history-of-stitchery

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I honest to god thought everyone knew the ending of Moby Dick. I come to find people didn’t even know he was a white whale. I am now very confused why from a very young age I knew so much about Moby Dick. I mean perhaps I knew the white part because my mom was forced to read it in high school and she always said “it was the only book I never finished. A whole chapter about the whiteness of the whale!” But I feel maybe there were references in old cartoons perhaps? I loved looney tunes and tom and Jerry. Also there’s also a phrase “(possessive) white whale”.

Do you know the end of Moby Dick through osmosis?

"To this plan I strenuously objected, and so far as my going was concerned, for I said that I intended to stay and protect Mina, I thought that my mind was made up on the subject; but Mina would not listen to my objection. […] I had to give in, for Mina’s resolution was fixed."

...I don't think that's it

Okay so funny story

[cut for what I presume to be spoilers for the end of Moby Dick]

My middle school science teacher told us once about a friend of his who made intricately complex ...wind up toys? Based on classic literature. Some kind of model or something that would have like one or two moving parts, to make like scenes. So there was one of Bradbury's "the Foghorn" where the little pleiseosaur head moved back and forth attacking the lighthouse - I think he'd just read us the story in the sci-fi literature club, and that's how it came up.

But this friend had also made one for Moby Dick. Now, at the time, basically everything I knew about Moby Dick was that there was a whale, and also this exchange from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure:

Bill: what do we know about George Washington?

Ted: *decisively* had wooden teeth, chased Moby Dick

Bill:...

Bill: That's Captain Ahab, dude

(Also, hey, mood whiplash going from some Keanu!Jonathan gifsets to Ted Theodore Logan...)

Anyway. This little Moby Dick model was the titular whale, naturally... in the final scene of the novel, with tiny Ahab roped to his back (dead? I think?) and the moving part was his free arm flapping back and forth as if beckoning the rest of the crew to follow after him into Death.

So uh. Yeah that's what I know about the end of Moby Dick, and what I've gleaned from cultural osmosis vis a vis the wreck of the Exeter, and having seen the Wrath of Khan, oh and the Moby Dick song by Shanghaied on the Wilamette that happens to include the line "and Queequeg he's a-dying" (although I can recognize foreshadowing when I see it, and Ishmael talking about his "last dive" in chapter whatever was not lost on me.)

And people here have not been terribly careful about the spoilers. There were comments almost from the beginning about the book being Ishmael's eulogy for the crew of the Pequod, which suggests that things are not going to end well for anyone. But I specifically have a seared-in image of Ahab's ultimate fate, and I have to say... it sounds so freakin cool.

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I love how unavoidably sexual these get

it is once again valentine’s day which means it is once again time to bring my Whalentines back. have a Whalin’-time with them. heehoo

and psst if you like these you should read my very queer webcomic adaptation of moby dick (you can find her at mobydick - thecomic .com – spaced out so tumblr doesn’t nerf my post)

heehoo. happy whalentines!

(ID: A series of eight moby dick related valentines cards. They’re all digital drawings with pastel colored backgrounds and comic sans text. 1) Ishmael blushing nervously holding out an envelope, and it says “Whale you be my valentine?” 2) Queequeg holding a harpoon and smirking, with the caption “wanna see my harpoon?” 3) Captain Ahab glowering. “I want you more than Moby Dick.” 4) A barrel of oil and a candle with the caption “I’ll make u a pint of sperm richer ;)” 5) A blushing Starbuck with the caption “my soul is more than matched by you, valentine” 6) A white sperm whale with the caption “theres hogsheads of sperm ahead!” 7) Pip playing his tambourine and the caption “dance with me!” 8) Ishmael and Queequeg holding each other and pressing their foreheads together. Caption “Let’s get married!”)

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Hello sexybotsTM of tumblr.

I am once again asking you,

To leave me alone.

I am scared. What do you want from me. I am not equipped for this. I am on this website for a reason.

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Since literally none of you know how to behave🙄🙄🙄🙄

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Herman Melville writing about a painting of a ship that gets destroyed by a whale that's is in a whale themed inn owned by a guy named coffin and having a preacher talk about a biblical whale eating a prophet as punishment during the funeral of a bunch of whalers

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"i told my friends about Linnaean classification of whales and they said it was bullshit"

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Melville said “I’m a little intense, but I’m gonna make this guy WORSE.”

enjoying the way melville made ishmael a bit stupid on purpose

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source: Stubbs again, of course

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There has been a kerfuffle aboard the Pequod

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facts are facts (sort of)

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Oh, honey, I don’t think you need God’s help here.

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Highlights of today’s chapter:

“Look at all these cool guys who write about whales. I’ve seen more whales then these guys”

“Studying whales is so hard. Even the guy at the post office can’t do it”

“Linnæs says a whale isn’t a fish. I think he’s stupid. All my friends do too. And so does Jonah From the Bible”

“A whale is not a fish [for the exact reasons linnæs named]”

“People say these things are whales, but I hate them. They aren’t cool enough to be whales”

“Wanna read MY classification of whales?”

“Fin-back whales hate other whales”

“This is the skin of a killer Bella” (points to himself and an orca)

“I named this whale myself”

“It’s not done I’m still working on it 👉👈”

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I have just learned that, upon asking my friends, it is not common knowledge that Moby Dick is white.

The term “white whale”. “It’s their white whale”?

Apparently not common knowledge???

"Mast-head, there! Look sharp, all of ye! There are whales hereabouts!

“If ye see a white one, split your lungs for him!

“What do you think of that now, Flask? ain’t there a small drop of something queer about that, eh? A white whale—did ye mark that, man? Look ye—there’s something special in the wind. Stand by for it, Flask. Ahab has that that’s bloody on his mind. But, mum; he comes this way.”

Moby Dick's white?!

This is absolutely derailing my current crochet project.

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I want it

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