WEBVTT 00:00:06.654 --> 00:00:10.144 A mountain separating two lakes. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:10.144 --> 00:00:15.120 A room papered floor to ceiling with bridal satins. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:19.086 The lid of an immense snuffbox. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:19.086 --> 00:00:24.817 These seemingly unrelated images take us on a tour of a sperm whale’s head 00:00:24.817 --> 00:00:27.922 in Herman Melville’s "Moby Dick." 00:00:27.922 --> 00:00:29.022 On the surface, 00:00:29.022 --> 00:00:34.218 the book is the story of Captain Ahab’s hunt for revenge against Moby Dick, 00:00:34.218 --> 00:00:37.218 the white whale who bit off his leg. 00:00:37.218 --> 00:00:42.324 But though the book features pirates, typhoons, high-speed chases, 00:00:42.324 --> 00:00:44.094 and giant squid, 00:00:44.094 --> 00:00:48.474 you shouldn’t expect a conventional seafaring adventure. 00:00:48.474 --> 00:00:53.892 Instead, it’s a multilayered exploration of not only the intimate details 00:00:53.892 --> 00:00:56.112 of life aboard a whaling ship, 00:00:56.112 --> 00:01:00.287 but also subjects from across human and natural history, 00:01:00.287 --> 00:01:06.425 by turns playful and tragic, humorous, and urgent. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:06.425 --> 00:01:09.615 The narrator guiding us through these explorations 00:01:09.615 --> 00:01:12.765 is a common sailor called Ishmael. 00:01:12.765 --> 00:01:15.725 Ishmael starts out telling his own story 00:01:15.725 --> 00:01:20.413 as he prepares to escape the “damp and drizzly November in [his] soul” 00:01:20.413 --> 00:01:22.857 by going to sea. 00:01:22.857 --> 00:01:26.857 But after he befriends the Pacific Islander Queequeg 00:01:26.857 --> 00:01:30.347 and joins Ahab’s crew aboard the Pequod, 00:01:30.347 --> 00:01:33.647 Ishmael becomes more of an omniscient guide for the reader 00:01:33.647 --> 00:01:35.907 than a traditional character. 00:01:35.907 --> 00:01:38.527 While Ahab obsesses over revenge 00:01:38.527 --> 00:01:41.817 and first mate Starbuck tries to reason with him, 00:01:41.817 --> 00:01:45.017 Ishmael takes us on his own quest for meaning 00:01:45.017 --> 00:01:49.515 throughout “the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs.” 00:01:49.515 --> 00:01:56.228 In his telling, life’s biggest questions loom large, even in the smallest details. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:56.228 --> 00:02:00.581 Like his narrator, Melville was a restless and curious spirit, 00:02:00.581 --> 00:02:04.121 who gained an unorthodox education working as a sailor 00:02:04.121 --> 00:02:08.171 on a series of grueling voyages around the world in his youth. 00:02:08.171 --> 00:02:11.181 He published "Moby Dick" in 1851, 00:02:11.181 --> 00:02:14.981 when the United States’ whaling industry was at its height. 00:02:14.981 --> 00:02:18.011 Nantucket, where the Pequod sets sail, 00:02:18.011 --> 00:02:22.254 was the epicenter of this lucrative and bloody global industry 00:02:22.254 --> 00:02:26.004 which decimated the world’s whale populations. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:26.004 --> 00:02:27.974 Unusually for his time, 00:02:27.974 --> 00:02:31.794 Melville doesn’t shy away from the ugly side of this industry, 00:02:31.794 --> 00:02:34.934 even taking the whale’s perspective at one point, 00:02:34.934 --> 00:02:39.910 when he speculates on how terrifying the huge shadows of the ships must be 00:02:39.910 --> 00:02:43.230 to the creature swimming below. 00:02:43.230 --> 00:02:47.023 The author’s first-hand familiarity with whaling is evident 00:02:47.023 --> 00:02:51.583 over and over again in Ishmael’s vivid descriptions. 00:02:51.583 --> 00:02:54.753 In one chapter, the skin of a whale’s penis 00:02:54.753 --> 00:02:57.983 becomes protective clothing for a crewman. 00:02:57.983 --> 00:03:03.197 Chapters with titles as unpromising as “Cistern and Buckets” 00:03:03.197 --> 00:03:05.847 become some of the novel’s most rewarding 00:03:05.847 --> 00:03:11.005 as Ishmael compares bailing out a sperm-whale’s head to midwifery, 00:03:11.005 --> 00:03:13.955 which leads to reflections on Plato. 00:03:13.955 --> 00:03:17.685 Tangling whale-lines provoke witty reflections 00:03:17.685 --> 00:03:22.831 on the “ever-present perils” entangling all mortals. 00:03:22.831 --> 00:03:30.175 He draws on diverse branches of knowledge, like zoology, gastronomy, law, economics, 00:03:30.175 --> 00:03:37.106 mythology, and teachings from a range of religious and cultural traditions. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:37.106 --> 00:03:42.149 The book experiments with writing style as much as subject matter. 00:03:42.149 --> 00:03:48.121 In one monologue, Ahab challenges Moby Dick in Shakespearean style: 00:03:48.121 --> 00:03:54.571 “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; 00:03:54.571 --> 00:04:01.107 to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; 00:04:01.107 --> 00:04:05.869 for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” 00:04:05.869 --> 00:04:08.669 One chapter is written as a playscript, 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:15.091 where members of the Pequod’s multi-ethnic crew chime in individually and in chorus. 00:04:15.091 --> 00:04:21.930 African and Spanish sailors trade insults while a Tahitian seaman longs for home, 00:04:21.930 --> 00:04:25.650 Chinese and Portuguese crewmembers call for a dance, 00:04:25.650 --> 00:04:29.330 and one young boy prophesies disaster. 00:04:29.330 --> 00:04:30.950 In another chapter, 00:04:30.950 --> 00:04:36.200 Ishmael sings the process of decanting whale oil in epic style, 00:04:36.200 --> 00:04:40.145 as the ship pitches and rolls in the midnight sea 00:04:40.145 --> 00:04:44.377 and the casks rumble like landslides. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:44.377 --> 00:04:48.800 A book so wide-ranging has something for everyone. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:52.611 Readers have found religious and political allegory, 00:04:52.611 --> 00:04:57.801 existential enquiry, social satire, economic analysis, 00:04:57.801 --> 00:05:00.851 and representations of American imperialism, 00:05:00.851 --> 00:05:04.851 industrial relations and racial conflict. 00:05:04.851 --> 00:05:09.524 As Ishmael chases meaning and Ahab chases the white whale, 00:05:09.524 --> 00:05:14.732 the book explores the opposing forces of optimism and uncertainty, 00:05:14.732 --> 00:05:19.575 curiosity and fear that characterize human existence 00:05:19.575 --> 00:05:22.965 no matter what it is we’re chasing. 00:05:22.965 --> 00:05:25.145 Through "Moby Dick’s" many pages, 00:05:25.145 --> 00:05:28.965 Melville invites his readers to leap into the unknown, 00:05:28.965 --> 00:05:34.805 to join him on the hunt for the “ungraspable phantom of life.”