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 … Continue reading Ishmael’s renunciation of the Linneaen system