Moby Dick

In Chapter 32, “Cetology,” Ishmael both questions and confirms the human need to classify, bending the rules of science and making up his own classification system. Interestingly, Ishmael’s uses words for different sizes of books to organize his classification:

“First: According to magnitude I divide the whales into three primary BOOKS (subdivisible into CHAPTERS), and these shall comprehend thema ll, both small and large. I. The FOLIO WHALE, II. the OCTAVO WHALE; III, the DUODECIMO WHALE” (Melville 129).

Books used to be made by printing a certain number of pages on a sheet of paper, and then folding the paper. Books made by printing two pages on each side of a sheet of paper are called Folios. Octavos are made by printing eight pages of text on one sheet of paper, and folding eight times, and the duodecimo format has twelve pages per sheet (Ishmael left out quarto, four pages of text per sheet.) When the size of the paper used is constant, folios come out the largest, and then octavo, and then duodecimo, and similarly, Ishmael uses Folio for the larger whales, Octavo for medium ones, and duodecimo for smaller ones. I thought it was an interesting way of putting art and science together.

Ishmael’s classification is not scientific at all, and in fact he critisizes Linnaeas’ for “fain have banish[ing] the whales from the waters” (128). Linnaeas’ findings about how whales differ from fish are summarized as “lungs and warm blood; whereas, all other fish are lungless and cold blooded” (128). This description of the whale is favorable; “cold blooded” is not usually taken as a compliment. However, Ishmael still considers whales to be fish, because they live in the water.

This chapter might be another way that Ishmael suggests that whales aren’t so different from us (and that we are not so different from whales).

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.

Information about book sizes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_size

*I had intended to post this before Monday’s discussion on gender, but because of internet problems, am only posting this now.

In reading this story through a scientific lens, I find it worth noting that in many instances, Melville is conversely unscientific in his descriptions of whales.  That is, he consciously abandons writing accurately about the natural world, as to make his tale more literary and poetic.  It is interesting how Melville is deliberately inconsistent about this accuracy.  One example that struck me was concerned with the gender and anatomy of the whale.

In the beginning of chapter 102, A Bower in the Arsacides, Melville writes, “But to a large and thorough sweeping comprehension of him, it behooves me now to unbuttom him still further, and untagging the points of his hose, unbuckling his garters, and casting loose the hooks and the eyes of the joints of his innermost bones, set him before you in his ultimatum; that is to say, in his unconditional skeleton (432 to 433).”

The male subject in the passage refers to the Sperm Whale, but Melville confuses this,in the same sentence, when he describes undressing the whale from its “hose” and “garters,” which are distinctly feminine objects.  As was stated in Monday’s lecture, Melville complicates gender descriptions throughout the book, sometimes probably much more subtly than others.  From what I have noticed, I think that Melville, in other places in the book, consistently refers to whales in the masculine form, but here he is being playful and speculative about gender, which makes for interesting questions.

Also, here Melville is being unscientific in that he is pretending the whale is removing its clothing, rather than being anatomically dissected, which he seems to be referring to, however figuratively .

From chapters 109 to 127, science is losing the battle against Ahab, faith, and insanity. In chapter 118, the quadrant, a navigational device, fails. With time, Ahab begins to gain confidence, lose perspective, and turn to his own intuition over time-tested methods of navigation based on reason and science. Some of the crew, such as Starbuck, notice this transformation but do little to materially stop its progression.

“Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that cast man’s eyes aloft to that heaven, whose live vividness but scorches him, as these old eyes are even now scorched with thy light, O sun!… Curse thee, thou quadrant!… No longer will I guide my earthly way by thee; the level ship’s compass, and the level dead-reckoning, by log and by line; these shall conduct me, and show me my place on the sea. Aye… thus I trample on thee, thou paltry thing that feebly pointest on high; thus I split and destroy thee!” (444)

But even the log and the line fail to guide Ahab, as we see after the compass fails in chapter 124. In chapter 125, Ahab says, “I crush the quadrant, the thunder turns the needles [of the compass], and now the mad sea parts the log-line. But Ahab can mend all.” (461)

The systematic failure of the three navigational instruments shows how Ahab and his focused insanity begins filling the gaps when science or reason even begin to falter. In this instance, Melville seems to be showing how it is easy to let emotion, faith, or ego take the place of science when convenient. The general sense of foreboding (much of which is communicated by Starbuck) makes me think Melville is trying to say that despite the temptation, science should be respected and used as the primary tool for navigation. This could be seen as a metaphor for navigation in life for anyone – that people should embrace reason when making important decisions over faith, emotion, and other alternatives. Given Melville’s Calvinist upbringing, he probably did not fully subscribe to the above philosophy but most would agree that Ahab has taken his power seizure too far and that a healthy, brave step backwards and appeal to reason would do the Pequod’s crew and Ahab a world of good.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008

Despite the temptation to write about the science of squeezing sperm out of whales, I’m choosing to discuss the dismal science. Chapter 97, The Lamp, is less than a page long and describes how whaling ships are always alight underneath the main deck because of the prevalence of lamps and oil. Whalemen enjoy light in dark places when such a possibility is considered expensive and luxurious by the rest of society. Melville makes the point that the whaleman “goes and hunts for his oil, so as to be sure of its freshness and genuineness, even as the traveller on the prairie hunts up his own supper of game.” (381)

While this may seem reasonable at first glance, basic economics should indicate that a commodity as valuable as whale oil should still not be used so profligately. Despite its abundance, it still commands a high price outside of whaling vessels. The following quote addresses whale oil’s scarcity, which should correspond to a high price. “In merchantmen, oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of queens. To dress in the dark, and eat in the dark, and stumble in the darkness to his pallet, this is his usual lot.” (381)

One justification for this profligacy is that these whalers live a dangerous lifestyle and thus discount the future more than people with safer jobs. Such an attitude would cause the crew to live exorbitantly today at the expense of future comfort that could be enjoyed through the proceeds of selling the oil. We should note though that the whalemen do not get to enjoy many other comforts at sea so they may actually value light more highly than we think.

The above two explanations are “rational.” I think in this chapter however, that Melville is making another reference to the devil-may-care attitudes that characterize much of the crew (i.e. Stubb and Flask). These guys already decided to abandon reason when they followed Ahab after he announced his true intentions about the Pequod’s voyage. Ahab did wait to reveal his true intentions but the crew could have mutinied if they thought the mission sufficiently dangerous. Burning the equivalent of money for a small gain doesn’t seem like such a stretch given the crew’s history.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008

After Monday’s class, I decided to revisit the chapter entitled “Jonah Historically Regarded.”  In this chapter, Melville dives right into a specific discrepancy between science and religion with the story of Jonah.  The character introduced as Sag-Harbor uses his knowledge of whales to cast doubt on Jonah’s sojourn inside of one.  For each of his doubts, however, Ishmael/Melville presents an opposing interpretation that accounts for the scientific fact.  A possible interpretation even goes so far as to suggest that the whale was actually a ship simply named “The Whale.”

Melville uses this chapter to clearly set out the divide between science and religion.  Sag-Harbor is first inspired to question the Jonah story because “He had one of those quaint old fashioned Bibles, embellished with curious, un-scientific plates” (353).  This immediately places science and the Bible in opposition.  Sag-Harbor continues to bring up ways in which science and geography would prevent the Jonah story from occurring as it does in the Bible.  The responses of biblical exegesis are very liberal, as exemplified in the above example of Jonah’s whale being a boat.

The fact that Melville even presents these alternatives shows that he is open to interpretation of religion.  He insists that the Jonah story is true, but he allows that there are discrepancies that need to be accounted for, such as the location of Nineveh regarding its proximity to deep water.

While Melville’s continuous emphasis on science throughout this novel demonstrates his interest, this chapter shows that he has also allowed science to enter into a dialogue with his religious belief.  I think this dialogue has an important bearing on what makes this book so interesting, as it permits Melville to better explore the natural and biblical world.

The thirty-second chapter of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is entitled, “Cetology.” While this chapter can appear to be a somewhat dry breakdown and description of whale phylogeny, the manner in which Ishmael discusses the cetacean order is revealing of him as a character, and therefore of Herman Melville as a designer and director of this character.

Towards the beginning of the chapter, Melville lists and quotes several people who have studied and/or written about whales. The first person he quotes, and several of the people that he lists, are “Captain[s]” (125-126). Melville also states that of the “whale authors” listed, only “one of them was a real professional harpooneer and whaleman” (126). This indicates that he thinks of whalers as having the most authority on the subject of cetology, signifying and emphasizing that he holds whaling in very high regard.

This is further supported by the selection of whales that Melville chooses to include in his description, and how he makes this choice. For example, he states that the sperm whale is the largest of all whales (129), when it is now well known that the blue whale is the largest. After the description of the members of the cetacean order, Melville states that he has listed “the Leviathans of note” (137). He proceeds to give another brief list, among which the blue whale is included, and he says that if any member of this less-detailed list of whales “be caught and marked, then he can readily be incorporated into this System” (137). This suggests that he believes that only whales which have been hunted are important.

The choice to classify the sperm whale as “the largest inhabitant of the globe; the most formidable of all whales to encounter” (Melville, 129), in combination with the knowledge that the crew depicted in the book is on a whaling voyage to hunt the sperm whale, serves to impress the readers and to add a level of daring or excitement to the novel.

Prior to listing and classifying species of whales, there is a discussion as to whether the whale is a fish or not (Melville, 127-128). In the present day, of course, it is widely excepted that the whale is not a fish, but a mammal. Melville states that Linnaeus classifies whales as separate from fish, and includes his reasons for doing so. This passage in the chapter has a slight ironic tone – it seems as if Melville could be supported Linnaeus’s reasoning, but allows Ishmael to directly declare that he takes “the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and [he] call[s] upon holy Jonah to back” him (Melville, 128). This draws a creationism versus evolution, biology versus God and the bible, etc discussion into the novel.

The chapter “Cetology” is ironic in itself. It is about the science of whales, yet Ishmael rejects scientific reasoning, embraces the reasoning of the bible, and uses whalers as his scientists.

In the middle few hundred pages of Moby Dick, we finally get to experience catching and cutting up the Pequod’s first whale.  Ishamael takes a lot of time explaining to the reader exactly what must happen to properly complete this task.  Some parts of this appear very scientific, while others are open to variation.  Throughout the entire process, there is the danger of deadly accident.  While Ishmael seems to want to relate the science of catching and harvesting a sperm whale properly, he also lets the reader in on instances when the science fails and mistakes happen.

Ishmael himself sees a way to improve the way a whale is harpooned when he suggests that the boatheader and the harpooner do not switch places in the boat:

Now, I care not who maintains the contrary, but all this is both foolish and unnecessary.  The headsman should stay in the bows from first to last; he should both dart the harpoon and the lance, and no rowing what whatever should be expected of him, except under circumstances obvious to any fisherman (280).

Ishmael has come to this conclusion through his experience with whaling and shows that the discipline can still be improved.

Other aspects, however, are very exact.  Ishmael describes the precision needed to behead the sperm whale.  He says that it is “a scientific anatomical feat, upon which experienced surgeons very much pride themselves, and not without reason” (300-301).  Other parts of cutting up and separating the various parts of the whale have very strict procedures, and yet Ishamael will still tell us when the Pequod does something slightly different, as when the monkey rope attached to Queequeg is attached directly to him as well.

Great risk is always present even when everyone is following all the rules.  Tashtego very unexpectedly falls into the whale while removing sperm and causes the head to fall into the water.  These events contrasted with the scientific mood Melville seems to be striving for in the surrounding chapters when he describes the physical aspects of the sperm and right whales.  Whaling therefore appears much more up to chance.  Sharks may come and eat the entire whale while it is tied to the boat over night, or they may not.  Queequeg may get hit with a dart meant for a shark while he sits on the whale’s back, or he may not.  I think that both the specific steps involved in whaling and the constant danger of the unexpected contribute to why Ishmael, and therefore Melville, are so obsessed with the activity.  Both the steps and the dangers are portrayed prominently in these chapters.

In the assigned reading, Ishmael and the narrator slowly zoom in on the whale. The reader enjoys a holistic picture to begin. Chapter 32 is all about Cetology, which takes a detached, scientific and impersonal view of the whale. Ishmael leaves his discussion of Cetology unfinished: “even as the great Cathedral of Cologne was left, with the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower.” (128) He gives some excuse about great things being left unfinished such as architectural masterpieces. This rang somewhat sarcastic to me though, as his primitive treatment of whale taxonomy (despite the existence of the Linnaean system) could hardly be compared to the likes of the Sagrada Familia.

In chapters 55 and 56, Ishmael zooms in from the scientific to a more feelings-oriented perspective on whale understanding. He discusses first the bad pictures of whales and then “of the less erroneous pictures of whales, and the true pictures of whaling scenes.” (241) Chapter 57 is all about “whales in paint; in teeth; in wood; in sheet iron; in stone; in mountains; in stars.” (244)

In his scientific and philosophical study of the whale, Ishmael is not content with visual descriptions alone. Chapter 65 is dedicated to “the whale as a dish.” (269)

Just a few pages later, Ishmael ponders “what and where is the skin of the whale?” (274) In chapter 68, the crew is cutting open a whale and Ishmael takes to intense observation. He looks at the “infinitely thin, isinglass substance, which, I admit, invests the entire body of the whale,” (275) and calls this “the skin of the skin,” referring to the blubber as the primary layer of skin. This could potentially be a metaphor for the fact that despite people (such as sailors on the Pequod) claiming and appearing to have thick skin, they all have a sensitive layer (skin of the skin), which may be more exposed than they think.

Zooming in further, Ishmael observes the sperm whale’s head in chapter 74 and the head of a right whale in 75. This is where the subtle anthropomorphism becomes far more overt. About the sperm whale, Ishmael makes comments like, “there is more character in the Sperm Whale’s head,” (295) and “pepper and salt color of his head at the summit, giving token of advanced age and large experience.” (295) He even asks, after pondering the distance between the sperm whale’s eyes, “is his brain so much more comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man’s, that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects, one on one side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction?” (297) His musings become even more philosophical and anthropomorphic by the end of chapter 75. For instance:

“Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale’s there? It is the same he died with, only some of the longer wrinkles in the forehead seem now faded away. I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity, born of a speculative indifference as to death. But mark the other head’s expression. See that amazing lower lip, pressed by accident against the vessel’s side, so as firmly to embrace the jaw. Does not this whole head seem to speak of an enormous practical resolution in facing death? This Right Whale I take to have been a Stoic; the Sperm Whale, a Platonian, who might have taken up Spinoza in his latter years.” (301)

As Ishmael and the narrator move from the scientific to the artistic and culinary and eventually consider the body and head of the whale, the commentary becomes increasingly human-related and philosophical. The flow from one of these chapters mentioned above to the next feels punctuated and dramatic. One possible interpretation is that the sailors and man itself is not so different from what it hunts. This could either be a means to diminish the significance of man or to elevate the status of whales, which given Melville’s obsessions and the respect that most of the sailors have for nature and Moby Dick, seems the more likely alternative.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Chapter thirty-two in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick deals exclusively with Ishmael’s own categorization system for whales.  Throughout this chapter, Ishmael tells the reader everything he has experienced or has heard of that would be useful in distinguishing whales from one another.  Yet, the most common piece of knowledge is that whales are largely a mystery.  Ishmael begins the chapter with quotations regarding this mysteriousness, this “ impenetrable veil covering our knowledge of the cetacea” (126).  Despite this grounding in mystery, Ishmael goes on to provide the reader with his own set of classifications for the whale.  These are based largely on size and then appearance.  Within these divisions, whales are discussed regarding their value to whalers, primarily the value of their oil.  However, he also comments on whales’ sociability:

The Fin-Back is not gregarious.  He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters.  Very shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly rising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his straight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity in swimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this Leviathan seems to be the banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing for his mark that style upon his back.

From there I drew a similarity from the way Ishmael discusses whale to the way in which he discusses men.  He also feels the need to categorize men based on their birthplace.  The three mates on the Pequod are all introduced with their origins as one of their chief characteristics.  Just as Ishmael judges whales based on the value of their oil, he seems to judge men based on their affinity with water.  The Lakeman, while being born far from the ocean, is still respected because the Great Lakes have given him similar experiences.  The Canallers are predisposed to betrayal due to their upbringing along the Erie Canal.

And yet in reality, this sort of stereotyping comes about because so much is unknown about individuals.  Ishmael is able to classify people based on his limited experience and on what he has heard from others, just as he classifies whales.  I found this to be yet another example of the science of whales being intertwined with Ishmael’s views on humanity.

         The cetological references, details, and discussions in the first twenty-one chapters of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick are somewhat limited. The whaling voyage that Ishmael is going to embark on has not yet set sail, and thus Ishmael has not come in contact with any live whales.

            Not surprisingly, Ishmael’s attraction to whaling and to the ocean is very much intertwined with an interest in whales. He states that

“Chief among these motives [for whaling] was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale…” (Melville, 6).

As a member of a whaling expedition, Ishmael’s responsibilities will revolve around the killing of whales. In spite of this, he seems to have respect for them.

            There are few direct physical descriptions of whales that could be viewed in a scientific light. Ishmael describes the wide, “vast arched bone of the whale’s jaw” (Melville, 12) and “the long sharp teeth of the Sperm Whale” (Melville, 67). However, these are essentially the extent of the cetology that is included in the first twenty-one chapters of Moby Dick.

            The main scientific passages in this first section of the book arise more from the workings of Ishmael’s mind than from the science of whales. There are many instances in the beginning of the novel where Ishmael’s thought processes come close to following the patterns of the scientific method. For example, at the Spouter Inn, Ishmael spends time thinking of how and where he should sleep. He thinks of several possible methods, tests one, and tries another when the first does not work. This process is also followed when he makes his presence known to Queequeg (Melville, 16-23).

            Ishmael also seems to be prone to quietly making observations about the events and people around him. His observations of Queequeg and Queequeg’s culture/religion can be categorized as anthropological observations.

            At the beginning of the novel, Ishmael ponders man’s natural and innate attraction to water – “Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged into his deepest reveries – stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water…” (Melville, 2). While this is foreshadowing of Ishmaels journey to and on the sea, this insight also has a biological base. Water is necessary for survival, and it is very likely that humans and other animals have an instinctual desire and ability to find water. The fact that the attraction to water is biological also establishes just how strong this attraction is. Ishmael proceeds to include many references to the ocean, to ships, and to whales, and the continuity and abundance of these references, in conjunction with the mention of the attraction to the sea, serve to convey the message that Ishmael’s journey to the ocean is inescapable.

            At the end of the twenty-first chapter, the whaling ship is preparing to depart. The remainder of the novel will likely include many more cetological and scientific references.