0:00:06.654,0:00:10.144
A mountain separating two lakes.

0:00:10.144,0:00:15.296
A room papered floor to [br]ceiling with bridal satins.

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The lid of an immense snuffbox.

0:00:19.086,0:00:24.817
These seemingly unrelated images take [br]us on a tour of a sperm whale’s head

0:00:24.817,0:00:27.372
in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

0:00:27.372,0:00:29.022
On the surface,

0:00:29.022,0:00:34.218
the book is the story of Captain Ahab’s [br]hunt for revenge against Moby Dick,

0:00:34.218,0:00:37.218
the white whale who bit off his leg.

0:00:37.218,0:00:42.324
But though the book features pirates,[br]typhoons, high-speed chases,

0:00:42.324,0:00:44.094
and giant squid,

0:00:44.094,0:00:48.474
you shouldn’t expect a conventional [br]seafaring adventure.

0:00:48.474,0:00:53.892
Instead, it’s a multilayered exploration [br]of not only the intimate details

0:00:53.892,0:00:56.112
of life aboard a whaling ship,

0:00:56.112,0:01:00.287
but also subjects from across human [br]and natural history,

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by turns playful and tragic, humorous [br]and urgent.

0:01:06.425,0:01:09.615
The narrator guiding us through these [br]explorations

0:01:09.615,0:01:12.765
is a common sailor called Ishmael.

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Ishmael starts out telling his own story

0:01:15.725,0:01:20.413
as he prepares to escape the “damp and[br]drizzly November in [his] soul”

0:01:20.413,0:01:22.857
by going to sea.

0:01:22.857,0:01:26.857
But after he befriends the Pacific [br]Islander Queequeg

0:01:26.857,0:01:30.347
and joins Ahab’s crew aboard the Pequod,

0:01:30.347,0:01:33.647
Ishmael becomes more of an omniscient [br]guide for the reader

0:01:33.647,0:01:35.907
than a traditional character.

0:01:35.907,0:01:41.817
While Ahab obsesses over revenge and first[br]mate Starbuck tries to reason with him,

0:01:41.817,0:01:45.017
Ishmael takes us on his own [br]quest for meaning

0:01:45.017,0:01:49.515
throughout “the whole universe, not [br]excluding its suburbs.”

0:01:49.515,0:01:56.228
In his telling, life’s biggest questions [br]loom large, even in the smallest details.

0:01:56.228,0:02:00.581
Like his narrator, Melville was a [br]restless and curious spirit,

0:02:00.581,0:02:04.121
who gained an unorthodox education[br]working as a sailor

0:02:04.121,0:02:08.171
on a series of grueling voyages around [br]the world in his youth.

0:02:08.171,0:02:11.181
He published Moby-Dick in 1851,

0:02:11.181,0:02:14.981
when the United States’ whaling [br]industry was at its height.

0:02:14.981,0:02:18.011
Nantucket, where the Pequod sets sail,

0:02:18.011,0:02:22.254
was the epicenter of this lucrative [br]and bloody global industry

0:02:22.254,0:02:26.004
which decimated the world’s [br]whale populations.

0:02:26.004,0:02:27.974
Unusually for his time,

0:02:27.974,0:02:31.794
Melville doesn’t shy away from [br]the ugly side of this industry,

0:02:31.794,0:02:34.934
even taking the whale’s [br]perspective at one point,

0:02:34.934,0:02:39.910
when he speculates on how terrifying [br]the huge shadows of the ships must be

0:02:39.910,0:02:43.230
to the creature swimming below.

0:02:43.230,0:02:48.653
The author’s first-hand familiarity with [br]whaling is evident over and over again

0:02:48.653,0:02:51.583
in Ishmael’s vivid descriptions.

0:02:51.583,0:02:54.753
In one chapter, the skin [br]of a whale’s penis

0:02:54.753,0:02:57.983
becomes protective clothing [br]for a crewman.

0:02:57.983,0:03:03.197
Chapters with titles as unpromising as [br]“Cistern and Buckets”

0:03:03.197,0:03:05.847
become some of the novel’s most [br]rewarding

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as Ishmael compares bailing out a [br]sperm-whale’s head to midwifery,

0:03:11.005,0:03:13.955
which leads to reflections on Plato.

0:03:13.955,0:03:17.685
Tangling whale-lines provoke witty [br]reflections

0:03:17.685,0:03:22.831
on the “ever-present perils” [br]entangling all mortals.

0:03:22.831,0:03:30.175
He draws on diverse branches of knowledge,[br]like zoology, gastronomy, law, economics,

0:03:30.175,0:03:37.106
mythology, and teachings from a range [br]of religious and cultural traditions.

0:03:37.106,0:03:42.149
The book experiments with writing style [br]as much as subject matter.

0:03:42.149,0:03:48.121
In one monologue, Ahab challenges [br]Moby Dick in Shakespearean style:

0:03:48.121,0:03:54.571
“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying [br]but unconquering whale;

0:03:54.571,0:04:01.107
to the last I grapple with thee; [br]from hell’s heart I stab at thee;

0:04:01.107,0:04:05.869
for hate’s sake I spit my last [br]breath at thee.”

0:04:05.869,0:04:08.669
One chapter is written as a playscript,

0:04:08.669,0:04:15.091
where members of the Pequod’s multi-ethnic[br]crew chime in individually and in chorus.

0:04:15.091,0:04:21.930
African and Spanish sailors trade insults [br]while a Tahitian seaman longs for home,

0:04:21.930,0:04:25.650
Chinese and Portuguese crewmembers [br]call for a dance,

0:04:25.650,0:04:29.330
and one young boy prophesies disaster.

0:04:29.330,0:04:30.950
In another chapter,

0:04:30.950,0:04:36.200
Ishmael sings the process of decanting [br]whale oil in epic style,

0:04:36.200,0:04:40.145
as the ship pitches and rolls in the [br]midnight sea

0:04:40.145,0:04:44.377
and the casks rumble like landslides.

0:04:44.377,0:04:48.800
A book so wide-ranging has something [br]for everyone.

0:04:48.800,0:04:54.751
Readers have found religious and political[br]allegory, existential enquiry,

0:04:54.751,0:04:57.801
social satire, economic analysis,

0:04:57.801,0:05:00.851
and representations of American [br]imperialism,

0:05:00.851,0:05:04.851
industrial relations and racial conflict.

0:05:04.851,0:05:09.524
As Ishmael chases meaning and Ahab [br]chases the white whale,

0:05:09.524,0:05:14.732
the book explores the opposing forces [br]of optimism and uncertainty,

0:05:14.732,0:05:19.575
curiosity and fear that characterize human[br]existence

0:05:19.575,0:05:22.965
no matter what it is we’re chasing.

0:05:22.965,0:05:25.145
Through Moby Dick’s many pages,

0:05:25.145,0:05:28.965
Melville invites his readers to leap into [br]the unknown,

0:05:28.965,0:05:35.275
to join him on the hunt for the [br]“ungraspable phantom of life.”