#bulkington

[saranilssonbooks]

Ishmael: *Spends about halft an hour at the Spouter Inn staring at and analyzing Bulkington*

Bulkington, to himself: That weird but cute sailor over there keeps making eyes at me. He's a total weirdo, but I guess it's still kinda flattering.

Bulkington: *Attempts to return gaze* Wait, why isn't he responing all of a sudden? Well have it your way then, tease! *Leaves in disappointment*

The following evening.

Bulkington: Fuck, I simply can't get that cute weirdo sailor off my mind. Guess I might as well head back just to have a peek if he's still there.

Bulkington: *Returns to the Spouter Inn and spots Ishmael and Queequeg* Noooooo!

Bulkington for the next couple of days, finally failing at denying his own sore heart* Ugh! Better not risk running into him again. Might as well head over to Nantucket, that should be just as good of a place to find a ship.

Bulkington: *Arrives in Nantucket and spots Ishmael and Queequeg* Noooooooooooo!!

Christmas Day

Bulkington, aboard the Pequod: Off to sea again, I guess. Everything back to usual. *Turns around and spots Ishmael and Queequeg* NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

And thus due to Bulkington's dedicated avoidance, this became the reason for him never being mentioned again.

[jaewul]

Ishmael, my dude, you can't just eulogize someone who is still alive and not tell me anything more about him, it's not nice

[basilsbestpainting]

I finally was able to put together a few bucks and snag a hard copy of Moby Dick (library has about 20 holds out on it), so I'm playing catch-up on whale weekly right now.

And currently, I want to talk about Ishmael's use of the word apotheosis in regards to Bulkington.

Let's start with the definition of apotheosis. There are two:

Now, Ishmael has described Bulkington as a man separate from his peers previously. A specimen of man who stood stalwart and silent before slipping away, causing his mates to search for him saddened. In chapter 23, Ishmael takes more of an approach towards the second path with a few images of death in a poetical style reminiscent of descriptions of roman emperors who were diefied in roman myths. Describing him as a demigod and noting again how he stands apart from his peers.

One more thing I want to note as foreshadowing. Typically apotheosis comes after death as a reward for life. This feels like (really fucking direct) foreshadowing of Bulkingtons death

[heroofthreefaces]

Okay backstop me here friends

(possible spoilers for Moby Dick and/or just today’s Whale Weekly)

I got lost in the flowery language - is Ishmael saying This was the point when I noticed that, on the Pequod with us, was the big guy I saw in town named Bigfuckingguy. Pity he didn’t make it back

[dodger-chan]

Let me only say that it fared with him as with the storm-tossed ship, that miserably drives along the leeward land. The port would fain give succor; the port is pitiful; in the port is safety, comfort, hearthstone, supper, warm blankets, friends, all that’s kind to our mortalities. But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through. With all her might she crowds all sail off shore; in so doing, fights ’gainst the very winds that fain would blow her homeward; seeks all the lashed sea’s landlessness again; for refuge’s sake forlornly rushing into peril; her only friend her bitterest foe!

What a beautiful epitaph for a sailor.

Honestly I can't think of a better way to explain that a man preferred being at sea to being on land than a ship metaphor.

[ahabsleg]

These few days before Whale Weekly starts has the vibe of the New Bedford Inns being overcrowded with new and old sailors waiting for their journey to begin.

[snabulous]

i want to SCREAM about bulkington. he is GAYER than ishmael and queequeg, he is GAYER THAN ANY CHARACTER I HAVE E V E R SEEN.

[preachersdaughtermp3]

ishmael upon first setting out to become a whaler faces the moral quandary of what it means to kill and consume a creature he sees as equivalent to humans; he studies and mulls over and categorizes them in an attempt to distill his mission down to its most academic respects; it distracts from not only the inevitable tragedy but also the magnitude of his voyage to it. the story eats the fear. but then his first whaling loss turns him from a burial to a haunting; with every successive chapter he spends trying to make sense of the whale, accounting for each of its parts individually in detail because he can't bear to look at the whole, until eventually he accepts it as a god; as being beyond him; only then is his role as witness fully grasped. to take a photograph is to forfeit the role of hero !!!! is to be part of all that makes this tragedy unpreventable >:) the omen of losing sight of flame, ocean, and compass and then finding out hes merely turned around and facing the stern. and he says look, how all along it was just abt where i directed my gaze; not whether i chose to watch

[mushroomslovesyou]

[iraqueer]

you know how timeline wise sometimes Ishmael will narrate a chapter that's like from the future? like the epitaph for bulkington before we witness his death in the book (I actually don't know if we do witness it I didn't get that far in high school assigned reading) but like I always wonder at every new chapter if it's a retrospective one or not. like he's still so enamored with the whaling thing so I don't think this is from the future.

[stain-glass]

Chapter 23 - The Lee Shore

Bulkington! Good guy who just can't stay on land and wants to be on sea

Long metaphor for the sea and the ship and the land and the comforts of home that one must not get comfortable with else they never go back to sea.... maybe

Other of note: Ishmael says this chapter is Bulkington's Stoneless grave, which makes me wonder if it is foreshadow of his death

[monjinator]

Between Bulkington and Starbuck, what I really want is for Ishmael to create a “Whalers of Nantucket” monthly calendar

[postmail]

ngl while it is disappointing it is also pretty funny that melville just. forgot about bulkington. we get so much buildup for bulkington and then he just fucking disappears and we only realize until later that hes straight up gone. just like in his introduction

[lifelinebooks]

Rereading moby Dick and summarizing each chapter part 2/?

Chapters 11-25

Ch 11: I won't be graphic but I definitely fucked Queequeg tonight. This man has me whipped

Ch 12: I learn Queequeg's origin story and my ingrained racist prejudices make themselves a Problem

Ch 13: Queequeg saves someone's life and I get an immediate hard-on

Ch 14: I romanticize Nantucket--you should vacation here

Ch 15: you've heard of Everything is Cake, now get ready for Everything is Fish

Ch 16: Queequeg needs privacy for religious reasons so I leave him our shared room and go for a walk, eventually finding a whaling ship for us to sign on with. The old married couple who own it bicker constantly though

Ch 17: I tried to respect my husband's religion but my racist prejudices mean I have to be annoyingly Christian about it

Ch 18: Queequeg is really good with a harpoon 😏 I would marry him twice if I could

Ch 19: this guy claims to be a prophet and what I want to know is how do I get in contact with his shroom dealer

Ch 20: Captains Bildad and Peleg continue to air out their marital disputes in public as we get the ship ready to sail

Ch 21: the shroom guy is after us again and-- QUEEQUEG GET OFF OF THAT MAN'S ASS

Ch 22: Bildad and Peleg should just get a room at this point but they see us off on our voyage instead

Ch 23: I know I'm married but my GOD Bulkington is hot

Ch 24: whaling is the noblest profession in the world and if you disagree I'll fucking kill you

Ch 25: but that's just my opinion

Part 1 |

[imsorryimlate]

so far what can be sussed out from ishmael’s descriptions:

queequeg: hot

bulkington: hot in a muscle daddy way

starbuck: hot

stubb: not hot on account of his looks barely being described

flask: got more description than stubb so he might be a bit hot but he’s too annoying to actually be hot

tashtego: hot

daggoo: hot but intimidating

[mooseteeth]

just got to the chapter about how Ishmael thinks Bulkington is such a cool guy i bet we'll hear more about him again 🤩