines his whaling voyage as just a brief 00:08:40.929 --> 00:08:44.090 interlude in a grand cosmic playbill he listed 00:08:44.090 --> 00:08:47.070 out like a theater program. Grand contested election 00:08:47.070 --> 00:08:50.370 for the presidency, whaling voyage by one Ishmael, 00:08:50.409 --> 00:08:53.409 bloody battle in Afghanistan. It's so funny that 00:08:53.409 --> 00:08:55.610 he puts his little trip right between these huge 00:08:55.610 --> 00:08:58.289 world historical events. It suggests he feels 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:00.620 like a puppet. He thinks he's making a choice, 00:09:00.820 --> 00:09:03.139 but he suspects he's being cajoled into it by 00:09:03.139 --> 00:09:05.820 the stage managers of the universe and the motivation 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:08.379 they use to cajole him. The whale. The great 00:09:08.379 --> 00:09:11.340 whale himself. He is obsessed. He talks about 00:09:11.340 --> 00:09:15.139 the portentous and mysterious monster and wild 00:09:15.139 --> 00:09:18.659 and distant seas. And that one specific image, 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:22.679 one grand hooded phantom like a snow hill in 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:25.539 the air. That is Moby Dick. though he doesn't 00:09:25.539 --> 00:09:28.460 name him yet. That white mountain of whale is 00:09:28.460 --> 00:09:31.080 the magnet pulling him out of his damp November 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:33.720 soul. He wants to see the thing that nobody else 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:36.580 has seen. So, driven by this phantom, he packs 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:39.440 his carpet bag and heads to New Bedford. And 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:41.379 this is where the atmosphere gets really, really 00:09:41.379 --> 00:09:44.720 thick. Segment two, the spider inn and the atmosphere 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:46.539 of New Bedford. We have to talk about the setting 00:09:46.539 --> 00:09:49.279 here. Ishmael arrives in December. He describes 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:52.710 it as... bitingly cold. Not a welcoming tourist 00:09:52.710 --> 00:09:55.409 town. No, he talks about blocks of blackness 00:09:55.409 --> 00:09:58.110 instead of houses. It's gritty. It's industrial. 00:09:58.389 --> 00:10:00.909 And Ishmael is broke. He is looking for the cheapest 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:03.269 place possible. He passes the crossed harpoons 00:10:03.269 --> 00:10:05.429 and the swordfish in, but they look too jolly 00:10:05.429 --> 00:10:07.289 and expensive. He says the windows are glowing. 00:10:07.450 --> 00:10:10.149 Right. They look warm. He needs somewhere grim 00:10:10.149 --> 00:10:12.690 that matches his wallet and his mood. And he 00:10:12.690 --> 00:10:15.529 finds it, the Spouter Inn. And the landlord is 00:10:15.529 --> 00:10:17.429 named Peter Coffin. You just can't make that 00:10:17.429 --> 00:10:19.809 up. Peter Coffin feels like a bad omen from the 00:10:19.809 --> 00:10:22.309 jump. It's certainly on the nose. The building 00:10:22.309 --> 00:10:25.529 is described as gable -ended and leaning, standing 00:10:25.529 --> 00:10:27.850 on a bleak corner where the wind, which he calls 00:10:27.850 --> 00:10:32.070 uroclodon, is just howling. And uroclodon. That's 00:10:32.070 --> 00:10:34.370 a reference, isn't it? A deep one. It's from 00:10:34.370 --> 00:10:36.870 the Bible. It's the name of the storm that shipwrecked 00:10:36.870 --> 00:10:39.269 St. Paul. So again, Melville is just layering 00:10:39.269 --> 00:10:41.730 on the doom. He goes inside, and the first thing 00:10:41.730 --> 00:10:44.049 that grabs his attention, and the listener's 00:10:44.049 --> 00:10:47.860 imagination, is this painting in the entry. He 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:50.179 spends pages on this painting. This painting 00:10:50.179 --> 00:10:52.779 is a masterpiece of confusion. Ishmael calls 00:10:52.779 --> 00:10:56.139 it chaos bewitched. It's so besmoked and defaced 00:10:56.139 --> 00:10:58.620 by years of whale oil fumes and time that he 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:00.620 can't tell what it is. He's just staring at it, 00:11:00.659 --> 00:11:02.240 trying to figure it out. He spends all this time 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:04.860 analyzing it, coming up with theories. He asks 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:07.940 if it's the Black Sea in a gale, a blasted heath. 00:11:08.169 --> 00:11:11.070 The unnatural combat of the four primal elements. 00:11:11.230 --> 00:11:12.830 But eventually he figures it out. It's a whale. 00:11:13.009 --> 00:11:15.629 It is. It depicts a ship in a hurricane, half 00:11:15.629 --> 00:11:18.110 -foundered, and an exasperated whale purposing 00:11:18.110 --> 00:11:21.009 to spring clean over the craft. Impaling itself 00:11:21.009 --> 00:11:24.509 on the mastheads. It's a picture of mutual destruction. 00:11:24.990 --> 00:11:28.009 The whale destroys the ship, but the ship kills 00:11:28.009 --> 00:11:30.570 the whale. My God. It's the entire plot of the 00:11:30.570 --> 00:11:32.789 book hanging in the lobby. Exactly. It's the 00:11:32.789 --> 00:11:35.309 thesis statement hanging right there as a warning 00:11:35.309 --> 00:11:37.070 sign that nobody reads. And then he moves to 00:11:37.070 --> 00:11:39.009 the bar, which is just as ominous. It's shaped 00:11:39.009 --> 00:11:41.070 like a right whale's head. The actual jawbone. 00:11:41.230 --> 00:11:44.370 Yes. The vast arched bone of the whale's jaw, 00:11:44.470 --> 00:11:47.009 so wide a coach could drive through it. And inside, 00:11:47.330 --> 00:11:49.809 the landlord, Peter Coffin, whom Ishmael calls 00:11:49.809 --> 00:11:52.610 Jonah, is serving up drinks. And Ishmael says 00:11:52.610 --> 00:11:55.789 he sells deliriums in death. Not rum and gin. 00:11:56.690 --> 00:11:59.450 Deliriums and death. So Ishmael needs a bed. 00:12:00.149 --> 00:12:03.190 But the inn is full. This is the classic travel 00:12:03.190 --> 00:12:05.169 nightmare. This is the accommodation crisis. 00:12:05.549 --> 00:12:07.590 The landlord tells him he has to share a bed. 00:12:07.710 --> 00:12:10.049 And not just with anyone. With a harpreneur. 00:12:10.289 --> 00:12:12.370 And the landlord starts teasing him, right? He 00:12:12.370 --> 00:12:14.750 knows Ishmael is a greenhorn. He says the harpreneur 00:12:14.750 --> 00:12:17.570 is dark complexioned. He eats only rare steaks. 00:12:17.769 --> 00:12:20.350 And this is the part that freaks Ishmael out. 00:12:20.450 --> 00:12:23.740 He's currently out peddling his head. Which Ishmael 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:25.919 takes completely literally. Completely literally. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.659 He thinks the man is out selling shrunken human 00:12:28.659 --> 00:12:32.200 heads. He is terrified. He imagines some kind 00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:35.159 of maniac. He tries to sleep on a bench in the 00:12:35.159 --> 00:12:37.580 common room, but it's too cold, too hard. So 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:39.889 he gives in. He resigns himself to the room. 00:12:39.929 --> 00:12:42.570 He goes up, looks around. He sees a savage's 00:12:42.570 --> 00:12:45.690 equipment, a harpoon, a hammock. And then he 00:12:45.690 --> 00:12:48.110 sees this poncho thing that looks like a doormat. 00:12:48.169 --> 00:12:49.950 And he tries it on? He does and says he looks 00:12:49.950 --> 00:12:52.769 like a sight, but the tension is building. He 00:12:52.769 --> 00:12:55.809 gets into bed, trembling. And then late at night, 00:12:55.889 --> 00:12:58.750 the harpooner returns. This brings us to segment 00:12:58.750 --> 00:13:01.429 three, the meeting of Ishmael and Kwee Kwee. 00:13:01.929 --> 00:13:04.929 And honestly, this scene plays out like a horror 00:13:04.929 --> 00:13:07.509 movie that slowly turns into a sitcom. It really 00:13:07.509 --> 00:13:10.129 does. Ishmael is pretending to be asleep, peeking 00:13:10.129 --> 00:13:12.230 out from the sheets. The stranger enters and 00:13:12.230 --> 00:13:15.009 Ishmael gets a look at him. The face is purplish 00:13:15.009 --> 00:13:17.350 yellow and it's covered in these large black 00:13:17.350 --> 00:13:20.429 squares. Tattoos. But Ishmael has never seen 00:13:20.429 --> 00:13:22.809 Polynesian tattoos before. He thinks the guy's 00:13:22.809 --> 00:13:24.610 been in a fight or is sick with some horrible 00:13:24.610 --> 00:13:27.450 tropical disease. Then the man takes off his 00:13:27.450 --> 00:13:29.990 beaver hat and he has no hair, just a little 00:13:29.990 --> 00:13:33.440 scalp knot. Ishmael realizes this is a savage 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.000 from the South Seas, a cannibal. In Ishmael's 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.779 1850s worldview, this is the ultimate other, 00:13:39.899 --> 00:13:42.120 the most terrifying thing you could imagine sharing 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:44.200 a bed with. And then the ritual starts. This 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.500 is what really pushes Ishmael over the edge. 00:13:46.620 --> 00:13:49.340 The guy takes out a little wooden idol. Yo -Yo. 00:13:49.629 --> 00:13:52.570 And he builds a small fire in the fireplace with 00:13:52.570 --> 00:13:55.370 shavings and starts praying to it. Ishmael is 00:13:55.370 --> 00:13:57.649 watching this from under the covers, just petrified. 00:13:57.809 --> 00:14:00.470 He's watching a pagan ritual in a Christian inn 00:14:00.470 --> 00:14:03.190 in Massachusetts. And then the cannibal Kwee 00:14:03.190 --> 00:14:05.769 Kwee gets into bed. And not just that, he brings 00:14:05.769 --> 00:14:08.049 his tomahawk pipe with him. That's the last straw. 00:14:08.210 --> 00:14:10.409 Ishmael loses it. He just starts screaming, landlord, 00:14:10.710 --> 00:14:14.429 watch, angels, save me. And Queequeg is just 00:14:14.429 --> 00:14:16.330 as scared. Imagine you get into your own bed 00:14:16.330 --> 00:14:18.590 and the blankets just start screaming at you. 00:14:18.669 --> 00:14:21.850 He flourishes the tomahawk yelling, The landlord 00:14:21.850 --> 00:14:24.809 has to come in and calm everyone down. He explains 00:14:24.809 --> 00:14:27.129 Queequeg is harmless. He wouldn't harm a hair 00:14:27.129 --> 00:14:30.190 of your head. And here is the pivot point. This 00:14:30.190 --> 00:14:33.210 is where the entire story shifts. Ishmael looks 00:14:33.210 --> 00:14:35.950 at Queequeg, who is now just sitting there calmly 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:39.960 smoking his pipe. And he thinks, Better sleep 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:42.559 with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian. 00:14:42.820 --> 00:14:45.340 That is a profound shift in perspective. It's 00:14:45.340 --> 00:14:48.059 massive. He's realizing that civilization isn't 00:14:48.059 --> 00:14:50.820 about appearance or dogma. It's about behavior. 00:14:51.580 --> 00:14:55.019 He's contrasting this palm sober man with the 00:14:55.019 --> 00:14:57.940 rowdy, dangerous sailors he's seen in the port. 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:00.559 So he turns in. The next morning is hilarious. 00:15:01.139 --> 00:15:03.980 Ishmael wakes up and Queequeg has his arm thrown 00:15:03.980 --> 00:15:07.179 over him. In a matrimonial embrace. Ishmael says 00:15:07.179 --> 00:15:09.220 he couldn't tell Queequeg's tattooed arm from 00:15:09.220 --> 00:15:11.279 the patchwork quilt. They're blended together 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:13.200 visually, which is a great metaphor for how their 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:14.860 identities are going to merge. And the tomahawk 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:17.179 is sleeping between them like a baby. It's such 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:20.000 a tender image for two grown men, one a supposed 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.679 cannibal and one a former school teacher. Queequeg 00:15:22.679 --> 00:15:24.820 wakes up and he is incredibly polite. He gets 00:15:24.820 --> 00:15:27.379 dressed and he puts his boots on under the bed 00:15:27.379 --> 00:15:29.500 for privacy. I love that detail. And then he 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:32.179 shaves with his harpoon. Shaves with his harpoon. 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:35.519 That is a detail that sticks with you. It establishes 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:38.399 his toughness, sure, but also his practicality. 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.659 It's his multi -tool. But the bond really forms 00:15:41.659 --> 00:15:44.539 when Ishmael watches Queequeg later in the day. 00:15:44.740 --> 00:15:47.340 He sees him just sitting there, counting pages 00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:50.039 in a book, whistling, looking just completely 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:53.379 content in his own skin. And Ishmael says, you 00:15:53.379 --> 00:15:56.240 cannot hide the soul. Right. He sees that underneath 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:59.200 all the tattoos and the savage exterior, there 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:02.980 is an honest, kind heart. He decides, I'll try 00:16:02.980 --> 00:16:05.100 a pagan friend, since Christian kindness has 00:16:05.100 --> 00:16:07.919 proved but hollow courtesy. That is a stinging 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:10.759 indictment of his own society. And they get married. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:13.159 Ishmael uses that word. In Queequeg's culture, 00:16:13.299 --> 00:16:15.600 they become bosom friends, which involves smoking 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:17.460 the tomahawk pipe together and splitting all 00:16:17.460 --> 00:16:19.860 their money. Queequeg just gives him half his 00:16:19.860 --> 00:16:22.679 silver $30. It's a total unconditional commitment. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:25.190 They're a team now. They're a team and they share 00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:27.730 a bed again that night. But Ishmael has this 00:16:27.730 --> 00:16:31.009 moment of theological doubt. He's a good Presbyterian. 00:16:31.090 --> 00:16:33.190 Queequeg worships a little wooden idol. Can he 00:16:33.190 --> 00:16:35.850 join in? Can he participate in this pagan ritual? 00:16:36.169 --> 00:16:38.570 It's a real crisis of faith for him. But he works 00:16:38.570 --> 00:16:41.129 through it. This is a theological compromise. 00:16:41.250 --> 00:16:43.970 It's one of the most generous humanistic moments 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:46.870 in the book. Ishmael reasons. What is worship? 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:49.899 It is to do God's will. And what is God's will? 00:16:50.019 --> 00:16:52.840 To treat my neighbor as I would be treated. To 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:56.740 do unto others. Exactly. So he thinks if I want 00:16:56.740 --> 00:16:59.460 Kwee Kwee to join my worship, I should join his. 00:17:00.100 --> 00:17:02.460 So to be a good Christian, he has to participate 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:05.779 in idolatry. He kisses the idol's nose. It's 00:17:05.779 --> 00:17:07.799 beautiful logic. He essentially says, I'll be 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:10.079 an idolater so I can be a good Christian. It 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:12.559 creates a bond that transcends culture, race, 00:17:12.740 --> 00:17:15.480 and religion. He prizes the human connection 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:19.180 over dogmatic purity. So who is this guy? I mean, 00:17:19.180 --> 00:17:22.660 who is Queequeg? Segment four. Queequeg's biography 00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:24.799 and character. Because he's not just some random 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:27.440 sailor. No, he's royalty. He is the son of a 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:30.259 king on the island of Rokavoko. Which is not 00:17:30.259 --> 00:17:32.819 down in any map. True places never are. I love 00:17:32.819 --> 00:17:34.839 that line. It's a classic Melville line, isn't 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:37.529 it? Queequeg's backstory is fascinating. He had 00:17:37.529 --> 00:17:39.710 this burning desire to seek Christendom. He wanted 00:17:39.710 --> 00:17:41.529 to learn the arts of civilization so he could 00:17:41.529 --> 00:17:43.970 go back and help his people improve their happiness. 00:17:44.170 --> 00:17:46.890 So he stowed away. Basically. He climbed up the 00:17:46.890 --> 00:17:48.970 side of a visiting ship and just refused to get 00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:52.490 off. He demanded to be taken. But he gets disillusioned 00:17:52.490 --> 00:17:54.730 pretty quickly. Very quickly. He observes the 00:17:54.730 --> 00:17:57.390 sailors, the whalers, the Christians. He sees 00:17:57.390 --> 00:17:59.369 that they can be just as wicked and miserable 00:17:59.369 --> 00:18:03.009 as any heathen. So he decides not to return home 00:18:03.009 --> 00:18:05.970 yet because he has been stained by Christianity. 00:18:06.410 --> 00:18:09.029 He feels he's not pure enough to ascend the throne. 00:18:09.329 --> 00:18:11.650 There's a funny story about the wheelbarrow that 00:18:11.650 --> 00:18:14.589 illustrates his confusion with our arts. Yes. 00:18:14.589 --> 00:18:16.670 When he first got to Sag Harbor, he didn't know 00:18:16.670 --> 00:18:19.029 how to use a wheelbarrow. So he strapped it to 00:18:19.029 --> 00:18:21.410 his chest and then carried his... heavy sea chest 00:18:21.410 --> 00:18:23.710 on top of it. And people laughed at him. They 00:18:23.710 --> 00:18:26.549 did. But Queequeg counters this with a story 00:18:26.549 --> 00:18:29.269 of a white captain visiting his island for a 00:18:29.269 --> 00:18:32.130 wedding feast. The captain washed his hands in 00:18:32.130 --> 00:18:35.789 the communal punch bowl. It cuts both ways. Manners 00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:38.650 are relative. Civilized is in the eye of the 00:18:38.650 --> 00:18:42.089 beholder. Precisely. Melville is constantly forcing 00:18:42.089 --> 00:18:44.809 us to question what civilized actually means. 00:18:45.230 --> 00:18:48.269 But the real test of Queequeg's character comes 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:50.509 on the little schooner they take to Nantucket. 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:52.630 There's a bumpkin on board who starts mocking 00:18:52.630 --> 00:18:55.750 him. Mimicking him behind his back, making fun 00:18:55.750 --> 00:18:58.390 of his appearance. Queequeg, who's this incredibly 00:18:58.390 --> 00:19:01.529 powerful guy, just flips him over, handles him 00:19:01.529 --> 00:19:04.349 with ease, but doesn't actually hurt him. Then 00:19:04.349 --> 00:19:07.349 a moment later, the main boom of the sail swings 00:19:07.349 --> 00:19:10.349 loose and knocks that same bumpkin overboard 00:19:10.349 --> 00:19:13.349 into the freezing water. Karma. Does Queequeg 00:19:13.349 --> 00:19:16.549 say serves you right? Not at all. He acts instantly. 00:19:16.890 --> 00:19:19.369 First, he secures the boom, saving the ship first, 00:19:19.490 --> 00:19:21.490 which is the professional thing to do. Then he 00:19:21.490 --> 00:19:24.049 dives into the freezing water, swims to the bottom, 00:19:24.190 --> 00:19:27.789 saves the very man who was mocking him and hauls 00:19:27.789 --> 00:19:30.109 him up. He's just totally cool about it. Totally 00:19:30.109 --> 00:19:31.930 cool. He treats it like a minor inconvenience. 00:19:31.990 --> 00:19:35.430 And then he delivers his philosophy. It's a mutual 00:19:35.430 --> 00:19:38.670 joint stock world, he says. We cannibals must 00:19:38.670 --> 00:19:41.450 help these Christians. Oh, that line is just 00:19:41.450 --> 00:19:44.529 dripping with irony. The savage is the one acting 00:19:44.529 --> 00:19:46.789 with Christian charity to save the so -called 00:19:46.789 --> 00:19:49.430 Christian. It's the core message of these early 00:19:49.430 --> 00:19:52.170 chapters. Moral superiority has nothing to do 00:19:52.170 --> 00:19:54.809 with your origin or your religion. It has everything 00:19:54.809 --> 00:19:56.910 to do with your actions. So they finally arrive 00:19:56.910 --> 00:19:59.799 in Nantucket, segment five. And Ishmael describes 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:02.619 Nantucket with such reverence. He calls it a 00:20:02.619 --> 00:20:05.660 hillock and elbow of sand. He says the inhabitants 00:20:05.660 --> 00:20:08.819 are sea hermits who own the oceans like emperor's 00:20:08.819 --> 00:20:11.779 own empires. He talks about how they've divided 00:20:11.779 --> 00:20:14.579 up the whole globe. Let America be the garden, 00:20:14.660 --> 00:20:17.339 but the sea is ours. And before they ship out, 00:20:17.380 --> 00:20:20.039 they go to the whaleman's chapel. This is a heavy. 00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:24.880 heavy scene it is it's a stormy sleety day the 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:27.839 chapel is filled with silent sailors and widows 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:30.400 and ishmael looks at the tablets on the walls 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:33.680 they're all memorials to men lost at sea the 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:35.980 inscriptions are brutal towed out of sight by 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:39.839 whales lost in a typhoon stove by a whale it 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.240 drives home the stark reality there is death 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.500 in this business this is not a game it's a total 00:20:44.500 --> 00:20:46.500 reality check you aren't just going on an adventure 00:20:46.500 --> 00:20:48.920 you are going to a place where there are no gravestones 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:51.109 and then father Mapple enters. The preacher. 00:20:51.430 --> 00:20:54.289 And he's a former harpooner himself. A giant 00:20:54.289 --> 00:20:56.609 of a man. And the pulpit. We have to talk about 00:20:56.609 --> 00:20:59.450 the pulpit. It's shaped like a ship's prow. And 00:20:59.450 --> 00:21:02.730 it has no stairs. It has a rope ladder. And Mapple 00:21:02.730 --> 00:21:05.509 climbs up the ladder hand over hand like a sailor. 00:21:05.690 --> 00:21:08.630 And then, this is the key detail, he pulls the 00:21:08.630 --> 00:21:11.109 ladder up after him. He cuts himself off from 00:21:11.109 --> 00:21:13.230 the congregation. He is spiritually isolated 00:21:13.230 --> 00:21:16.750 in his little Quebec, as Ishmael calls it. He 00:21:16.750 --> 00:21:19.589 is alone with God and the truth. And he delivers 00:21:19.589 --> 00:21:23.029 the sermon. The topic, of course, is Jonah. Jonah 00:21:23.029 --> 00:21:25.710 and the whale. It had to be. But Mapple's interpretation 00:21:25.710 --> 00:21:28.970 is very specific. He says Jonah's sin wasn't 00:21:28.970 --> 00:21:33.369 just fear. It was disobedience, a willful disobedience. 00:21:33.470 --> 00:21:36.069 He tried to flee from God's command. He tried 00:21:36.069 --> 00:21:38.509 to go to Tarshish when he was ordered in Nineveh. 00:21:38.609 --> 00:21:40.849 He tried to run away from his duty. And the whale 00:21:40.849 --> 00:21:42.970 was the punishment, but it was also his salvation. 00:21:43.789 --> 00:21:45.710 Mapple talks about the nature of repentance. 00:21:46.049 --> 00:21:48.309 He says true repentance is being grateful for 00:21:48.309 --> 00:21:50.470 the punishment, not just clamoring for a pardon. 00:21:50.509 --> 00:21:52.450 You have to embrace the consequences. And the 00:21:52.450 --> 00:21:55.049 final lesson. The lesson for the pilot, which 00:21:55.049 --> 00:21:57.569 is Mapple, and by extension, any moral leader, 00:21:57.730 --> 00:22:01.009 is to preach truth to the face of falsehood, 00:22:01.049 --> 00:22:03.990 no matter how hard it is. Woe to him who seeks 00:22:03.990 --> 00:22:06.509 to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed 00:22:06.509 --> 00:22:09.190 them into a gale. That is a powerful, dangerous 00:22:09.190 --> 00:22:13.430 line. It means do not offer false comfort. Do 00:22:13.430 --> 00:22:15.869 not try to smooth things over when reality is 00:22:15.869 --> 00:22:18.869 a storm. You have to face the storm. It's a perfect 00:22:18.869 --> 00:22:21.730 foreshadowing of the hard truths the Pequod is 00:22:21.730 --> 00:22:24.450 about to face. You can't pour oil on Captain 00:22:24.450 --> 00:22:26.849 Ahab's gale. Speaking of the Pequod, let's get 00:22:26.849 --> 00:22:29.670 to the ship. Segment six, the ship and the owners. 00:22:29.950 --> 00:22:33.069 So Queequeg's idol, Yojo, insists that Ishmael 00:22:33.069 --> 00:22:35.430 has to be the one to choose the ship. Queequeg 00:22:35.430 --> 00:22:37.230 says Yojo has told him the selection must be 00:22:37.230 --> 00:22:39.799 made by the white man, so... Ishmael has the 00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:42.500 responsibility. So Ishmael tours the docks. He 00:22:42.500 --> 00:22:45.180 looks at three ships, the Devil Dam, the Tipit, 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:47.220 and the Pequod. And he chooses the Pequod. And 00:22:47.220 --> 00:22:49.799 what a ship. Ishmael calls it a cannibal of a 00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:52.460 craft. It's old, weather -stained, melancholy, 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:55.180 but the details are just gruesome. It is decked 00:22:55.180 --> 00:22:57.500 with whale bones. The tiller is a whale's jawbone. 00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:00.180 The pins for the ropes are polished whale teeth. 00:23:00.380 --> 00:23:02.450 It's a ship made of death. It's a machine built 00:23:02.450 --> 00:23:04.490 from the bones of its previous victims. It's 00:23:04.490 --> 00:23:07.130 ancient and scarred. And on deck, he meets the 00:23:07.130 --> 00:23:09.809 owners, Captain Peleg and Captain Bildad. These 00:23:09.809 --> 00:23:13.009 two are a great pair, a real comedy duo. They 00:23:13.009 --> 00:23:17.009 are a study in contrast. Peleg is gruff, profane, 00:23:17.029 --> 00:23:19.849 practical. He literally uses his leg to kick 00:23:19.849 --> 00:23:22.769 people to make them move faster. Bildad, on the 00:23:22.769 --> 00:23:25.450 other hand, is a Quaker. He's pious. He's always 00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:27.549 reading the Bible. He doesn't swear. But he's 00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:30.549 the stingy one. Oh, extremely. He's a hard taskmaster. 00:23:31.170 --> 00:23:34.470 Ishmael says he's shed tons of Leviathan gore 00:23:34.470 --> 00:23:36.630 in his life but pretends to be this man of peace. 00:23:36.849 --> 00:23:39.529 The negotiation for Ishmael's pay his lay is 00:23:39.529 --> 00:23:41.990 hilarious. Okay, explain the lay for us again. 00:23:42.029 --> 00:23:44.269 What is that? So whalers weren't paid wages. 00:23:44.329 --> 00:23:46.029 They were paid a fraction of the net profits 00:23:46.029 --> 00:23:48.410 of the voyage. If the trip failed, if you came 00:23:48.410 --> 00:23:50.650 back with no oil, you got nothing for three years 00:23:50.650 --> 00:23:54.130 of work. Wow. So it's commission only. The ultimate 00:23:54.130 --> 00:23:56.869 risk. The ultimate risk. So Ishmael, being naive, 00:23:57.150 --> 00:24:00.970 hopes for maybe the 275th lay Bildad. The pious 00:24:00.970 --> 00:24:04.470 one suggests the 777th lay. He cites scripture 00:24:04.470 --> 00:24:06.990 to justify. He does. He says, lay not up for 00:24:06.990 --> 00:24:09.369 yourselves treasures upon earth. He uses the 00:24:09.369 --> 00:24:11.809 Bible to try and scam Ishmael out of a fair wage. 00:24:12.210 --> 00:24:14.289 It's a brilliant critique of how religion can 00:24:14.289 --> 00:24:17.130 be used to justify capitalism. Peleg, the bad 00:24:17.130 --> 00:24:19.650 guy, fights him on it. He's actually fairer, 00:24:19.670 --> 00:24:22.630 and they settle on the 300th lay. Which is still 00:24:22.630 --> 00:24:26.410 tiny, but better than the 777. Then Kwee Kwee 00:24:26.410 --> 00:24:29.789 has to sign up. And the owners are skeptical, 00:24:29.970 --> 00:24:32.589 because he's a savage and a cannibal. They want 00:24:32.589 --> 00:24:34.579 to know if he's a Christian. And Ishmael tries 00:24:34.579 --> 00:24:37.960 to argue that Queequeg belongs to the first congregational 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:39.619 church of the world, which he says is the human 00:24:39.619 --> 00:24:42.400 race. But the owners aren't buying it. Until 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:45.319 Queequeg acts. He spots a tiny drop of tar floating 00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:47.619 on the water. Just a little speck. He jumps into 00:24:47.619 --> 00:24:50.140 a whale boat, stands up, throws his harpoon right 00:24:50.140 --> 00:24:52.759 over Bildad's head, scaring him to death, and 00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:55.900 hits that tar spot dead center. Dead whale, he 00:24:55.900 --> 00:24:58.559 says. That shuts them up immediately. Peleg says, 00:24:58.619 --> 00:25:01.319 quick, Bildad, get the ship's papers. Competence 00:25:01.319 --> 00:25:03.539 just overrides prejudice in that moment. They 00:25:03.539 --> 00:25:06.119 sign him immediately. He signs with an X, which 00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:08.220 is actually a copy of a tattoo on his arm. But 00:25:08.220 --> 00:25:10.240 there's someone missing this whole time. Segment 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:12.960 seven, the mystery of Captain Ahab. We're 20 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:15.119 -something chapters in, and we haven't even seen 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:17.539 the captain of the ship. He's in his cabin. He 00:25:17.539 --> 00:25:19.839 is the void at the center of the story so far. 00:25:20.099 --> 00:25:22.140 Peleg is the one who describes him to Ishmael. 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:26.680 grand ungodly godlike man what a paradox isn't 00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:29.940 it ungodly yet godlike it suggests this incredible 00:25:29.940 --> 00:25:33.339 power this charisma but also a total lack of 00:25:33.339 --> 00:25:36.480 christian morality peleg tells ishmael that ahab 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:39.079 has been in colleges and among cannibals he's 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:41.559 seen deeper wonders than most men and the injury 00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:44.200 we have to talk about the leg yes on the last 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:48.109 voyage he lost his leg to a Monstrousest parmeseti, 00:25:48.250 --> 00:25:50.589 a sperm whale. It just crunched it right off. 00:25:50.890 --> 00:25:53.690 Peleg says Ahab is moody, savage, and in constant 00:25:53.690 --> 00:25:56.190 pain. He calls it his bleeding stump. But he 00:25:56.190 --> 00:25:58.690 defends him. He says Ahab has his humanities. 00:25:58.789 --> 00:26:01.470 He has a young wife and a child back home. It's 00:26:01.470 --> 00:26:03.930 a plea for sympathy. Peleg is trying to convince 00:26:03.930 --> 00:26:06.029 himself as much as he's trying to convince Ishmael. 00:26:06.190 --> 00:26:08.950 He knows Ahab is unstable, but he respects his 00:26:08.950 --> 00:26:12.109 incredible skill as a whaler. But then we get 00:26:12.109 --> 00:26:14.829 an even darker warning. We meet Elijah. The prophet. 00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:18.200 This ragged, pox -marked stranger who accosts 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:20.240 Ishmael and Queen Quig on the street. He asks 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:22.400 if they've signed their souls away. He warns 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:24.279 them about Old Thunder. That's his nickname for 00:26:24.279 --> 00:26:27.880 Ahab. He drops these cryptic, terrifying hints. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:31.079 He asks, did you hear about him lying like dead 00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:33.859 for three days? Or the deadly skirmish in Santa? 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:37.119 Or the silver calabash that he spits into? These 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:39.519 are all these dark rumors, but they build a mythology 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:41.779 of a man who has touched death and come back 00:26:41.779 --> 00:26:44.259 wrong. He's not entirely human anymore. Elijah 00:26:44.259 --> 00:26:46.519 acts like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, right? 00:26:46.660 --> 00:26:48.440 He's the guy on the side of the road warning 00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:51.289 of doom. Exactly. Ishmael dismisses him as A 00:26:51.289 --> 00:26:54.369 humbug, just a crazy person. But we, the listener, 00:26:54.529 --> 00:26:56.349 we know better. This isn't going to end well. 00:26:56.509 --> 00:26:59.029 And Elijah keeps following them, just heightening 00:26:59.029 --> 00:27:01.029 this sense of dread. Finally, it's Christmas 00:27:01.029 --> 00:27:04.339 Day, segment eight. Departure and the Advocate. 00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:06.839 And it's a short, cold Christmas. There's no 00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:09.400 joy, no presents. They are just hauling anchor 00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:12.240 in the bleak midwinter. And the hypocrisy of 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:14.880 the owners is on full display. Peleg is kicking 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:16.920 the men to make them work faster, cursing at 00:27:16.920 --> 00:27:19.660 them. And Bildad is singing hymns. It's this 00:27:19.660 --> 00:27:23.460 chaotic mix of violence and piety. And the farewells 00:27:23.460 --> 00:27:25.980 are just funny. Bildad gives them last -minute 00:27:25.980 --> 00:27:28.619 business advice. Watch the butter. Don't waste 00:27:28.619 --> 00:27:30.980 the molasses. He's worried about his profit margin 00:27:30.980 --> 00:27:33.660 right up to the very last second. And as they 00:27:33.660 --> 00:27:36.420 leave, we get this quick, strange glimpse of 00:27:36.420 --> 00:27:38.740 Bulkington again, the guy we saw briefly at the 00:27:38.740 --> 00:27:40.819 Spouter Inn. This is a short chapter called The 00:27:40.819 --> 00:27:43.859 Lee Shore, but it's philosophically dense. Ishmael 00:27:43.859 --> 00:27:46.700 sees Bulkington at the helm, and he realizes 00:27:46.700 --> 00:27:50.099 this man just got back from a four -year voyage, 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:52.779 and he's leaving again immediately. He hasn't 00:27:52.779 --> 00:27:54.980 even spent a week on land. Why? Why not stay 00:27:54.980 --> 00:27:58.140 on land? Rest. Because for Bulkington, the land 00:27:58.140 --> 00:28:01.680 is scorching to his feet. Ishmael uses this concept 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:05.240 of the lee shore. In a storm, the land, the lee 00:28:05.240 --> 00:28:07.259 shore, is the most dangerous place for a ship. 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:09.779 The wind blows you onto it and it wrecks you. 00:28:10.180 --> 00:28:12.640 To survive, the ship must flee away from land 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:15.819 to the open ocean, the howling infinite. So safety 00:28:15.819 --> 00:28:18.339 is actually in the dangerous place. Metaphorically, 00:28:18.359 --> 00:28:20.839 yes. Ishmael suggests that for the independent 00:28:20.839 --> 00:28:24.180 thinker, the land convention safety comfort dogma 00:28:24.180 --> 00:28:26.640 is the real danger. It wrecks your soul. You 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:28.400 have to push out into the truth, even if it destroys 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:31.440 you. In landlessness alone resides the highest 00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:35.319 truth. Wow. That is heavy. And it sets up the 00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:38.140 stakes for the whole journey. They are leaving 00:28:38.140 --> 00:28:40.680 the Lee shore. And then before we really get 00:28:40.680 --> 00:28:43.059 going, Ishmael pauses the whole narrative to 00:28:43.059 --> 00:28:44.900 defend his profession. The chapter is called 00:28:44.900 --> 00:28:47.480 The Advocate. Right. He knows people look down 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:49.859 on whalers. They think they're butchers, that 00:28:49.859 --> 00:28:52.180 they're dirty and unglamorous. And he argues 00:28:52.180 --> 00:28:54.700 that they provide the light for the world. He 00:28:54.700 --> 00:28:56.339 almost breaks the fourth wall here. He says, 00:28:56.440 --> 00:28:57.920 you know, you're reading this book by the light 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:00.720 of whale oil. He brings up the economics. A $7 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:04.619 million annual harvest. 700 American vessels. 00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:07.980 But he also argues for the prestige of exploration. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:11.619 He says whalers explored the charts before Cook 00:29:11.619 --> 00:29:15.259 or Vancouver. They opened up Australia and liberated 00:29:15.259 --> 00:29:17.440 South America. He said they are the liberators 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:20.519 of Peru, Chile and Bolivia. Because they broke 00:29:20.519 --> 00:29:23.420 the Spanish monopoly. He positions whaling not 00:29:23.420 --> 00:29:26.559 just as a job, but as this heroic, empire -building, 00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:29.400 world -changing enterprise. He says even Job 00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:31.559 wrote about Leviathan. Alfred the Great wrote 00:29:31.559 --> 00:29:33.960 about it. Edmund Burke praised it in Parliament. 00:29:34.220 --> 00:29:36.700 He's saying we matter. We are the heroes of this 00:29:36.700 --> 00:29:39.319 age. He's saying we are the engine of history. 00:29:39.460 --> 00:29:41.220 And he needs to believe that because he's about 00:29:41.220 --> 00:29:44.140 to sail directly into hell. So here we are. The 00:29:44.140 --> 00:29:46.619 Pequot is plunging blindly into the lone Atlantic. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:50.390 The land is gone. We have a cannibal, a schoolmaster, 00:29:50.710 --> 00:29:53.789 a mysterious one -legged captain, and a prophecy 00:29:53.789 --> 00:29:56.769 of doom. And we are headed for the deep. The 00:29:56.769 --> 00:29:59.390 setup is complete. The tragedy has begun. That's 00:29:59.390 --> 00:30:01.869 where we'll leave it for today. We've unpacked 00:30:01.869 --> 00:30:04.509 the loomings, the psychology of the port, the 00:30:04.509 --> 00:30:07.019 friendship, and the launch. It's a journey from 00:30:07.019 --> 00:30:09.640 depression to obsession. I mean, Ishmael started 00:30:09.640 --> 00:30:11.839 out wanting to knock people's hats off in Manhattan, 00:30:12.099 --> 00:30:15.000 and now he's chasing the ultimate monster. He 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:17.619 has traded the damp November in his soul for 00:30:17.619 --> 00:30:20.160 the howling infinite of the sea. So here's the 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:22.640 final thought for you to chew on. Think about 00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:25.400 that lee shore concept we just discussed. Ishmael 00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:28.440 says we have to flee the safety of land to find 00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:31.279 truth in the howling infinite. It really raises 00:30:31.279 --> 00:30:33.599 the question for all of us. What is the lee shore 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:35.640 in your life? What is the safe, comfortable place, 00:30:35.720 --> 00:30:38.579 the routine, the easy opinion, the safe job that 00:30:38.579 --> 00:30:40.720 is actually threatening your ability to really 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:44.000 live or to think freely? And the harder question, 00:30:44.240 --> 00:30:47.539 are you brave enough to push off? Are you brave 00:30:47.539 --> 00:30:49.900 enough to steer into the storm? Because that's 00:30:49.900 --> 00:30:52.079 where the truth is supposed to be. Something 00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:54.559 to mull over. We'll see you on the next Deep 00:30:54.559 --> 00:30:58.220 Dive. Welcome to the debate. Today we are boarding 00:30:58.220 --> 00:31:02.539 the Pequod. We're tackling the opening movement 00:31:02.539 --> 00:31:06.160 of what some call the American Bible, Herman 00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:09.140 Melville's Moby Dick or the whale. And we're 00:31:09.140 --> 00:31:12.029 going to look strictly at the first. 24 chapters. 00:31:12.369 --> 00:31:15.089 So from the moment Ishmael gets to New Bedford, 00:31:15.210 --> 00:31:18.349 right up to the point the ship just plunges blindly 00:31:18.349 --> 00:31:21.769 into the Atlantic winter. And it's a massive 00:31:21.769 --> 00:31:23.869 text, right? It's often misunderstood as just 00:31:23.869 --> 00:31:26.210 a fishing story. But the question we're wrestling 00:31:26.210 --> 00:31:28.849 with today is actually quite sharp, and it really 00:31:28.849 --> 00:31:31.269 concerns the very soul of the narrator. When 00:31:31.269 --> 00:31:33.960 Ishmael signs his life away on that ship, What 00:31:33.960 --> 00:31:36.420 is he actually doing? Is he embarking on some 00:31:36.420 --> 00:31:39.240 grand metaphysical quest for the ungraspable 00:31:39.240 --> 00:31:42.220 phantom of life? Or is he, as I'm going to argue, 00:31:42.420 --> 00:31:45.579 joining a suicide pact? Is this a noble pursuit 00:31:45.579 --> 00:31:47.839 of truth, or is it a grim industrial descent 00:31:47.839 --> 00:31:51.420 into madness that's just masked by, well, flowery 00:31:51.420 --> 00:31:54.519 language? I'm here to defend the voyage. My take 00:31:54.519 --> 00:31:57.380 is that this journey is, to use Ishmael's own 00:31:57.380 --> 00:32:01.240 phrase, a grand program of providence. It's a 00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:04.299 heroic necessity. I mean, the sea here isn't 00:32:04.299 --> 00:32:07.400 just water. It's the only force capable of liberating 00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:10.480 the human soul from the crushing, gray dullness 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:14.099 of the land. And whaling, in this view, is a 00:32:14.099 --> 00:32:18.599 high imperial profession that literally and metaphorically 00:32:18.599 --> 00:32:21.680 lights the world. And I'm here to strip away 00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:25.000 that romance. This narrative is, and he says 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:28.200 it quite explicitly, a substitute for pistol 00:32:28.200 --> 00:32:31.230 and ball. It is a flight from what sounds like 00:32:31.230 --> 00:32:34.269 clinical depression into a brutal, exploitative 00:32:34.269 --> 00:32:37.690 industry run by hypocrites and completely shadowed 00:32:37.690 --> 00:32:41.250 by doom. Ishmael isn't running towards God, he's 00:32:41.250 --> 00:32:43.869 running away from the urge to kill himself. Well, 00:32:43.930 --> 00:32:46.450 let's look at that urge right at the start. Chapter 00:32:46.450 --> 00:32:50.109 1, Loomings. Call me Ishmael. It's the most famous 00:32:50.109 --> 00:32:52.650 opening in literature. Sure, but look at why 00:32:52.650 --> 00:32:55.529 he leaves. He talks about a damp, drizzly November 00:32:55.529 --> 00:32:58.250 in his soul. He finds himself pausing before 00:32:58.250 --> 00:33:01.549 coffin warehouses. Exactly. Coffin warehouses. 00:33:01.549 --> 00:33:04.269 I mean, that is not the behavior of a man seeking 00:33:04.269 --> 00:33:06.490 enlightenment. That is the behavior of a man 00:33:06.490 --> 00:33:09.950 seeking an end. Catch the nuance there. He doesn't 00:33:09.950 --> 00:33:12.890 succumb to that November. He takes action to 00:33:12.890 --> 00:33:16.309 cure it. He says that meditation and water are 00:33:16.309 --> 00:33:19.829 wedded forever. This is a profound psychological 00:33:19.829 --> 00:33:23.539 insight. not a death wish. He observes that in 00:33:23.539 --> 00:33:26.319 all rivers and oceans, we see the image of the 00:33:26.319 --> 00:33:30.160 ungraspable phantom of life. So he isn't seeking 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:33.819 death. He's seeking the cure for the stagnation 00:33:33.819 --> 00:33:36.720 of the spirit. He calls it a way to drive off 00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:39.599 the spleen and regulate the circulation. It's 00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:42.519 a philosophical necessity. The land is static. 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:45.940 The sea is dynamic. He wants to touch the infinite, 00:33:46.099 --> 00:33:48.480 to experience what he calls the magnanimity of 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:51.140 the sea, which will permit no records. It's a 00:33:51.140 --> 00:33:54.519 clean slate. You call it a clean slate? I call 00:33:54.519 --> 00:33:57.339 it a desperate alternative to murder. You're 00:33:57.339 --> 00:33:59.819 sort of glossing over the violence in his motivation. 00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:03.680 Ishmael admits his dark moods, his hypos, get 00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:06.319 such an upper hand of him that he requires a 00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:09.400 strong moral principle to prevent him from, and 00:34:09.400 --> 00:34:11.840 this is a direct quote, methodically knocking 00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:14.360 people's hats off in the street. I mean, that 00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:16.900 is a man who is barely holding it together. He 00:34:16.900 --> 00:34:19.619 compares his going to sea to Cato throwing himself 00:34:19.619 --> 00:34:24.559 upon his sword. That is a some phantom of life. 00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:27.760 He's fleeing his own violent impulses. And look 00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:30.159 where he runs to. He runs to New Bedford, the 00:34:30.159 --> 00:34:33.239 wailing capital of the world. He runs to a frozen 00:34:33.239 --> 00:34:36.579 hellscape. He gets there in December. It's bitingly 00:34:36.579 --> 00:34:40.260 cold. The wind, which the text calls Eurocliden, 00:34:40.420 --> 00:34:43.420 a biblical reference to a disastrous storm, is 00:34:43.420 --> 00:34:46.519 howling. The streets are dreary blocks of blackness. 00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:50.199 This isn't liberation. It's a punishment. I mean, 00:34:50.219 --> 00:34:52.519 if this were a grand program, wouldn't it start 00:34:52.519 --> 00:34:55.159 with a sunrise or something? Instead, it starts 00:34:55.159 --> 00:34:57.539 with black frost and a bed at the spouter inn 00:34:57.539 --> 00:35:00.139 that he has to share because the town is so crowded 00:35:00.139 --> 00:35:02.460 with other desperate men. But that harshness 00:35:02.460 --> 00:35:05.179 is the crucible. You can't have the transformation 00:35:05.179 --> 00:35:07.880 without the pressure. And that brings us to the 00:35:07.880 --> 00:35:09.980 first major piece of evidence that this is a 00:35:09.980 --> 00:35:13.380 journey of redemption, not doom. Queequeg. If 00:35:13.380 --> 00:35:15.699 this were a suicide mission, Ishmael would die 00:35:15.699 --> 00:35:18.039 alone in that cold room. Instead, he finds the 00:35:18.039 --> 00:35:21.219 most profound human connection of his life. He 00:35:21.219 --> 00:35:24.139 finds a bedmaid because the landlord Peter Coffin, 00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.920 I mean, again, the name is Coffin, is cheap and 00:35:26.920 --> 00:35:29.820 overbooked the inn. He finds a bosom friend. 00:35:30.019 --> 00:35:32.480 That's the chapter title. Look at the sociology 00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:35.780 here. You have Ishmael, a Presbyterian schoolmaster, 00:35:36.059 --> 00:35:39.579 and Quiqueg, a pagan cannibal harpenier. By all, 00:35:39.659 --> 00:35:41.800 you know, 19th century standards, they should 00:35:41.800 --> 00:35:44.000 be enemies. Or at the very least, there should 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:46.679 be a master -servant hierarchy. But what happens? 00:35:47.119 --> 00:35:49.980 They share a bed. They share a pipe, the tomahawk. 00:35:50.139 --> 00:35:53.380 They share money. Ishmael says, I felt a melting 00:35:53.380 --> 00:35:56.380 in me. No more my splintered heart and maddened 00:35:56.380 --> 00:35:59.119 hand were turned against the wolfish world. This 00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:01.699 soothing savage had redeemed it. That is the 00:36:01.699 --> 00:36:05.019 key word right there, redeemed. The voyage creates 00:36:05.019 --> 00:36:08.059 a space where prejudice just dissolves. I think 00:36:08.059 --> 00:36:10.760 you're mistaking trauma bonding for genuine enlightenment. 00:36:11.239 --> 00:36:13.039 Let's look at how that relationship actually 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:16.179 starts. It starts in absolute terror. Ishmael 00:36:16.179 --> 00:36:18.940 is paralyzed in that bed under the quilt. He 00:36:18.940 --> 00:36:21.940 thinks this head -peddling purple rascal is going 00:36:21.940 --> 00:36:24.260 to kill him. He's shouting for the landlord, 00:36:24.500 --> 00:36:27.260 praying to angels to save him when Queequeg flourishes 00:36:27.260 --> 00:36:30.199 that tomahawk. It's a scene of horror that plays 00:36:30.199 --> 00:36:33.260 as comedy, but the underlying emotion is fear. 00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:35.739 And this redemption you're talking about, it 00:36:35.739 --> 00:36:38.340 leads Ishmael into absurdity. Look at chapter 00:36:38.340 --> 00:36:41.800 17, the Ramadan. A difficult scene, I grant you, 00:36:41.880 --> 00:36:44.760 but one that shows Ishmael's loyalty. It's not 00:36:44.760 --> 00:36:48.039 just difficult, it's proof that this savage simplicity 00:36:48.039 --> 00:36:51.920 isn't always noble. Kwee Kweg sits stiff as a 00:36:51.920 --> 00:36:55.079 pike staff for 24 hours in a freezing room, balancing 00:36:55.079 --> 00:36:58.280 his wooden idol, Yo -Jo, on his head. He goes 00:36:58.280 --> 00:37:01.179 into a catatonic state. Ishmael has to break 00:37:01.179 --> 00:37:03.340 down the door because he thinks Kwee Keg is dead. 00:37:03.639 --> 00:37:06.099 He nearly kills himself through religious observance. 00:37:06.679 --> 00:37:09.280 Ishmael tries to reason with him, tries to explain 00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:12.139 that this is torture, but Kwee Keg is, well, 00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:15.119 unreachable. This suggests that the alien world 00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:18.039 Ishmael is entering isn't liberating. It's potentially 00:37:18.039 --> 00:37:20.820 self -destructive and, frankly, irrational. But 00:37:20.820 --> 00:37:23.460 you're focusing on the ritual and missing the 00:37:23.460 --> 00:37:27.860 humanity. Who saves whom? In Chapter 13, on the 00:37:27.860 --> 00:37:31.079 schooner to Nantucket, a bumpkin mocks Queequeg. 00:37:31.119 --> 00:37:33.960 He mimics his movements behind his back. Then 00:37:33.960 --> 00:37:37.039 the boom swings and that same bumpkin is swept 00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:40.059 overboard. Does the savage let him drown? No. 00:37:40.599 --> 00:37:42.840 Queequeg dives into the freezing water to save 00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:46.199 the very man who insulted him. That is moral 00:37:46.199 --> 00:37:50.099 superiority. Ishmael says all hands voted Queequeg 00:37:50.099 --> 00:37:53.199 a noble Trump. He compares him to George Washington. 00:37:53.519 --> 00:37:57.159 He says it's a mutual joint stock world. We cannibals 00:37:57.159 --> 00:37:59.860 must help these Christians. The voyage creates 00:37:59.860 --> 00:38:02.920 a democracy of spirit that simply does not exist 00:38:02.920 --> 00:38:05.880 on land. It's a democracy of the desperate. And 00:38:05.880 --> 00:38:08.460 consider the cost of admission to this joint 00:38:08.460 --> 00:38:12.400 stock world. Ishmael has to abandon his own identity. 00:38:12.659 --> 00:38:16.360 He ends up worshipping the wooden idol Yojo with 00:38:16.360 --> 00:38:21.280 Quigreg. He says, I must turn idolater. He justifies 00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:23.400 it with some, you know, logic about the will 00:38:23.400 --> 00:38:26.940 of God. But essentially, he is melting, as you 00:38:26.940 --> 00:38:30.119 said, but he's melting away his own culture and 00:38:30.119 --> 00:38:33.699 his own grounding because of his isolation. And 00:38:33.699 --> 00:38:36.280 if we want to talk about grounding or the lack 00:38:36.280 --> 00:38:38.960 of it, we have to talk about the spiritual center 00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:42.420 of New Bedford, the Whaleman's Chapel. A crucial 00:38:42.420 --> 00:38:45.659 moment, yes. This is where the metaphysical stakes 00:38:45.659 --> 00:38:49.539 are set. Father Mapple. Father Mapple, you want 00:38:49.539 --> 00:38:52.599 to talk about a grand providence? Well, look 00:38:52.599 --> 00:38:54.880 at the walls of that chapel. I see the walls, 00:38:55.059 --> 00:38:59.079 but I also see the pulpit. Chapter 9, The Sermon. 00:38:59.179 --> 00:39:01.619 I mean, this is one of the most powerful speeches 00:39:01.619 --> 00:39:04.699 in American literature. Father Mapple, a former 00:39:04.699 --> 00:39:07.500 harponeer, climbs a rope ladder into a pulpit 00:39:07.500 --> 00:39:10.360 that's shaped like a ship's prow, and then he 00:39:10.360 --> 00:39:13.300 drags the ladder up after him. Which isolates 00:39:13.300 --> 00:39:15.760 him completely. He cuts off his connection to 00:39:15.760 --> 00:39:18.369 the congregation. which symbolizes a spiritual 00:39:18.369 --> 00:39:21.329 withdrawal to find strength. He is cutting himself 00:39:21.329 --> 00:39:24.250 off from the world to speak the truth. And what 00:39:24.250 --> 00:39:27.369 is that truth? The lesson of Jonah, the ultimate 00:39:27.369 --> 00:39:30.449 submission. He says, delight is to him who against 00:39:30.449 --> 00:39:33.090 the proud gods and commodores of this earth ever 00:39:33.090 --> 00:39:36.329 stands forth his own inexorable self. It's a 00:39:36.329 --> 00:39:38.550 call to conscience. It's a rejection of easy 00:39:38.550 --> 00:39:41.989 comfort. The voyage is a path to this top gallant 00:39:41.989 --> 00:39:44.230 delight. It's about facing the truth of God, 00:39:44.309 --> 00:39:46.969 even in the belly of hell. Okay, but you are 00:39:46.969 --> 00:39:50.449 cherry picking the delight and ignoring the woe. 00:39:50.449 --> 00:39:54.309 The sermon begins with woe. Woe to him who seeks 00:39:54.309 --> 00:39:57.289 to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed 00:39:57.289 --> 00:40:00.170 them into a gale. Maple is preaching that the 00:40:00.170 --> 00:40:02.570 only path to God is through the destruction of 00:40:02.570 --> 00:40:05.289 the self, through being swallowed. And look at 00:40:05.289 --> 00:40:08.610 the context. You ignored the walls. The chapel 00:40:08.610 --> 00:40:13.269 is lined with marble cenotaphs. Memorials. Empty 00:40:13.269 --> 00:40:16.809 tombs. A cenotaph is a grave for a body that 00:40:16.809 --> 00:40:20.789 was never found. These are memorials to men towed 00:40:20.789 --> 00:40:23.769 out of sight by whales. Men lost in the Isle 00:40:23.769 --> 00:40:26.869 of Desolation. The congregation sits apart in 00:40:26.869 --> 00:40:30.329 insular and incommunicable grief. Maple is preaching 00:40:30.329 --> 00:40:32.550 to widows. He is telling them that their husbands' 00:40:32.730 --> 00:40:35.909 deaths were a form of spiritual correction. It's 00:40:35.909 --> 00:40:38.510 a terrifying omen for a ship hunting the very 00:40:38.510 --> 00:40:41.449 creature that swallowed Jonah. It's not a moral 00:40:41.449 --> 00:40:44.119 compass, it's a death sentence read aloud. And 00:40:44.119 --> 00:40:47.280 yet Ishmael hears it, he sees the cenotaphs, 00:40:47.280 --> 00:40:51.179 and he still goes. He is not deterred. That is 00:40:51.179 --> 00:40:54.719 courage, not madness. He commits to the Pequod, 00:40:54.760 --> 00:40:56.579 and here we have to discuss the vessel itself. 00:40:57.260 --> 00:41:00.599 Chapter 16 describes the Pequod not as a factory, 00:41:00.699 --> 00:41:04.519 but as a noble craft. She is appareled like any 00:41:04.519 --> 00:41:07.780 barbaric Ethiopian emperor, decked in trophies 00:41:07.780 --> 00:41:10.739 of sea ivory. She has a history. She has fought 00:41:10.739 --> 00:41:14.639 typhoons. This is a warrior ship. A warrior ship? 00:41:14.780 --> 00:41:17.599 It's a charnel house. It's described as a cannibal 00:41:17.599 --> 00:41:19.940 of a craft. It's adorned with the teeth of its 00:41:19.940 --> 00:41:22.599 enemies. It's a machine made of death, steering 00:41:22.599 --> 00:41:25.679 by death. The tiller is made from a whale's jawbone. 00:41:25.900 --> 00:41:27.920 But if you want to shatter the romantic illusion, 00:41:28.219 --> 00:41:30.539 just look at the management. Look at the owners, 00:41:30.739 --> 00:41:34.179 Peleg and Bildad. They are Quakers, fighting 00:41:34.179 --> 00:41:37.159 Quakers, admittedly. They are absolute hypocrites. 00:41:37.300 --> 00:41:40.300 This is the most biting satire in the early chapters. 00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:44.039 You have Bildad, the pious Quaker, sitting there 00:41:44.039 --> 00:41:46.599 reading the Bible, telling Ishmael to lay not 00:41:46.599 --> 00:41:49.420 up for yourselves treasures upon earth. And in 00:41:49.420 --> 00:41:51.579 the very next breath, he is grinding Ishmael 00:41:51.579 --> 00:41:54.219 down on his wages. It's a standard negotiation 00:41:54.219 --> 00:41:58.119 for a green hand. It is robbery. Let's explain 00:41:58.119 --> 00:42:00.599 the lay for a second. In whaling, you don't get 00:42:00.599 --> 00:42:04.039 a wage, you get a share of the profits. Ishmael, 00:42:04.039 --> 00:42:08.349 being new, expects maybe the 275th lay. Bildad 00:42:08.349 --> 00:42:13.809 offers him the 777th lay. That is one 777th of 00:42:13.809 --> 00:42:17.170 the net profit. If they make $100 ,000, Ishmael 00:42:17.170 --> 00:42:20.349 gets about $120 for three years of work. And 00:42:20.349 --> 00:42:22.409 Bildad claims he's doing it to protect the widows 00:42:22.409 --> 00:42:24.929 and orphans who own shares? He uses religion 00:42:24.929 --> 00:42:28.110 to justify greed. It's disgusting. It's sharp 00:42:28.110 --> 00:42:31.489 business, certainly. But Peleg steps in. Peleg 00:42:31.489 --> 00:42:34.449 plays the bad cop. He kicks Ishmael, literally 00:42:34.449 --> 00:42:37.210 kicks him on the deck and screams profanity. 00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:40.559 Then Bildad plays the saint. But they're working 00:42:40.559 --> 00:42:43.599 together to squeeze every drop of labor for the 00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:46.559 lowest possible cost. They provision the ship, 00:42:46.619 --> 00:42:49.960 sure, but the hypocrisy is suffocating. Aunt 00:42:49.960 --> 00:42:52.300 Charity loads the ship with pickles and a spare 00:42:52.300 --> 00:42:54.800 Bible, while the owners are practically stealing 00:42:54.800 --> 00:42:57.840 wages. This isn't a noble imperial profession. 00:42:57.980 --> 00:43:01.559 It is a grind run by tyrants in broad -brimmed 00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:05.440 hats. It is a grind, but Ishmael accepts his 00:43:05.440 --> 00:43:09.159 eventual 300th lay with philosophy. He sees it 00:43:09.159 --> 00:43:11.639 as part of the universal thump passed around. 00:43:11.860 --> 00:43:15.059 He isn't bitter. And frankly, the owners are 00:43:15.059 --> 00:43:17.619 just the logistics. The soul of the ship is the 00:43:17.619 --> 00:43:20.659 captain. The captain who isn't there. But his 00:43:20.659 --> 00:43:25.920 presence is felt. Captain Ahab. Peleg defends 00:43:25.920 --> 00:43:28.420 him vigorously against the charge of being a 00:43:28.420 --> 00:43:32.440 wicked man. He admits Ahab is a grand, ungodly, 00:43:32.440 --> 00:43:35.739 godlike man. He tells Ishmael if Ahab has been 00:43:35.739 --> 00:43:39.039 in colleges as well as among the cannibals. He 00:43:39.039 --> 00:43:42.099 has depth. And most importantly, Peleg reminds 00:43:42.099 --> 00:43:45.880 us that Ahab has humanities, a young wife and 00:43:45.880 --> 00:43:48.719 a child. His moodiness is just the weight of 00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:53.300 his command and the pain of his lost leg. He's 00:43:53.300 --> 00:43:56.519 a tragic figure, not a villain. a tragic figure 00:43:56.519 --> 00:43:59.480 who is already signaling disaster. You cannot 00:43:59.480 --> 00:44:02.980 ignore chapter 19, the prophet. A ragged man 00:44:02.980 --> 00:44:05.940 named Elijah stops them on the dock. A madman 00:44:05.940 --> 00:44:08.840 on the dock. A prophet. He warns them about old 00:44:08.840 --> 00:44:11.619 thunder. He asks if they have sold their souls. 00:44:11.920 --> 00:44:15.019 He reveals that Ahab once lay like dead for three 00:44:15.019 --> 00:44:18.079 days and nights off Cape Horn. He mentions Ahab 00:44:18.079 --> 00:44:21.059 spitting into a silver calabash. These are specific, 00:44:21.179 --> 00:44:24.630 terrifying details of a man unhinged. Elijah 00:44:24.630 --> 00:44:26.989 explicitly tells them that their souls are just 00:44:26.989 --> 00:44:29.949 a fifth wheel to a wagon. In other words, they 00:44:29.949 --> 00:44:33.289 are just cargo for Ahab's madness. Even Peleg 00:44:33.289 --> 00:44:36.409 admits Ahab is desperate moody. You're calling 00:44:36.409 --> 00:44:38.969 it providence. Elijah calls it a pact with the 00:44:38.969 --> 00:44:44.090 devil. But the danger is exactly what elevates 00:44:44.090 --> 00:44:47.590 the profession. If it were safe, it wouldn't 00:44:47.590 --> 00:44:52.710 be sublime. In chapter 24, The Advocate, Ishmael 00:44:52.710 --> 00:44:55.289 breaks the fourth wall to defend whaling against 00:44:55.289 --> 00:44:58.630 critics like you. He knows people think whalemen 00:44:58.630 --> 00:45:02.809 are butchers, so he argues that whaling is responsible 00:45:02.809 --> 00:45:06.210 for exploring the globe. He says the whale ship 00:45:06.210 --> 00:45:09.750 is the pioneer, the mother of colonies. He mentions 00:45:09.750 --> 00:45:12.710 that whalemen liberated Peru, Chile, and Bolivia 00:45:12.710 --> 00:45:15.909 from the Spanish yoke. That is a very generous 00:45:15.909 --> 00:45:18.710 reading of history. But it's a powerful one. 00:45:19.360 --> 00:45:22.699 He compares whalemen to Alexanders conquering 00:45:22.699 --> 00:45:25.380 the watery world. He connects the profession 00:45:25.380 --> 00:45:29.260 to Perseus, St. George, even the god Vishnu. 00:45:29.559 --> 00:45:32.539 He's building a mythology to counter that butcher 00:45:32.539 --> 00:45:37.380 label. He asks, is all this agony so vain? And 00:45:37.380 --> 00:45:40.179 he references Bulkington, the man who just returned 00:45:40.179 --> 00:45:42.719 from a four -year voyage and immediately turns 00:45:42.719 --> 00:45:46.119 back to the sea. Bulkington is a tragic figure 00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:48.460 who disappears almost instantly in the text. 00:45:48.619 --> 00:45:53.159 But his philosophy remains. Chapter 23, The Leashore. 00:45:53.380 --> 00:45:56.980 The idea that the land, the Leashore, is safety, 00:45:57.059 --> 00:46:00.019 but it's also slavish. It's where you drift to 00:46:00.019 --> 00:46:03.980 die comfortably. The landlessness is truth. The 00:46:03.980 --> 00:46:07.400 danger enhances the glory. To push off into the 00:46:07.400 --> 00:46:10.360 deep is to seek the apathosis, the highest point 00:46:10.360 --> 00:46:12.699 of the soul. That is beautiful poetry, truly. 00:46:13.159 --> 00:46:15.840 I love the Leigh Shore chapter, but poetry doesn't 00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:18.300 stop a harpoon, and it doesn't change the grim 00:46:18.300 --> 00:46:20.980 reality of the departure. Look at chapter 22, 00:46:21.300 --> 00:46:24.139 Merry Christmas. They sail on Christmas Day, 00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:28.219 a new beginning, a birth. It's freezing. The 00:46:28.219 --> 00:46:31.659 ship is covered in ice like polished armor. It's 00:46:31.659 --> 00:46:34.860 not a glorious parade. It's bleak, and the hypocrisy 00:46:34.860 --> 00:46:37.380 follows them to the very last second. Bildad 00:46:37.380 --> 00:46:40.239 is singing hymns about sweet fields beyond the 00:46:40.239 --> 00:46:42.760 swelling flood, while Peleg is kicking the men 00:46:42.760 --> 00:46:45.420 and screaming, blood and thunder. And what is 00:46:45.420 --> 00:46:47.559 Bildad's final spiritual instruction to the crew? 00:46:47.780 --> 00:46:50.579 Is it God be with you? Is it come back safe? 00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:54.099 No, it's don't waste the spare staves and don't 00:46:54.099 --> 00:46:56.440 keep the cheese too long. Practical advice for 00:46:56.440 --> 00:46:59.000 a long voyage. It's the reduction of the human 00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:01.980 soul to a ledger entry. It is a commercial enterprise 00:47:01.980 --> 00:47:04.539 painted over with a thin varnish of religion. 00:47:04.840 --> 00:47:07.480 As they plunge into the lone Atlantic, Ishmael 00:47:07.480 --> 00:47:10.000 admits they are plunging blindly. He says the 00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:11.900 fates cajoled me into the illusion that it was 00:47:11.900 --> 00:47:14.960 a choice. He realizes, maybe too late, that he's 00:47:14.960 --> 00:47:18.760 a puppet. Blindly, yes. But all acts of faith 00:47:18.760 --> 00:47:23.340 are blind. Ishmael finds the hymn sweet. He finds 00:47:23.340 --> 00:47:26.440 hope in it. He says that despite the frigid winter 00:47:26.440 --> 00:47:29.360 night, there seemed many a pleasant haven in 00:47:29.360 --> 00:47:32.940 store. You see the hypocrisy of the owners? I 00:47:32.940 --> 00:47:35.599 see the resilience of the human spirit that can 00:47:35.599 --> 00:47:39.159 find living green amidst the ice. Ishmael is 00:47:39.159 --> 00:47:42.159 not naive. He knows he is a butcher. He admits 00:47:42.159 --> 00:47:45.739 that in chapter 24. But he transforms the shabby 00:47:45.739 --> 00:47:48.920 part of a whaling voyage into a magnificent part 00:47:48.920 --> 00:47:52.139 in high tragedies. Transforming it in his mind 00:47:52.139 --> 00:47:54.699 doesn't change the reality on the water. You 00:47:54.699 --> 00:47:56.639 mentioned the tiller earlier, the jaw of the 00:47:56.639 --> 00:47:59.380 whale. Think about that image. To steer the ship, 00:47:59.440 --> 00:48:01.480 you have to hold the jaw of the monster that 00:48:01.480 --> 00:48:04.199 wants to kill you. That isn't mastering chaos. 00:48:04.280 --> 00:48:06.980 That's being consumed by it. They're steering 00:48:06.980 --> 00:48:11.360 by death, toward death. I disagree fundamentally. 00:48:11.739 --> 00:48:14.840 To steer by the jaw of the whale is to take the 00:48:14.840 --> 00:48:17.719 very thing that threatens you and turn it into 00:48:17.719 --> 00:48:20.840 the instrument of your direction. That is the 00:48:20.840 --> 00:48:23.920 essence of the Grand Providence. Ishmael and 00:48:23.920 --> 00:48:27.059 Kequag, the Presbyterian and the pagan, the intellectual 00:48:27.059 --> 00:48:30.519 and the savage, united against the howling infinite. 00:48:31.059 --> 00:48:34.079 You call it suicide. I call it the apotheosis. 00:48:34.380 --> 00:48:37.400 As the text says of Bulkington, up from the spray 00:48:37.400 --> 00:48:40.219 of thy ocean perishing, straight up leaps thy 00:48:40.219 --> 00:48:43.860 apotheosis. We are left with a ship run by tyrants, 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:47.860 one present and loud, Peleg, one absent and brooding, 00:48:47.960 --> 00:48:50.920 Ahab. It is staffed by desperate men, sailing 00:48:50.920 --> 00:48:53.639 into a freezing ocean on Christmas Day, chasing 00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:55.800 a monster that has already maimed the captain. 00:48:56.340 --> 00:48:59.039 The die is cast, certainly, but I fear they have 00:48:59.039 --> 00:49:01.340 boarded a ship of fools, not a vessel of destiny. 00:49:01.619 --> 00:49:04.599 And I maintain that whether for doom or glory, 00:49:04.780 --> 00:49:08.960 the striving itself is the victory. They've left 00:49:08.960 --> 00:49:12.300 the damp, drizzly November behind. They are out 00:49:12.300 --> 00:49:15.300 where the unconscious power of the whale resides. 00:49:15.800 --> 00:49:18.239 Well, the anchor's up. They are certainly out 00:49:18.239 --> 00:49:21.619 there now. Indeed. Welcome to the ship. Hello 00:49:21.619 --> 00:49:25.019 and welcome back. We are looking at a massive 00:49:25.019 --> 00:49:28.320 submission today, a draft manuscript for a nautical 00:49:28.320 --> 00:49:32.820 adventure novel titled Moby Dick or The Whale. 00:49:33.400 --> 00:49:36.320 It's a first -person account of a sailor, Ishmael, 00:49:36.440 --> 00:49:39.559 on a whaling voyage out of Nantucket. There is 00:49:39.559 --> 00:49:41.940 a lot here, so let's just dive right in. And 00:49:41.940 --> 00:49:44.760 when you say a lot, you mean that quite literally. 00:49:45.320 --> 00:49:47.579 I opened this thing expecting an adventure story, 00:49:47.719 --> 00:49:51.260 and I immediately felt like I hit a brick wall. 00:49:51.659 --> 00:49:54.159 You're talking about the opening pages, right 00:49:54.159 --> 00:49:56.800 at the very start. The very start. I mean, it's 00:49:56.800 --> 00:49:59.300 a barrier to entry unlike almost anything I've 00:49:59.300 --> 00:50:01.980 ever seen. Before we even get to chapter one, 00:50:02.119 --> 00:50:05.079 before we even hear the name Ishmael, we have 00:50:05.079 --> 00:50:08.260 to get through these two incredibly dense academic 00:50:08.260 --> 00:50:11.880 sections. The etymology and the extracts. Right. 00:50:12.340 --> 00:50:15.579 Supplied by a late consumptive usher, and a sub 00:50:15.579 --> 00:50:18.699 -sub -librarian. It's a bold choice. You can 00:50:18.699 --> 00:50:20.900 see what the author is trying to do, I think. 00:50:21.039 --> 00:50:24.280 He wants to establish the... the sheer scale 00:50:24.280 --> 00:50:27.860 of the subject right away. Oh, for sure. The 00:50:27.860 --> 00:50:30.659 ambition is clear. He wants us to know the whale 00:50:30.659 --> 00:50:34.119 is this mythic, historical creature. But as a 00:50:34.119 --> 00:50:38.000 reader, it's just alienating. Yeah. I'm looking 00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:41.280 at a list of the word whale in 13 different languages. 00:50:41.639 --> 00:50:44.909 Hebrew, Greek, all the way to... What is this, 00:50:44.989 --> 00:50:48.170 Erem Ongoan? It's a linguistic museum exhibit. 00:50:48.329 --> 00:50:51.289 It's not a story. And then after that, the extract 00:50:51.289 --> 00:50:55.250 section is just pages and pages of quotes. It's 00:50:55.250 --> 00:50:57.389 like the author just emptied out his research 00:50:57.389 --> 00:51:00.690 notebook directly onto the page. Exactly. It's 00:51:00.690 --> 00:51:03.150 a commonplace book. We're jumping from Genesis 00:51:03.150 --> 00:51:06.590 to Hamlet to Pilgrim's Progress. It's interesting 00:51:06.590 --> 00:51:09.590 maybe for a scholar, but for a reader who picked 00:51:09.590 --> 00:51:12.090 up a book about a whaling voyage, it stops you 00:51:12.090 --> 00:51:15.599 cold. It absolutely buries the lead. Because 00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:19.539 when you finally get past all that, that painstaking 00:51:19.539 --> 00:51:22.300 burrowing, you hit chapter one, and it has one 00:51:22.300 --> 00:51:24.920 of the best opening lines I've ever read. Call 00:51:24.920 --> 00:51:27.579 me Ishmael. It's so good. It's so punchy and 00:51:27.579 --> 00:51:30.519 iconic. Mysterious, direct. It sets the tone 00:51:30.519 --> 00:51:33.559 instantly. But that line is buried under ten 00:51:33.559 --> 00:51:37.039 pages of, um, encyclopedic clutter. You have 00:51:37.039 --> 00:51:39.460 this beautiful, moody setup where Ishmael talks 00:51:39.460 --> 00:51:42.320 about the damp, drizzly November in his soul. 00:51:42.539 --> 00:51:45.840 And that emotion is completely undercut because 00:51:45.840 --> 00:51:47.940 the reader is already exhausted from reading 00:51:47.940 --> 00:51:50.940 snippets of Paradise Lost. So the fix here seems 00:51:50.940 --> 00:51:53.420 pretty straightforward. Yeah. Get it out of the 00:51:53.420 --> 00:51:55.960 way. If the author absolutely loves these quotes, 00:51:56.139 --> 00:51:58.800 fine. Put them in an appendix. Let the story 00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:02.719 start with the story. Or, here's a thought. Integrate 00:52:02.719 --> 00:52:06.449 it. Oh, I like that. Instead of just dumping 00:52:06.449 --> 00:52:10.070 it on us, let Ishmael discover this stuff. He's 00:52:10.070 --> 00:52:12.769 a schoolmaster, right? He has this kind of academic 00:52:12.769 --> 00:52:15.469 voice. So have him find the books in the spouter 00:52:15.469 --> 00:52:18.909 end. Exactly. Have him pull down a dusty Bible 00:52:18.909 --> 00:52:21.750 to read the story of Jonah. That way you're showing 00:52:21.750 --> 00:52:24.190 us his obsession with the whale through his actions. 00:52:24.469 --> 00:52:26.869 You're not just handing us a reading list. That 00:52:26.869 --> 00:52:28.690 would be so much stronger. It would actually 00:52:28.690 --> 00:52:31.400 be... character development. We'd learn about 00:52:31.400 --> 00:52:34.119 him, not just about the author's research habits. 00:52:34.440 --> 00:52:37.559 Right. It keeps things moving. Which, speaking 00:52:37.559 --> 00:52:40.559 of momentum, the tone of these early chapters, 00:52:40.699 --> 00:52:44.300 I felt a little whiplashed. Whiplash is a good 00:52:44.300 --> 00:52:47.480 word for it. Yeah. We have this set up for a 00:52:47.480 --> 00:52:50.719 dark, dangerous voyage. But then we spend a couple 00:52:50.719 --> 00:52:53.000 of chapters in what feels like a slapstick comedy. 00:52:53.300 --> 00:52:56.179 The spouter -in and counterpane chapters, I mean, 00:52:56.199 --> 00:52:58.699 I have to admit, I did laugh. Oh, me too. The 00:52:58.699 --> 00:53:02.280 setup is pure farce. Ishmael has to share a bed 00:53:02.280 --> 00:53:05.860 with this terrifying stranger, and in walks Queequeg, 00:53:05.960 --> 00:53:08.880 this tattooed cannibal harpooneer. It's funny, 00:53:08.940 --> 00:53:12.460 but does it fit? The whole scene with the doormat 00:53:12.460 --> 00:53:14.679 poncho or Queequeg shaving with his harpoon? 00:53:14.880 --> 00:53:18.039 The harpoon shaving is a great visual, but it's 00:53:18.039 --> 00:53:21.739 on the edge of being cartoonish, isn't it? It 00:53:21.739 --> 00:53:24.420 is, and my worry is that it just undermines the 00:53:24.420 --> 00:53:27.239 stakes. Later, we get these incredibly dark, 00:53:27.300 --> 00:53:29.820 prophetic moments. We meet Elijah, the prophet. 00:53:30.219 --> 00:53:32.460 We hear Father Mapple's sermon about ribs and 00:53:32.460 --> 00:53:35.260 terrors. But just before that, we have Queequeg 00:53:35.260 --> 00:53:37.860 crawling under the bed to put his boots on. That 00:53:37.860 --> 00:53:40.280 was the bit for me, too. And then later, in the 00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:42.280 wheelbarrow chapter, he carries the wheelbarrow 00:53:42.280 --> 00:53:44.380 instead of rolling it. Right. And you think, 00:53:44.500 --> 00:53:47.000 okay, this is supposed to be a master harponeer, 00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:50.199 a man who's traveled the world, a prince. Is 00:53:50.199 --> 00:53:53.360 he really this naive? It turns him into a caricature, 00:53:53.500 --> 00:53:56.980 a noble savage trope instead of a grounded character. 00:53:57.519 --> 00:54:00.280 And if he can't figure out a wheelbarrow, how 00:54:00.280 --> 00:54:02.579 am I supposed to believe he can face down a 60 00:54:02.579 --> 00:54:06.599 -ton sperm whale? Exactly. The author is clearly 00:54:06.599 --> 00:54:09.099 trying to build this interdependent brotherhood 00:54:09.099 --> 00:54:11.699 between them, which is vital for the story. And 00:54:11.699 --> 00:54:14.960 that part works. It does. But you can do that 00:54:14.960 --> 00:54:17.400 without the slapstick. I think you keep the scene 00:54:17.400 --> 00:54:19.179 where they share the pipe and split the money. 00:54:19.260 --> 00:54:21.670 The marriage scene. That's genuinely moving. 00:54:21.750 --> 00:54:25.530 It's powerful. Agreed. So keep the bond, lose 00:54:25.530 --> 00:54:28.849 the buffoonery. Make Kwee Kwek dignified, sharp. 00:54:29.070 --> 00:54:32.329 If he's the best harpooner on the Paquad, let 00:54:32.329 --> 00:54:34.510 him act like it. And grounding him makes that 00:54:34.510 --> 00:54:37.150 transition to the darker stuff feel so much smoother. 00:54:37.329 --> 00:54:39.789 When the prophet Elijah steps out and warns them 00:54:39.789 --> 00:54:42.170 about old thunder, it won't feel like he walked 00:54:42.170 --> 00:54:45.869 in from a different novel. Old thunder. Which 00:54:45.869 --> 00:54:48.769 brings us to the next big pacing problem. The 00:54:48.769 --> 00:54:52.340 logistics. If the comedy distracts from the pacing, 00:54:52.519 --> 00:54:55.960 the logistics, they just murder it. I called 00:54:55.960 --> 00:54:59.099 it the shore bounce log in my notes. That's perfect, 00:54:59.239 --> 00:55:01.579 because there's this huge block of chapters, 00:55:01.739 --> 00:55:05.880 what is it, 16 to 22, where the story just stops? 00:55:06.179 --> 00:55:09.219 We're ready to go to sea, and instead we get 00:55:09.219 --> 00:55:12.219 stuck in administrative hell. It's all the conversations 00:55:12.219 --> 00:55:15.119 with Captains Peleg and Bildad. And they're great 00:55:15.119 --> 00:55:17.659 characters, don't get me wrong. The whole fighting 00:55:17.659 --> 00:55:20.849 Quaker dynamic is fun. But we spend pages and 00:55:20.849 --> 00:55:23.710 pages haggling over the lays. The prophet shares, 00:55:23.909 --> 00:55:26.170 yeah. It's a five -page debate about whether 00:55:26.170 --> 00:55:30.190 Ishmael gets the 275th lay or the 300th. And 00:55:30.190 --> 00:55:33.090 Bildad is quoting scripture to justify paying 00:55:33.090 --> 00:55:36.070 him less, which is, you know, a funny little 00:55:36.070 --> 00:55:39.289 bit of satire. But does it need to go on that 00:55:39.289 --> 00:55:44.530 long? No. It drags. And then Aunt Charity. Oh, 00:55:44.730 --> 00:55:48.739 Aunt Charity and her pickles. And the flannel 00:55:48.739 --> 00:55:52.780 and the spare Bible. It's just lists. It's a 00:55:52.780 --> 00:55:55.719 shipping manifest. The reader signed up for a 00:55:55.719 --> 00:55:58.579 high seas adventure, not an inventory check. 00:55:58.820 --> 00:56:02.179 The real danger here is that the author is just 00:56:02.179 --> 00:56:05.719 deflating all the suspense he's built up around 00:56:05.719 --> 00:56:09.239 Captain Ahab. Who we still haven't met. Not once. 00:56:09.800 --> 00:56:15.159 It's all hearsay. Peleg calls him a grand, ungodly, 00:56:15.159 --> 00:56:18.420 godlike man, which is a fantastic line. It gave 00:56:18.420 --> 00:56:21.400 me chills. But then we just sit on the dock for 00:56:21.400 --> 00:56:24.420 five chapters. So I think the fix is twofold. 00:56:24.900 --> 00:56:28.320 First, you condense all that negotiation. We 00:56:28.320 --> 00:56:31.860 get it. Peleg is gruff, Bildad is cheap. Cut 00:56:31.860 --> 00:56:34.099 that dialogue in half and get the ship in the 00:56:34.099 --> 00:56:37.079 water. And secondly? Give us a glimpse of Ahab. 00:56:37.260 --> 00:56:40.659 Yes. Even if he doesn't speak? Exactly. Let Ishmael 00:56:40.659 --> 00:56:43.340 see a shadow in the cabin window. Let him hear 00:56:43.340 --> 00:56:46.099 the pacing of that ivory leg on the deck. Just 00:56:46.099 --> 00:56:48.940 a little sensory detail to anchor the threat. 00:56:49.239 --> 00:56:52.679 Because right now the admin is so heavy, I almost 00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:54.800 forgot we were even waiting for a mad captain. 00:56:55.139 --> 00:56:58.079 We need to feel the pull of the ocean, not the 00:56:58.079 --> 00:57:01.199 drag of the anchor. Which brings us to the final 00:57:01.199 --> 00:57:04.639 hurdle. The ship finally launches. We are out 00:57:04.639 --> 00:57:07.219 on the howling infinite. We are ready for the 00:57:07.219 --> 00:57:11.300 hunt. And then the author stops the story cold 00:57:11.300 --> 00:57:15.159 to give us a lecture. Chapter 24, The Advocate. 00:57:15.400 --> 00:57:18.599 The Advocate. For me, this was maybe the most 00:57:18.599 --> 00:57:20.800 jarring interruption in the whole manuscript. 00:57:21.139 --> 00:57:23.820 It's not a chapter of a novel. It's an essay. 00:57:24.119 --> 00:57:27.360 It's a defensive essay, yeah. It feels like the 00:57:27.360 --> 00:57:30.039 author is deeply insecure about his subject matter. 00:57:30.260 --> 00:57:33.309 He totally breaks character. Ishmael stops being 00:57:33.309 --> 00:57:35.710 Ishmael and starts sounding like a defense attorney 00:57:35.710 --> 00:57:38.329 giving his closing statement. He literally addresses 00:57:38.329 --> 00:57:44.769 a reader. He says, And then he starts listing 00:57:44.769 --> 00:57:47.909 historical figures who supported whaling. Alfred 00:57:47.909 --> 00:57:51.090 the Great, Edmund Burke. He claims whaling is 00:57:51.090 --> 00:57:54.150 the true mother of Australia. It's a history 00:57:54.150 --> 00:57:56.760 lesson, and look. Some of the facts are interesting, 00:57:57.099 --> 00:57:59.639 but do I need to know them right after the dramatic 00:57:59.639 --> 00:58:02.420 Christmas night launch of the Pequod? No, it 00:58:02.420 --> 00:58:05.059 kills the mood completely. You have this incredible 00:58:05.059 --> 00:58:07.940 image of Bulkington at the helm, driving into 00:58:07.940 --> 00:58:10.739 the storm, and then, bam, we're reading statistics 00:58:10.739 --> 00:58:13.659 about Dutch admirals. The author is telling, 00:58:13.820 --> 00:58:16.599 not showing. He's arguing that whaling is noble 00:58:16.599 --> 00:58:19.519 instead of just showing us. Right. He's comparing 00:58:19.519 --> 00:58:22.480 the butchery of whaling to the butchery of war. 00:58:22.920 --> 00:58:25.159 Saying that generals get medals, but whalers 00:58:25.159 --> 00:58:28.199 get ignored. It's a valid point. I actually agree 00:58:28.199 --> 00:58:30.579 with him. But you don't make that point by shouting 00:58:30.579 --> 00:58:33.400 it at me. You make it by showing the crew's bravery. 00:58:33.980 --> 00:58:37.159 Exactly. If you want me to respect these men, 00:58:37.400 --> 00:58:40.840 show me Starbuck's steady hand. Show me Queekegan 00:58:40.840 --> 00:58:43.780 action. Don't give me a list of kings who invested 00:58:43.780 --> 00:58:46.840 in blubber. I call it the essayist intrusion. 00:58:46.840 --> 00:58:49.980 The author just can't seem to help himself. But 00:58:49.980 --> 00:58:52.840 the irony is, by stopping the story to demand 00:58:52.840 --> 00:58:56.099 our respect, he loses our engagement. So the 00:58:56.099 --> 00:58:59.480 advice is pretty simple. Cut chapter 24. Just 00:58:59.480 --> 00:59:02.559 cut it. Or, if he really loves those facts, put 00:59:02.559 --> 00:59:05.239 them in dialogue. Have the crew debating their 00:59:05.239 --> 00:59:07.860 own worth on a night watch. Make it organic. 00:59:08.179 --> 00:59:11.179 But whatever you do, do not break the fourth 00:59:11.179 --> 00:59:13.860 wall to cite your sources. We've covered a lot, 00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:16.420 and I don't want to sound too harsh, because 00:59:16.420 --> 00:59:19.099 there is something. undeniable, and powerful 00:59:19.099 --> 00:59:22.079 in this manuscript. Oh, absolutely. I want to 00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:24.480 be really clear, the bones of this story are 00:59:24.480 --> 00:59:26.880 incredible. So let's just recap the main points 00:59:26.880 --> 00:59:30.099 for the rewrite. First, that barrier to entry. 00:59:30.420 --> 00:59:34.360 Tear down the wall, move the etymology and extracts 00:59:34.360 --> 00:59:36.699 to the back, or weave them into the narrative. 00:59:36.920 --> 00:59:39.300 Don't make the reader pass a test to get to the 00:59:39.300 --> 00:59:42.260 story. Second, the tone. Tighten up the comedy. 00:59:42.639 --> 00:59:45.739 The bond between Ishmael and Queekeg is the heart 00:59:45.739 --> 00:59:48.239 of this opening, but the slapstick undermines 00:59:48.239 --> 00:59:51.579 the seriousness. Keep the bond, lose the cartoon 00:59:51.579 --> 00:59:54.960 sound effects. Third, pacing and logistics. Condess 00:59:54.960 --> 00:59:57.139 the haggling. We don't need to see every receipt. 00:59:57.239 --> 01:00:00.199 Get us to the water faster. And give us a taste 01:00:00.199 --> 01:00:03.300 of Ahab sooner. A shadow, a sound, something 01:00:03.300 --> 01:00:06.460 to build that dread. And finally, the essayist. 01:00:06.639 --> 01:00:09.730 Stop lecturing. Cut the advocate. Trust that 01:00:09.730 --> 01:00:11.989 the actions of the crew will prove the nobility 01:00:11.989 --> 01:00:14.070 of their profession far better than an essay 01:00:14.070 --> 01:00:16.289 ever could. If the author can make those changes, 01:00:16.449 --> 01:00:19.469 if he can just prune back this academic and administrative 01:00:19.469 --> 01:00:22.130 overgrowth, I honestly think he could have a 01:00:22.130 --> 01:00:24.449 masterpiece on his hands. The voice is there. 01:00:24.710 --> 01:00:28.090 Ishmael is a fantastic narrator. The atmosphere 01:00:28.090 --> 01:00:31.489 of the Pequod is so visceral. I can smell the 01:00:31.489 --> 01:00:34.809 oil. I'm genuinely excited to see where it goes. 01:00:35.070 --> 01:00:37.929 I mean, we haven't even seen a whale yet. Not 01:00:37.929 --> 01:00:40.969 one. And we haven't met the white whale. I'm 01:00:40.969 --> 01:00:43.530 dying to see how he handles the action. Does 01:00:43.530 --> 01:00:46.050 the essayist come back to explain the anatomy 01:00:46.050 --> 01:00:49.849 of a fluke mid -chase? What's hope not? We are 01:00:49.849 --> 01:00:52.190 inviting the listener to submit the next draft, 01:00:52.449 --> 01:00:55.449 presumably covering that first chase and Ahab's 01:00:55.449 --> 01:00:58.590 proper introduction. I am ready for it. Just 01:00:58.590 --> 01:01:01.090 maybe leave the dictionary at home this time. 01:01:01.500 --> 01:01:03.980 That's it for this critique. Keep writing, keep 01:01:03.980 --> 01:01:06.500 refining, and remember, the best stories are 01:01:06.500 --> 01:01:08.820 the ones that don't let the reader go. Until 01:01:08.820 --> 01:01:11.179 next time, this has been The Critique.