enna24’s Blog

The quote that caught my attention in this night’s reading was used to describe the Pequot. Ishmael is looking at it and talking about the craftsmanship of it and how antique-looking it is, and then says “An noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that” (68). Like last night’s quote, I wanted to try to fully understand what Melville meant. One thing i have noticed is how Melville doesn’t just state facts, he crafts words around do readers do have to do double takes when reading. I find that this makes the book more interesting because sometimes when reading a long book about seemingly random events, one can sometimes be lulled into a reading hypnosis and read without really thinking. When authors like Melville throw in quotes that are out of the ordinary, one snaps back into processing the material and becomes more engaged. Back to the quote, when reading it I immediately thought about whales. I pictured a large whale (the “craft”) swimming alone in the ocean because all of its pod has been hunted down, and it is just waiting to recieve the same fate (the “melancholy”). In the years when whaling was very popular in the states and on the global scene, whalers hunted their prey with no consideration for the detremental effects that it would have on the future. Populations have been been killed beyond repair (literally) and one of our readings I believe said that nine species of whales are currently on the endangered species list. Also, I remember one day in class we talked about how there is just something mysterious and noble about whales, and there is and always has been. They have inspired logos and classic books, and people all around the world pay to go on tours in the hopes of seeing even one. Maybe it’s their size, their unique blowhole, or their colossal heads, but everything about them draws people in.

Speaking of drawing people in, I thought of people’s attraction to whales when Captain Peleg told Ishmael of how Captain Abab had one of his legs eaten- “‘…it was devoured, chewed up, crunched by the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a boat!’”- by a whale. Many people on shore just think of whales flipping their tails and blowing water, but out at sea they are very dangerous and unpredictable. I believe that Ishmael will get to experience this first hand soon.

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