I just read the chapter "The Symphony" and only have three chapters left. After finishing this novel, I am going to write a lot about it to polish up all of my readings and thoughts, but this novel truly is special. Before I go read the last 3 chapters I want to yap about something, as the kids say.
I am surprised I feel the way I am feeling right now, given that some of the chapters were tough to get through. The Cetology chapters were tough and various chapters had passages I had to tape my eyes open to get through. But man, I think as a holistic work, Moby Dick might be unparalleled in the realm of novels.
To me, when it comes to categorizing the works that deserve to be at the top of the literary Mount Everest, one thing comes to mind. For context, I think every medium, both verbal and visual, is wonderful and have favorite stories (and stories I would consider some of the greatest ever regardless of medium) in all of them. Chrono Trigger for video games, Evangelion for anime, Berserk for Manga, Mulholland Drive (RIP) for films, Mad Men for television, Hamlet for plays, Crime and Punishment for Novels, Lovecraft mythos for short stories, you get the point.
I am not one to sit here and say any verbal medium is better than visual or any which way in between. All of it is wonderful.
However, with the verbal mediums, I realize the reason I keep on picking up the legendary works despite how hard they can be to get through is that the truly special works end up becoming an entirely new way to view life itself. The levels of profundity are indescribable, in a way a lot of contemporary works both visual and verbal don't really go for as much. Not that makes them any less valuable but it is something special about these legendary old works and why people should strive to get through them.
Shakespeare has rearranged my frontal lobe with Hamlet. Hamlet as a work transcends the pages it is written on and becomes a philosophy all its own. It has made me depressed and changed the way I view existenting in of itself. Crime and Punishment changed the way I view Psychology as a field, morality, and society. And many more.
Moby Dick is most assuredly going to get added to this list. Moby Dick seeks to be a sensory representation of life itself (through the changing mediums showcasing life's changes and nature, the vast array of musings on seemingly random realities of human philosophy and the human experience, and the sheer length of the work) and also focus in on one of the most prevailing harsh truths of the human experience. That humans are limited in the capacity to truly understand the realities of the world. Both physically and metaphysically.
The whaling chapters serve to show how just one branch of an attempt to understand the world can get so involved and complex. No human can understand the universe in its entirety. Aspects of the physical human experience are played with all over the novel. Take Morality. Should Starbuck have killed Ahab? Why is the cannibal one of the nicest and bravest people in the story? Why is whaling considered barbaric when it is also epic and honorable? Is any of this wrong? Is there a wrong? Every aspect of the physical human experience has light and shade. So how does one know where to stand in terms of answers? Humans will always try to grasp some meaning out of life and strive for true answers.
We try to find meaning and answers in everything. The Jeroboam part of the novel is just a series of coincidences but they slowly believe it to be some supernatural plague. Even the color white has a ton of meaning depending on culture and perspective. Nearly everything in the novel can be explained with science or some other perspective. All over we arguably find little patterns and try to find meaning in things to ground ourselves. Ahab is driven to madness because if there is a "God" or some beyond human comprehension truth to life, it is uncaring and cruel towards the physical world. Ahab is deeply aware of the metaphysical mysteries of the universe and hates it. He proclaims war on the "heavens", even knowing nothing may even exist. He wants whatever is the truth to come down and show itself. Just as we try to put meaning to everything, Ahab has put meaning into the Whale biting off his leg and is trying to defy it. Even though the Whale was arguably just defending itself. Ahab Trying to fight back against something in the only way his little soul can muster in the vast uncaring landscape of reality. The only way his little mind relative to the universe can even comprehend dealing with what appears to be, an attack from fate itself. His emotions and humanity take him over, it all leads to tragedy. Humans can't help but put meaning to things but can't accept that there might be no transcendental meaning at all. That is very sad and I hate this novel for making me not only understand this from a literary, scholarly perspective but made me FEEL it from a sensory perspective. Guess I am a victim of my humanity, just like Ahab. Moby Dick is a masterpiece and I am going to write more about it once I finish. God bless incredible literature.
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