1 00:00:06,654 --> 00:00:10,144 A mountain separating two lakes. 2 00:00:10,144 --> 00:00:15,296 A room papered floor to ceiling with bridal satins. 3 00:00:15,296 --> 00:00:19,086 The lid of an immense snuffbox. 4 00:00:19,086 --> 00:00:24,817 These seemingly unrelated images take us on a tour of a sperm whale’s head 5 00:00:24,817 --> 00:00:27,372 in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. 6 00:00:27,372 --> 00:00:29,022 On the surface, 7 00:00:29,022 --> 00:00:34,218 the book is the story of Captain Ahab’s hunt for revenge against Moby Dick, 8 00:00:34,218 --> 00:00:37,218 the white whale who bit off his leg. 9 00:00:37,218 --> 00:00:42,324 But though the book features pirates, typhoons, high-speed chases, 10 00:00:42,324 --> 00:00:44,094 and giant squid, 11 00:00:44,094 --> 00:00:48,474 you shouldn’t expect a conventional seafaring adventure. 12 00:00:48,474 --> 00:00:53,892 Instead, it’s a multilayered exploration of not only the intimate details 13 00:00:53,892 --> 00:00:56,112 of life aboard a whaling ship, 14 00:00:56,112 --> 00:01:00,287 but also subjects from across human and natural history, 15 00:01:00,287 --> 00:01:06,425 by turns playful and tragic, humorous and urgent. 16 00:01:06,425 --> 00:01:09,615 The narrator guiding us through these explorations 17 00:01:09,615 --> 00:01:12,765 is a common sailor called Ishmael. 18 00:01:12,765 --> 00:01:15,725 Ishmael starts out telling his own story 19 00:01:15,725 --> 00:01:20,413 as he prepares to escape the “damp and drizzly November in [his] soul” 20 00:01:20,413 --> 00:01:22,857 by going to sea. 21 00:01:22,857 --> 00:01:26,857 But after he befriends the Pacific Islander Queequeg 22 00:01:26,857 --> 00:01:30,347 and joins Ahab’s crew aboard the Pequod, 23 00:01:30,347 --> 00:01:33,647 Ishmael becomes more of an omniscient guide for the reader 24 00:01:33,647 --> 00:01:35,907 than a traditional character. 25 00:01:35,907 --> 00:01:41,817 While Ahab obsesses over revenge and first mate Starbuck tries to reason with him, 26 00:01:41,817 --> 00:01:45,017 Ishmael takes us on his own quest for meaning 27 00:01:45,017 --> 00:01:49,515 throughout “the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs.” 28 00:01:49,515 --> 00:01:56,228 In his telling, life’s biggest questions loom large, even in the smallest details. 29 00:01:56,228 --> 00:02:00,581 Like his narrator, Melville was a restless and curious spirit, 30 00:02:00,581 --> 00:02:04,121 who gained an unorthodox education working as a sailor 31 00:02:04,121 --> 00:02:08,171 on a series of grueling voyages around the world in his youth. 32 00:02:08,171 --> 00:02:11,181 He published Moby-Dick in 1851, 33 00:02:11,181 --> 00:02:14,981 when the United States’ whaling industry was at its height. 34 00:02:14,981 --> 00:02:18,011 Nantucket, where the Pequod sets sail, 35 00:02:18,011 --> 00:02:22,254 was the epicenter of this lucrative and bloody global industry 36 00:02:22,254 --> 00:02:26,004 which decimated the world’s whale populations. 37 00:02:26,004 --> 00:02:27,974 Unusually for his time, 38 00:02:27,974 --> 00:02:31,794 Melville doesn’t shy away from the ugly side of this industry, 39 00:02:31,794 --> 00:02:34,934 even taking the whale’s perspective at one point, 40 00:02:34,934 --> 00:02:39,910 when he speculates on how terrifying the huge shadows of the ships must be 41 00:02:39,910 --> 00:02:43,230 to the creature swimming below. 42 00:02:43,230 --> 00:02:48,653 The author’s first-hand familiarity with whaling is evident over and over again 43 00:02:48,653 --> 00:02:51,583 in Ishmael’s vivid descriptions. 44 00:02:51,583 --> 00:02:54,753 In one chapter, the skin of a whale’s penis 45 00:02:54,753 --> 00:02:57,983 becomes protective clothing for a crewman. 46 00:02:57,983 --> 00:03:03,197 Chapters with titles as unpromising as “Cistern and Buckets” 47 00:03:03,197 --> 00:03:05,847 become some of the novel’s most rewarding 48 00:03:05,847 --> 00:03:11,005 as Ishmael compares bailing out a sperm-whale’s head to midwifery, 49 00:03:11,005 --> 00:03:13,955 which leads to reflections on Plato. 50 00:03:13,955 --> 00:03:17,685 Tangling whale-lines provoke witty reflections 51 00:03:17,685 --> 00:03:22,831 on the “ever-present perils” entangling all mortals. 52 00:03:22,831 --> 00:03:30,175 He draws on diverse branches of knowledge, like zoology, gastronomy, law, economics, 53 00:03:30,175 --> 00:03:37,106 mythology, and teachings from a range of religious and cultural traditions. 54 00:03:37,106 --> 00:03:42,149 The book experiments with writing style as much as subject matter. 55 00:03:42,149 --> 00:03:48,121 In one monologue, Ahab challenges Moby Dick in Shakespearean style: 56 00:03:48,121 --> 00:03:54,571 “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; 57 00:03:54,571 --> 00:04:01,107 to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; 58 00:04:01,107 --> 00:04:05,869 for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” 59 00:04:05,869 --> 00:04:08,669 One chapter is written as a playscript, 60 00:04:08,669 --> 00:04:15,091 where members of the Pequod’s multi-ethnic crew chime in individually and in chorus. 61 00:04:15,091 --> 00:04:21,930 African and Spanish sailors trade insults while a Tahitian seaman longs for home, 62 00:04:21,930 --> 00:04:25,650 Chinese and Portuguese crewmembers call for a dance, 63 00:04:25,650 --> 00:04:29,330 and one young boy prophesies disaster. 64 00:04:29,330 --> 00:04:30,950 In another chapter, 65 00:04:30,950 --> 00:04:36,200 Ishmael sings the process of decanting whale oil in epic style, 66 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:40,145 as the ship pitches and rolls in the midnight sea 67 00:04:40,145 --> 00:04:44,377 and the casks rumble like landslides. 68 00:04:44,377 --> 00:04:48,800 A book so wide-ranging has something for everyone. 69 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:54,751 Readers have found religious and political allegory, existential enquiry, 70 00:04:54,751 --> 00:04:57,801 social satire, economic analysis, 71 00:04:57,801 --> 00:05:00,851 and representations of American imperialism, 72 00:05:00,851 --> 00:05:04,851 industrial relations and racial conflict. 73 00:05:04,851 --> 00:05:09,524 As Ishmael chases meaning and Ahab chases the white whale, 74 00:05:09,524 --> 00:05:14,732 the book explores the opposing forces of optimism and uncertainty, 75 00:05:14,732 --> 00:05:19,575 curiosity and fear that characterize human existence 76 00:05:19,575 --> 00:05:22,965 no matter what it is we’re chasing. 77 00:05:22,965 --> 00:05:25,145 Through Moby Dick’s many pages, 78 00:05:25,145 --> 00:05:28,965 Melville invites his readers to leap into the unknown, 79 00:05:28,965 --> 00:05:35,275 to join him on the hunt for the “ungraspable phantom of life.”