#herman melville

[pageturner001]

I am going to resurrect Herman Melville just so I can ask what exactly he meant when Ismael said: "I found Queequeg's arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost thought I had been his wife," and "How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg-- a cosy, loving pair."

[pocketsizedquasar]

what if ahab got to be a little cosmic horror? as a treat? (more art from a few months ago because i’m so good at posting)

(ID: several black and white ink drawings of ahab from moby dick.

the first image is a full body drawing, and shows him hunched over wiping ink that’s spilling out of his mouth from his face while holding a harpoon. his eyes are cast in shadow, but what we can see of his expression is dangerous and angry. his form fades into shadow at the bottom of his coat. from the shadowy coat, both his live leg in a boot and his whalebone prosthetic leg are seen, as well as several squid tentacles protruding. there is a silhouette of the full squid behind him, and it melds with his form — it becomes unclear whether the tentacles are coming from Ahab or from the squid.

the second image has two bust drawings of ahab. most of his face is still in shadow, but he is looking at the viewer with a snarl, and we can still see ink stains spilling from his nose and mouth down his chin and onto his coat. the shadows and his snarl deepen in the second drawing. sideways handwriting on the side of the image reads “God help thee, old man; thy thoughts have created a creature in thee.”

the third image is a drawing of both squid-Ahab and starbuck, both from the waist up. they are embracing, ahab with a firm hand on starbuck’s upper arm, and leaning into each other, almost kissing. ahab is smiling mischievously, and starbuck’s face is in a reverent smile. the black ink is dripping from both their mouths down their chins. tentacles are pulling starbuck closer to ahab. behind ahab is a sketchy halo.

ahab has forgone his coat and is wearing a collared shirt and waistcoat. starbuck is wearing a dark blazer.

the fourth image is a pencil sketch of Ahab in profile, grinning, with tentacles and dripping ink drawn in front of him.)

[burningvelvet]

so im still persevering in charlotte brontë's shirley. yesterday i went to a poetry open mic & this guy read a really uncomfortable oversexual piece - it wasn't even a poem - but all i could think of was the part in shirley where she talks about being subjected to sir philip's bad poetry and her secondhand embarrassment... yeah, lots of good relatable social commentary and observations of everyday social experiences in this novel - i think charlotte reminds me of austen sometimes in those regards!

and in other news i'm also at the beginning of herman melville's moby dick. its much less boring than i thought it would be so far! some of the stuff with queequeg has been killing me - the descriptions of ishmael waking up with queequeg spooning him were like something out of a modern cartoon. and (not only because of that moment) i deeply wonder if the "head-seller" bit was supposed to be an innuendo for homosexuality/prostitution considering it was in the same chapter concerning ishmael's panic over having to share a bed with said "head-selller."

i'm so sad the ending for moby dick was spoiled for me but hopefully i'll be able to forget about that just like i somehow conveniently forgot about the main twist in jane eyre and subsequently managed to be more shocked by it than any other plot twist i've ever come across. the mind is a curious thing so we'll see

[dzgrizzle]

[prokopetz]

Everything Tumblr has told you about Moby-Dick is absolute bullshit, and everything that Tumblr has told you about Moby-Dick is 100% true. It’s a travelogue fantasy. It’s proto-science fiction. It’s cosmic horror. It’s shockingly original and it’s shamelessly plagiaristic. It’s a misotheistic Christian parable in which the whale is the mask of a cruel, uncaring God and Ahab is Satan himself, not as trickster or as tempter, but as doomed hero. It’s the most gripping thing you’ll ever read. It’s boring as shit. But above all else – and I cannot emphasise this enough – it is filled with Facts About Whales.

[booty-uprooter]

rip herman melville you would've loved adding several chapters about whale falls to moby dick

[karhun-kallo]

niche and self indulgent valentines that cater to me specifically (if they cater to you as well, i will be so happy)

[oldshrewsburyian]

This is (I think) a beautiful read about the experience of reading great literature -- specifically Moby Dick, and that specificity does matter -- in community.

To recite the whole novel in one unbroken sequence only intensifies Moby-Dick’s legendary obstinance. We are all trapped here, in the belly of the beast, one page at a time.

[thatsbelievable]

[soracities]

“You were as deep down as I’ve ever been. You were inside me like my pulse.”

Marilyn Hacker, “Nearly a Valediction”

"I felt pantheistic then— your heart beat in my ribs and mine in yours, and both in God’s."

Herman Melville, in a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Listen, / how your heart pounds inside me."

Wislawa Szymborska, “Could Have”

[c0riiander]

two guys from the guild

[anony-geist]

Melville himself apparently thought of Moby-Dick as a man's book and wrote to one of his female friends, Sara Moorehead, to dissuade her from reading it for fear of offending her feminine sensibilities: "Dont you buy it—dont even read it, when it does come out, because it is by no means the sort of book for you. It is not a piece of fine, feminine, Spitalfield silk—but is of the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ship's cables and hausers.[2]" When Sophia Hawthorne wrote to Melville praising the book, his response was one of astonishment: "I have hunted up the finest Bath I could find, gilt-edged and stamped, whereon to inscribe my humble acknowledgment of your highly flattering letter of the 29th of Dec:—It really amazed me that you should find any satisfaction in that book. It is true that some men have said they were pleased with it but you are the only woman—for as a general thing, women have small taste for the sea.[3]" "Next time," Melville tells Sophia, he shall not send her a "bowl of salt water. . . . The next chalice I shall commend, will be a rural bowl of milk." He then inquires politely about the state of her "domestic affairs."[4] Melville's remarks to these women suggest that he was working under certain gender-determined notions of genre.

Content warning: This book contains the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ship's cables and hausers.

I don't think it's just something period-typical because it implies it now isn't, gender-determined notions of genre are still a thing around the world.

I do feel that in Moorehead's place, I'd have gone WELL NOW I'M GONNA. It's funny to me that in general the boys in my American Literature class would comment things like how it's mostly boring (you don't get it) or about how this is about the national identity of a young country, meanwhile girls would pipe in about multiple facets.

Amerilit girlies: I have so much to say about Moby Dick!

Herman: absolutely flabbergasted

[pocketsizedquasar]

whale weekly folks are at the squeeze of the hand chapter happy gay whaler sex saturday to all who celebrate. happy have an orgy on deck day

[greypetrel]

Some illustrations I made last year, following Herman Melville's 100% true, so accurate descriptions of whales he shared in Moby Dick.

And by the way on this matter I also wrote a little thing to be continued...

Tagging @shivunin because she gave me the idea, @salsedinepicta because she actually was the one that convinced me to read Moby Dick and I can't thank you enough 💜🐳, and @melisusthewee because hi Mel there's a right whale!

[calvinandhobbes]

The drama’s done. Why then here does any one step forth?—Because one did survive the wreck.

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (Ch. 1) // Franz Wright, “Empty Stage” // Gregg Araki, “Nowhere” (1997) // Gwendolyn Brooks, Selected Poems // Ana Mendieta, “Silueta Series” (1976) // Hieu Minh Nguyen, "My First” // The Gibsons of Scilly, “The Minnehaha” (1874) // Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (Epilogue) // Euan MacLeod, Figure in Sea above Figure on Hill, 2002 // Ilya Glazunov, Wave, 1987

[prokopetz]

I was thinking about that post arguing that Moby-Dick is one of the principal forerunners of the cosmic horror literature of the early 20th Century again, and it just occurred to me that both of the major scenes in the book where Captain Ahab performs arguably supernatural feats, the forging of the lodestone and holding lightning in his hand, specifically involve electricity and magnetism – which is also a recurring motif for inhuman characters in early literary cosmic horror.

There's probably an essay lurking in that, if I had the time or the energy to chase it down.