Response Journal Week 4-Gabi

For the first time, Ishmael took us out to hunt some whales! We also learned of Ahab’s secret crew-members (180). Ishmael refers to them as “dusky phantoms that seemed fresh formed out of the air.” These men are “outlaws” or castaways who are much like trash or bits of wreckage floating in the sea (191). One of these men, Fedallah, is described as either Asian or Arabic, or a mix of the two. He “hisses” and is a thoroughly scary man. While his story is not told explicitly, one is able to infer that he is not the most upright of citizens. These phantom men are just one more indication of Ahab’s dark side. In the beginning of “The Spirit-Spout” (Chapter 51), Melville writes, “While [Ahab’s] one live leg made lively echos along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin tap.” (192) Ahab is half dead, and whatever life is left in him is powered by his “monomania.”
One of the most exciting parts of this initial whale hunt was Stubb’s “exordium.” His unconventional ranting has the effect of propelling the small boat forward,

“He would say the most terrific things to his crew, in a tone so strangely compounded of fun and fury, and the fury seemed so calculated merely as a spice to the fun, that no oarsmen could hear such queer invocations without pulling for dear life, and yet pulling for the mere joke of the thing.” (182)

When I read this passage, I recalled Ahab’s “pep-talk” to his men, to get them riled up to hunt the great white whale. These were two very different approaches (and obviously in very different situations) to unify the men into what could almost be compared to a single organism or some other singular entity.
On another note, “The Whiteness of the Whale” (Chapter 42) was one of the more poetic or philosophical chapters we have read so far. In it, Ishmael or Melville (I don’t know which one to refer to anymore) addresses the whale’s color. Moby Dick is a white whale, a characteristic that makes him all the more note-worthy. Ishmael credits this whiteness (that of polar bears, of snowcapped mountains, and of death) with reminding us of the infinity of the universe, which in turn brings to mind the impermanence of our own fleeting existence. He writes that whiteness is unique in that it is simultaneously the absence of color and a manifestation of all colors. It is used to symbolize innocence or purity (a bridal gown) but the whale’s whiteness, specifically, is extremely terrifying. It shrouds something frightening and horrible in a fleece of whiteness. Melville’s whiteness is symbolic of the unknown, or the inhuman (the divine and the frightful). “Sublime” is the perfect word to describe it.
Moby Dick is so surreal, so complex and buried under so many layers that it is easy to get swamped by the gravity of it all. For the first time, I read this week’s portion in one sitting. I was struck by how differently I reacted to the text. Not only was my focus much more intense but I felt like I was in the story. However, the same way that Melville (or Ishmael) was able to draw me into the labyrinth of his narrative, he was able to pull me right back out with a bit of perspective, “There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange and mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own.” (188)