Response Journal Week 11 - Caleb

Response Journal Week 11:
We did it! “Moby-Dick”! As Gabriel said, there’s an immense feeling of gratification which I imagine Ahab might have felt had he lived and killed the Great White Whale himself. I wonder if the length of the novel was a sort of meta tie-in with the novel itself: those infamous slackers who start but never finish are the Ahabs, destined to be taken down by the Great White Novel. Probably not.
In these last chapters, Ahab becomes increasingly more self-aware as to what is driving his monomania. He opines, “What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time…” (406) That whole passage is quite beautiful, with Ahab questioning the nature of an omnipotent God, and reiterating his fatalist mentality. He also advocates Descartian philosophy, asserting, “Oh! How immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts?” (396). And, finally, a more secular humanist ethos: “Stand close to me, Starbuck; let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon God.” (406)
Another aspect of these chapters that I found interesting was the unity of the Pequod. The whole ship, including its crew, become one in several images:
“Ye two are the opposite poles of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is Starbuck; and ye two are all mankind…” (413)
“They were one man, not thirty. For as the one ship that held them all; though it was put together of all contrasting things - oak, and maple, and pine wood; iron, and pitch, and hemp - yet all these ran into each other in the one concrete hull, which shot on its way, both balanced and directed by the long central keel; even so, all the individualities of the crew, this man's valor, that man's fear; guilt and guiltiness, all varieties were welded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to.” (415) This enforces the metaphor of the Pequod as a single human, rebelling in vain against a supernatural, all-powerful force of nature.
Lastly, I was wondering whether Starbuck’s exclamation was a Whitman reference: “’Oh, my captain, my captain!’” (421)
As for the movie project, I’ve sent out several emails, and gotten only one response from Julian Rad, writer of the off-Broadway play “Moby-Dick”, which was nominated for several Drama Desk Awards. He said he’d be happy to do it. I also sent out emails to performance artist Laurie Anderson, the composer of “Moby-Dick: the Musical”, and graphic novelist Bill Sienkiewicz.