في مرّة سألوا هيتشكوك عن الفرق بين المفاجأة والإثارة؟ فرد عليهم قائلًا: إن المفاجأة هي اتنين قاعدين في مكان وتقع عليهم قنبلة، والإثارة هي إن نفس الاتنين قاعدين في نفس المكان وتحتهم قنبلة زمنية وبتعدّ قدامك. الفكرة كلها إن المتعة بتكون موجودة حتى في الحاجات اللي انت متوقعها أو عندك خلفية عنها، يعني أكيد انت عارف إن( موبي ديك )ودا حوت، وبيطارده (آخاب أو إيهاب) واللي الفوا بينهم مصطلح مشهور(إيهاب وحوته)، لكن رغم معرفتك بكل دا إلا إنك بترتبط بالرواية ارتباط غريب على مدار كل صفحة منها.

كموسوعية عمل مثل عوليس، واستهلالات وتداخل مواضيع كاتب مثل إيكو، وسرد لا ينافسه فيه حتى ماركيز وساراماجو، بكل ذلك قدّم لنا ملفل روايته التي تستحق كل ما قيل في حقها من مديح، بل إنها حتى تستحق ما قاله عنها برنارد شو: منذ عرف الإنسان كيف يكتب لم يوجد قط كتاب مثل هذا ،وعقل الانسان أضعف من أن ينتج كتابًا مثله.

نحن أمام عمل رائد بكل ما تحمله الكلمة من معنى، شامل من حيث موضوعاته،متفرد بأسبقيته، صعب أن يُصنف التصنيفات المتداولة أو لتقل متشعب التصنيف، فهو واقعي كل الواقعية، رمزي كما يجب للرمزية أن تكون، حتى أنك قد تعتبره أدب رحلات، نحن أمام كتاب يتكلم عن صيد الحيتان، لا بل هو كتاب يتحدث عن الإنسان، بل يتحدث عن الدين والرغبة العمياء في الانتقام، إنها رواية تتحدث عن كل ذلك ، رواية خلطت وقدمت لنا عالم فريد متكامل يضمن لك الاندماج فيه بكل خلاياك.

استهل ملفل روايته بحديث عن الماء وسحره ويبدو فيه عشق خالص برع في توصيفه فنجده يقول فيما يقول: لمَ يكاد كل غلام جزل سليم ذو روح جزلة سليمه يتوق -بين الحين والحين-توقان المجنون للذهاب إلى البحر؟ لم كان الفرس القدماء يعدون البحر مقدسًا؟ لم جعل الإغريق للبحر ربًا عدوه أخًا لرب الأرباب نفسه؟ حقا إن لذلك كله مغزى، وأعمق من هذا مغزى قصة الفتى (نرجس) فإنه حين عجز على أن يمسك خياله الوديع المتمثل أمامه في النبع، وعذّبه شعوره بعجزه، ألقى نفسه في الماء وآثر الغرق،ونحن أنفسنا نرى ذلك الخيال في كل نهر وكل بحر،ذلك هو خيال شبح الحياة، الخيال الروّاغ الذي لا تستطيع أن تضم عليه جميع اليد، وذلك هو السر في كل ما هنالك.

ثم انطلق يصول ويجول عبر جوانب مختلفة من الحياة، تارة يسرد لنا مواقف بسيطة ذات دلالات عميقة وتارة يحدثنا عن شعوب مختلفة وطريقة معيشتهم وتارة يصوّر لنا الصداقة كما يجب أن تكون ولا سيما بين اسماعيل (الراوي) وبين كويكوج (الحوّات) والذي كان بينهما من التناقضات ما تحكم بعداوه وكره بيّن، فهذا مسيحي متدين وذاك وثني يعبد صنم، الأول منهما (متحضر) والآخر بدائي متوحش، فتآلفت القلوب بينهما وتحابت بل وفهم كل منهما الآخر كما يجب أن يكون الفهم، ومن هذا الفهم المنولوج الذي دار بين اسماعيل ونفسه لمس في صديقه رغبته في مشاركته صلاته:

(كيف اتحد مع هذا الوثني البدائي وأعبد قطعة خشب؟ ماهي العبادة؟ أتظن يا اسماعيل أن إلهك العظيم رب السموات والأرض-خالق الوثنيين وغيرهم- يمكن أن يغار من قطعة تافهة من الخشب الأسود ؟ مستحيل، لكن ما العبادة ؟ الامتثال لإرادة الله، تلك هي العبادة ، وما هي إرادة الله؟ أن أعمل لإخوتي بني الإنسان ما أحب أن يعمله بنو الإنسان من أجلي، تلك هي إرادة الله، وكويكوج أخ لي في الإنسانية فما الذي أرغب أن يعمله من أجلي؟ أن يؤدي العبادة معي على حسب المذهب المشيخي ، إذا فعليّ أن أتحد معه، إذن عابد صنم.)

أي معنى ومقصد عظيم يتحدث عنه الكاتب وما أعظم عرضه وتقديمه لهذا المقصد النبيل، ذلك المقصد الذي نوّه إليه وأشار أكثر من مرّه فيبدو من العمل دراية ملفل الواسعة بعديد الطقوس والمعتقدات كما أفاض على ضرورة احترام مختلف المعتقدات:

(ذلك أنّي أكنّ أبلغ احترام نحو الفروض الدينية التي يمارسها أي إمرئ كان، مهما تكن مضحكة ، ولا أجد في قلبي نزوعًا إلى التهوين من شأن عُباد أي دين حتى لو كان أولئك العُباد قرية من النمل يعبد أهلها الكمأة، أو لو كانوا بعض المخلوقات التي تعيش في نواح من أرضنا وتنحى على نحو من العبودية غير معهود إلا على هذا الكوكب)

المهم إن الرواية عظيمة بحق، عظيمة بغزارة معلوماتها وحيوية أحداثها ورسم شخصياتها ولاسيما القبطان(آخاب) الذي دمّر حوت أبيض سفينته وتسبب في فقدانه لرِجله ،لينذر ذلك القبطان حياته ليقتص منه والقضاء عليه، فرسمه أمل حياته المفقود ورغبته التي ملأت عليه نفسه حد الجنون، برع ملفل في رسم شخصيته حتى لتراها روحًا تائهة تسير أمامك، بدأ ظهور آخاب الحقيقي في الرواية بعد قرابة ربعها تقريبا، ليكون ربع الرواية الأول ديباجة فخمة ومقدمة فذّة تنجح باقتدار في ربطك برباط سحري لا ينحل مع الرواية.

(كل الأشياء المرئية أيها الرجل ليست إلا أقنعة من الورق المقوّى ، ولكن في كل حادث ،في العمل الحي، في الفعل اليقيني-يقوم شئ مجهول إلا أنه متعقل، فيخفي طابع ملاحمه وراء ذلك القناع غير المتعقل، فإذا كان للمرء أن يضرب فليضرب من خلال القناع، كيف يمكن للسجين أن ينفذ إلى الخارج إلا إذا اخترق الجدار؟
وآخاب كان السجين والحوت كان الجدار، فظل يبحث عنه ليتحرر من قيده وهو يعلم أنه قد يُنهي حياته وهو يحاول.

كانت رحلة صيد الحيتان هي الحياة بالنسبة لملفل وبرع أيّما براعة في تصويرها فهو يراها زحمة مختلطة وفي هذه الزحمة المختلطة الغريبة التي نسميها الحياة أوقات ومناسبات عجيبة يرى المرء فيها الكون كله نكتة عملية ضخمة ،وإن كان لا يستبين فيها براعة التندر إلا استبانة باهتة ولعله أن يكون على مثل هذا اليقين بأنه هو نفسه محور النادرة،ومع ذلك فإنه لا يرى فيها ما يثبط همته، ولا يجد ما فيها جديرًا بالتنازع، فهو يزدرد كل الأحداث والنحل والمعتقدات والحجج وكل الأمور العسيرة مرئية كانت أو خفية لا يهمه أن تكون من الأساس ، كأنه نعامة ذات قدرة على الهضم فهي تزدرد الرصاص أو شظايا الصوان، أما العقبات والهموم الصغيرة وما قد يحل به من مصائب مفاجئة تعرض حياته للخطر، أما هذه جميعا وأما الموت نفسه فإنه لا يرى فيها إلا دعابات ماكرة في الجنب يمنحه إياها الساخر الأعظم المحجوب عن الأبصار.

تفاصيل الرواية كانت من العظمة بمكان ، تفاصيل مملة ولكنها لا تدفع أبدًا إلى الملل فالكاتب نجح باقتدار في تحويل الملل إلى قن ممتع، وكان ناجح في التركيز على جميع النواحي الحياة ولا سيما حياة الحيتان، فقد تحدث عن كل ما يخصها، عن طريقة صيدها والشعوب التي احترفت تلك المهنة، وخصائصها،تحدث عن كل جزء بالتفصيل، أحجامها وأنواعها وما يثيرها، تحدث عن لحومها وكيف تُؤكل ،تحدث عن ألوانها، بل إنه حتى خصص فصل كامل للتحدث عن اللون الأبيض وفضائله لأن موبي ديك حوت أبيض.

ولا ننسى رسمه للشخصيات والجانب النفسي لها، فقد كان أعظم ما في الرواية على الاطلاق،كل شخصية مهما صغر دورها قُدمت لنا بكامل جوانبها، تعايشها وتعيش معها من فرط دقة رسمها ، ولا سيما شخصية القبطان(آخاب) ، والذي بحق واحدة من أعظم الشخصيات الروائية التي قرأتها في حياتي، شخصية ذات وجود حقيقي (صغير على صفحات الرواية) ولكنه في الوقت ذاته فلك الرواية الذي تدور حوله فأضفت على الرواية بريق لا يُنافس ، شخصية تعشقها وتكرهها ،تحترمها وتحتقرها لدرجة أنك تنتظر ظهوره في الرواية وماذا سيفعل وماذا سيقول؟ وقد عبر الكاتب عن عظمته ببعض من المنولوجات التي تنافس مونولوجات شكسبير نفسه، فمثلا كان يخاطب رأس حوت معلق على جانب السفينة :

تحدث أيها الجبار وخبرنا عن السرّ فيك، أنت بين القامسين أبعدهم قمسا،ذلك الرأس الذي يتلألأ الآن فوق الشمس العلوية قد جاب قرارة الكون حيث أسماء غفل وأساطير مجهولة يعلوها الصدأ،حيث آمال حبيسة ومراسي كثيرة يدركها البلى، حيث هذه الأرض قد تطرمت في وقفتها المهلكة بعظام الملايين الذين غرقوا،هنالك في دبيا الماء الرهيبة هنالك كان موطنك خير موطن تألفه ، لقد كنت حيث لا يبلغ صوت جرس أو جسم غاطس، كنت تنام إلى جانب كثير من البحارة بينما الأمهات مسهدات يمنحن حياتهن رجاء أن يلحدن جثثهم، ولقد رأيت الحبيبين يقفان من السفينة المحترقة ،غرقا والقلب على القلب بين الأمواج المصطفقة، صدقا العهد تبدت السماء لهما كاذبة ..رأيت الضابط القتيل يقذف به القرصان في منتصف الليل على ظهر السفينة،ساعات قضاها وهو ينحدر في ظلمة الفلك الناهم وما يزال قتلته يبحرون سالمين، آه أيها الرأس لقد رأيت ما يكفي ليشق الكوكب ويجعل من ابراهيم الحنيف حانقا ولم تنبس بحرف واحد.

ولكن كل الحوارات والمونولوجات لا تصف خطاب آخاب الأخير بعد ان رأى موبي ديك يدمر سفينته الأثيرة فوقف يخاطب نفسه قبل أي شئ آخر:

يا سفينة مهيبة كالموت،هل تفنين إذن ولابد،دون أن أكون فيك؟ هل أُحرم من آخر كبرياء حمقاء ينالها أدنى القباطنة الذين تتحطم سفنهم؟ آه يا موتًا موحشًا يختم حياة موحشة ! أحس أن ذروة عظمتي تحل في ذروة حزني، هو ، هو ! من أقصى حدودك، انصبي إلى أيتها الموجات الجريئة، موجات حياتي الغابرة جميعا وطاولي موجة موتي، نحوك أتدحرج أيها الموت المبيد الذي لا يحرز غلبة، إلى النهاية أصاولك مصارعًا . من جوف الجحيم أسدد إليك الطعن ،من أجل البغض أبصق عليك آخر أنفاسي، كل التوابيت وعربات الجنائز تغوص في بركة واحدة. وبما أني لن أُحمل على تابوت أو عربة فلأنسحب مزقا وأنا ما أزال أطاردك أيها الحوت اللعين.

ومات آخاب بيد شغفه المكروه وخوفه الداكن وضميره الذي إسوّد من كثرة الحقد قأعماه، رسم الحوت أمل حياته المعقود فقتله، عاش لأجل انتقام أعمى ورأى أن لا مفر من الحوت إلا قتله،رآه سيد الكون الذي لابد من غلبته فكان له الهلاك.

موبي ديك لم يكن مجرد حوت أبيض، بل هو الوهم في حياة كل منا، فكل منا تعلق بشئ وأراد امتلاكه سواء كان قلب حبيب مستحيل وصاله، أو مال كثيف لن يغنيه أو مجد زائف، وفي النهاية آمالنا هي قبورنا الملحدة إن لم نتحرر منها ستقتلنا شر قتلة.

الرواية عظيمة بكل ما تحمله الكلمة من معنى وتستحقه من تبجيل، والترجمة فائقة العذوبة، ترجمة رصينة جزلة لا ابتذال فيها.

Review on second reading:
Rating second read: 3 stars

Is it sacrilege to say that the book in translation was way better than the book in its original language?

A friend of mine told me one day that reading a book in its original language and reading the exact same book but this time in translation is like reading two different books. I was so skeptical about this because the translation is supposed to be like a bridge between you and any novel you want to read. But, alas!, he was (sort of) right. And no, this has nothing to do with the translation I read first, though sometimes you can pick up a book with a poor translation and I would agree that that makes a lot of difference, in fact, that might end up ruining your whole reading experience – as for this particular case, I don't believe there was something wrong with the edition I picked up back in 2021, but the other way around: I feel like I actually read Moby Dick, the real Moby Dick, and it was partly because of the translation that I ended up loving this book, I even sent an email to the translator and thanked him for his great job and somehow making this book one of my all-time favorites, literally the number one back then. So, was Melville himself who ruined this second reading experience for me?
Of course not! Well, perhaps just a little bit.

I must confess that reading Moby Dick in its original English was rather hard, both language wise and content wise, whereas reading the book in translation was complex—yes, I would agree on that—yet mostly readable, understandable, and quite enjoyable. The content was by no means an obstacle when I read the book the first time, though I had to look up some words—nautical terms, sea vocabulary, and whatnot—that I'd never come across before, words that I didn't know in Spanish, and words that, perhaps at this point, I have even forgotten.
This second time I was so naïve and optimistic, I genuinely thought I could read Moby Dick in English, when I just started reading in English two years ago—I know, such a bad decision. Since Moby Dick was our pick in September for our book club—September and I'm finishing it in November, holy cow!—I thought it would be a great idea to read it along, so I said to myself 'you already read it once, and you loved it, you understood the story, you enjoyed the non-fiction chapters the most, go, warrior, and pick it up again, what on earth is the worst thing that could happen?' Well, it turns out that I ended up hating one of my all-time favorite books. Nothing much, right?

Honestly, my main problem with Moby Dick was a particular thing that is impossible to translate into Spanish, therefore I didn't know that the book was written in this way until I picked it up again: thou, ye, thy, thee, and repeat, thou, ye, thy, thee, and again. Yes, I had no idea that Melville's writing style in Moby Dick was like the King James Bible or any random Shakespeare's play (here I might be mistaken). It works, maybe, but reading a huge book written in this way was utterly painful and quite overwhelming. Even when I sort of got used to the language, even when I watched a couple of videos to understand how to use those pronouns, the verb conjugation, and the like, I couldn't get the point. Was it supposed to be symbolic? I don't know, but this time I found the dialogue very unnatural and somewhat unrealistic, but, who knows, perhaps my impressions happen to be like that only because of my deep disappointment. On the other hand, the non-fiction chapters were again those that I enjoyed the most, this time slightly more to my surprise, and mainly, again, because of the content—the cetological chapters are still vividly in my head.
I admit I was unprepared for reading a book like Moby Dick in my second language, but even so I can't help but think that the author and his prose didn't make things easier. It was the other way around, basically. Now, I just have to live with this—the fact that Moby Dick is not anymore what I thought it was—and be prepared for the third time, that, for the record, I'm pretty sure won't be in the near future by any means.

“But war is pain, and hate is woe. Come in thy lowest form of love, and I will kneel and kiss thee; but at thy highest, come as mere supernal power; and though thou launchest navies of full-freighted worlds, there’s that in here that still remains indifferent. Oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee.”

——

Review on first reading:
Rating first read: 5+ stars

Moby Dick, one year later...
Review in English below

Best book I read in February 2021

Actualización un año después: Así es amigos, un año ha pasado desde que terminé este libro y sigo sosteniendo lo que dije el 03 de febrero de 2021: Moby Dick es el libro de mi vida.
No hay ninguna otra historia, al día de hoy, que sea tan especial para mí como lo fue esta novela.

Durante este año, por cierto, algunas veces me apetecía volver a leer Moby Dick y lo sacaba del librero, lo habría en una página aleatoria y leía, ya fuera el capítulo completo si era de los cortos, o apenas unas páginas si me tocaba uno de los más extensos; pero siempre con el mismo entusiasmo como cuando lo leí la primera vez.

A veces solo tenía ganas de recordar mis frases favoritas, y sin haberlas marcado en el libro, hoy por hoy aún recuerdo el capítulo y, en casos extremos, la página exacta de donde se encuentra la frase que busco. Por ejemplo, mientras escribo esto tengo aquí mi edición junto a mí, abierta en una de mis frases favoritas de toda la obra:

“¿Qué era América en 1492, sino pez suelto en el que Colón plantó la banderola española? ¿Y Polonia para el zar? ¿Y Grecia para los turcos? ¿E India para los ingleses? ¿En qué se va a convertir México para los Estados Unidos? Son todos peces sueltos. ¿Y los derechos del hombre, y las libertades del mundo? Peces sueltos. ¿Y las mentes y las opiniones de los hombres? Peces sueltos. ¿Y el principio de la libertad religiosa? Un pez suelto. ¿Y los pensamientos de los filósofos para los plagiarios? Peces sueltos. ¿Y qué es este enorme globo, sino un gigantesco pez suelto? ¿Y tú, lector? Un pez suelto, un pez agarrado.”

Sin duda seguiré visitando esta magnífica obra de arte de cuando en cuando, releerla sería todo un placer, pero por ahora tendrá que esperar. Ya veremos.

——

“Y lucho de este modo contra ti hasta el último segundo, te atravieso desde el centro del infierno y en nombre del odio aquí vomito sobre ti mi último suspiro.”

Estoy completamente seguro de que este libro es ya mi favorito, no del año, sino de la vida.
¿Cuántas veces un libro les ha marcado tanto que deciden ponerlo en un ‘lugar especial’? ¿Cuántas veces una historia ha llegado a tocar las fibras más sensibles de sí mismos? ¿Cuántas veces han terminado un libro y ya quieren volver a empezarlo para evitar ese vacío que les ha dejado? No sé en el caso de cada quien, pero sin duda Moby Dick lo hizo conmigo.

Y no voy a decir que es un libro perfecto o algo parecido, sino que son las particularidades que tiene junto con la profundidad del contenido lo que hizo de mi lectura una experiencia completa y muy satisfactoria.

Moby Dick es un libro, me atrevo a decir, único en su forma, en su narrativa y en su historia. No estoy convencido si debo recomendarlo a todo el mundo, ya que cada lector es un mundo en sí mismo, pero sí tengo que decir que vale la pena darle una oportunidad; es una experiencia lectora que cada quien debe experimentar a su manera.



Los capítulos de Moby Dick yo los dividiría en tres tipos:

1. Los capítulos que siguen el hilo de la historia, narrado desde la perspectiva de Ismael y su viaje en el Pequod junto a sus compañeros y el enigmático capitán Ahab. Algunas veces incluso se nota que Ismael es ‘suplantado’ por Melville, dado que es imposible que como narrador conozca todos los detalles (como el pensamiento o sentir de algún personaje, o cuando está ausente de la escena, por poner ejemplos).

2. Los capítulos reflexivos, filosóficos, donde se hace el uso de alegorías, en mi opinión muy bien narradas y estructuradas, cargados de simbolismos que quedan a la interpretación del lector en muchos casos.

3. Los capítulos descriptivos, donde conforme avanzamos en la historia se hace mucho hincapié en las características de las ballenas y en la caza de las ballenas. Por decir algo, nos describen los tipos de ballenas, el aceite de ballena, la cola, el esqueleto, las llamadas ‘escuelas de ballenas’ y de igual forma, las partes del barco ballenero, entre muchas cosas más.

4. Se podría definir un cuarto tipo de capítulos, a los que tienen una combinación de los tres anteriores, que sí que los hay.



Y los capítulos que merecen mención honorífica (todo basado en mi opinión personal) son los que enlisto a continuación:

⁃ La colcha (un capítulo íntimo en sí mismo)
⁃ El sermón (de mis favoritos y el capítulo que empezó todo, mi fascinación por esta novela)
⁃ La reina Mab
⁃ Cetología (el más claro ejemplo de un capítulo descriptivo)
⁃ La toldilla (yo lo llamaría ‘Un cambio de planes’)
⁃ La blancura de la ballena (mi favorito sin ninguna duda)
⁃ Historia del Town - Ho (el capítulo más largo del libro)
⁃ Stubb caza una ballena
⁃ La cuerda de mono (un capítulo que representa el sentido de la amistad)
⁃ Honor y gloria de la caza de las ballenas
⁃ Escuelas y maestros (me gustó la reflexión sobre la ballena que viaja sola; uno de los mejores capítulos)
⁃ Un apretón de manos (también de mis favoritos)
⁃ Ahab y el carpintero
⁃ Queequeg y su ataúd
⁃ El mosquete (el capítulo que yo renombraría como ‘La última oportunidad’)
⁃ La cabina
⁃ La sinfonía (uno de los capítulos más bellos y emotivos)
⁃ La persecución. El tercer día (último capítulo; no pudo haber sido un mejor final)



No quisiera decir más porque podría pasarme escribiendo todo el día lo que me hizo sentir y vivir esta novela, y aquí es donde reflexiono y me doy cuenta (aún más) que los libros tienen el poder de impactar a un lector en cierta medida que casi parece magia.

¡Gracias por tanto Moby Dick!

——
——
——

Update one year later: That's right my friends! A year has passed since I finished reading this book and I still stand by what I said on February 03, 2021: Moby Dick is the book of my life.
There is no other story that is as special to me as this novel was from that moment on.

In fact, during this whole year since I finished Moby Dick, sometimes I felt as though I needed to read it again; and so I took the book out of my bookcase, I opened it, I chose just one random page and then I read, either the whole chapter if it was from the short ones, or just a few pages if I got one of the longest. Either way, I was always with the same enthusiasm just exactly how I was the first time I read it.

Sometimes I just wanted to remember my favorite phrases, and without having underlined them in my edition, to this day I still remember the chapter and, in extraordinary cases, the exact page where the phrase I'm looking for is found. For instance, right now, while I am writing this paragraph, I have my edition next to me, I decide to open the book and I find one of my favorite lines from the entire novel:

“What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish, in which Columbus struck the Spanish standard by way of waifing it for his royal master and mistress? What was Poland to the Czar? What Greece to the Turk? What India to England? What at last will Mexico be to the United States? All Loose-Fish.
What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties of the World but Loose-Fish? What all men’s minds and opinions but Loose-Fish? What is the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish? What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but Loose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?”

I will certainly continue reading this magnificent piece of literature from time to time; it would be a pleasure to reread it altogether, but for now that journey will have to wait. We'll see.

——

“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

I am completely sure that this book is already my favorite, not only of the year, but also of my life.
How many times has a book touched you so much that you decide to put it in a 'special place'? How many times have you read a quite memorable story that evokes strong feelings and memories on you? How many times have you finished a book and already want to start it again in order to fill that void it has left you? I don't know how your personal experiences have been, but without a doubt Moby Dick occupies that place in my mind and my heart.

I am not going to say that this is a perfect book or something similar, but rather that its peculiarities and its meaningful, deep content were those characteristics that made my reading a complete and very satisfying experience.

Moby Dick is a book, I have to say it, unique in its form, its narrative and its plot. To be honest, I am not quite sure if I should recommend this novel to everyone, since each reader has their particular, special tastes; however, I do have to say that it is worth giving it a shot – it is a reading experience that everyone should live in his own way.



Now, I would divide the Moby Dick chapters into three types:

1. The chapters that follow a narrative thread, narrated from the perspective of Ishmael, his journey aboard the Pequod with his comrades and the enigmatic captain Ahab. Sometimes it is noticeable that Ishmael is "impersonated" by Melville, since it is impossible for the narrator to know all the specific details/personal traits of each person aboard (such as the thoughts and feelings of each character, or for instance, when he (Ishmael) is absent from a particular scene).

2. The thoughtful, philosophical chapters, where you can find many allegories in them. In my opinion, these chapters are very well narrated and structured, loaded with symbolism, metaphors, and so on, whose interpretation depends on the reader in many cases.

3. The non-fiction chapters, at which we can learn a lot of information about the characteristics and hunting of the whales, to say the least. At the beginning, these kinds of chapters are not the usual, however, as long as we continue reading the book there is a constant emphasis on such topics. For instance, these chapters might describe the different types of whales, how the whale oil is used, parts of whales such as the tail and the skeleton, the so-called 'schools' of whales, and likewise, the parts of a whaling ship, and so on and so forth.

4. A fourth type of chapters might be found as a combination of the previous three ones; actually, there are a lot of chapters which belong to this fourth category.



From my point of view, the chapters that deserve an honorable mention are the ones listed below:

⁃ The Counterpane (a chapter with an intimate relationship in it)
⁃ The Sermon (one of my favorite chapters and that that started my fascination with this novel)
⁃ Queen Mab
⁃ Cetology (the clearest example of a non-fiction chapter)
⁃ The Quarter-Deck (I would have called it 'A Change of Plans')
⁃ The Whiteness of the Whale (this is without a doubt my favorite chapter)
⁃ The Town-Ho’s Story (the longest chapter in the book)
⁃ Stubb Kills a Whale
⁃ The Monkey-Rope (a chapter that shows what a true friendship means)
⁃ The Honor and Glory of Whaling
⁃ Schools and Schoolmasters (I liked the reflections on the whale that travels alone; one of the best chapters)
⁃ A Squeeze of the Hand (this is also one of my favorites)
⁃ Ahab and the Carpenter
⁃ Queequeg in His Coffin
⁃ The Musket (the chapter that I would rename as ‘The Last Chance’)
⁃ The Cabin
⁃ The Symphony (one of the most beautiful and emotional chapters)
⁃ The Chase.—Third Day (last chapter; it could not have had a better ending)



I would prefer not to say anything else since I could spend all day talking about what this novel means to me, and what made me feel and live. It's just here where I think and realize (even more) that books have the power to impact in a reader to a certain level – that sensation almost feels like magic.





Thank you so much Moby Dick, for everything!

"Είναι ολοφάνερο πως η ανάγκη της φάλαινας να ανεβαίνει στον αφρό είναι αυτή που την εκθέτει σε όλους τους θανάσιμους κινδύνους, που εγκυμονεί γι' αυτήν το κυνήγι."

" Τι άλλο εκτός από Κατοχυρωμένα Θηράματα είναι τα Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα και οι Ελευθερίες του Κόσμου;"

"Όσο κι αν ο άνθρωπος αγαπά το συνάνθρωπό του, δεν παύει να είναι πλάσμα που έχει την τάση να βγάζει λεφτά, κι αυτή η τάση συγκρούεται πολύ συχνά με την καλοσύνη του."

Θα μπορούσα να συγκρίνω, έχοντας πολύ φρέσκο τον Άρθουρ Γκόρντον Πιμ του Πόε, αλλά δεν έχει μεγάλη σημασία. Είναι απλώς δύο πρωτότυπα και ιδιόμορφα αριστουργήματα, για διαφορετικούς λόγους το καθένα. Η μεγάλη τους διαφορά είναι η ευκολία με την οποία διαβάζονται. Σαφώς πολύ δυσκολότερα ο Μόμπυ Ντικ, με πολλά κουραστικά σημεία, περιττά ίσως. Αυτό βέβαια δεν επηρέασε, τελικά την κρίση μου, έχοντας διαβάσει Πύντσον και ενάντια στη μέρα, έμαθα κατά κάποιο τρόπο να έχω την υπομονή που απαιτούν τέτοια έργα για να κερδίσεις αυτό που πρέπει.

Θα κάνω μια, μη αναμενόμενη, σύγκριση με τους " Πράσινους λόφους της Αφρικής" του Hemingway. Συνάντησα τεράστια διαφορά από κυνήγι σε κυνήγι. Στον Μόμπυ Ντικ ήταν ξεκάθαρος ο θαυμασμός στο ζώο αυτό για το οποίο αφιέρωσε μισό βιβλίο, σαν να ήταν εγκυκλοπαίδεια, σε ένα κυνήγι που το ζώο δεν "έπαιζε" άνισα απέναντι στον άνθρωπο.

Αν εξαιρέσω την πλοκή, τις πληροφορίες για την φάλαινα, τα ιστορικά στοιχεία κτλ, ήταν ένα βιβλίο με βάθος φιλοσοφικό. Αυτό όμως στο οποίο θέλω να σταθώ περισσότερο, είναι ότι υπήρχαν στιγμές που οι τόσο ζωντανές περιγραφές μου έδιναν την εντύπωση πως παρακολουθώ τους "Πειρατές της Καραϊβικής". Κάτι που πολύ σπάνια το εχω συναντήσει σε βιβλίο.

One of my book clubs is reading this right now. I read it a few years ago and was not yet ready for a re-read. And, honestly, since I didn't care for it much, I am not sure that I ever will.

In looking at other reviews and comments made, it appears like people generally enjoy this book. From what I remember of it, that is a little hard for me to understand. But, I am certainly glad that people have enjoyed it more than I did. Maybe I read a different book?

What it really came down to was 1/5 story . . . 4/5 info about whales, whaling, whales, blubber, whales, harpoons, whales . . .

The 1/5 that was story was pretty good. The rest got a bit old for me after a while. When I was not getting bored, some of Melville's writing was clever and entertaining, but not enough to carry a 500+ page novel.

Just my opinion - again, glad that many others have enjoyed it! Maybe someday I will be convinced to try it again.

When my reading group chose this book to serve as one of our monthly requirements, I cringed. After learning it was being allocated two months (giving people longer to read and analyse it), I shivered even more. Classics are not usually my thing and this book has been one I have heard much about, told of its tangential nature and dense nature, leaving me a tad ill at ease. However, like a good reading soldier, I prepared myself and forged into it, nose plugged and hoping for the best from Herman Melville’s classic. Ismael, for that is what he chooses to call himself, begins by telling the reader about the fact that he has some experience at sea, but never captaining a ship. He then explains that he seeks to be a sailor aboard a whaling ship and settles into a harbour town in hopes of being taken on. After an interesting encounter in a boarding house with a harpooner, Ismael heads to the docks to try his luck at being permitted to sail. His ‘interview’ goes well and Ismael is soon chosen to work aboard a ship led by one Captain Ahab. Missing a leg, Ahab speaks of a trip around the world to hunt whales, though he is eager to find his sea-bound nemesis, Moby Dick. The journey is long and there is much to do, so Ismael fills his time telling the reader all about life on the boat, the history of whaling, and whales in general. His attention to detail leaves the reader feeling as though they were right there, even though much of the action occurs in small snippets and the narrative is far more detailed. As Captain Ahab forges ahead, he encounters many a whale and the crew does what they can to do what is asked of them, while Moby Dick eludes them. The whale, nicknamed Leviathan, is out there, and Ismael hopes to come face to face with this beast, if only to help bring some form of retribution to the pains that Captain Ahab suffered those years ago. By the final chapters, there is much to say, giving the reader a treat they have waited so long to discover. A dastardly tale that is by no means free of action or information, Herman Melville does well to pull the reader in from the get-go. I’ll keep this recommendation free, as classics are a beast of their own, but will admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the experience and, like Ahab, am happy to have faced the beast that spooked me!

I am glad that I undertook this reading challenge, as it forced me to stare down this book. However, I chose the audio version to allow me to clip along at a slightly faster pace, which helped me a great deal. Melville has a great deal to say and I am not sure I would have stayed the course if I had only a book to guide me. While Ismael was the central character throughout, it is less his development that pushed the story forward. The reader can follow his sentiments aboard his first whaling ship and see what he thought of the experience, but it is more the asides, tangential comments, and brief narratives of that which is developing around him that connects the reader with the protagonist. I found him easy to like, more because he made me want to know more about the experience and the background of whaling. The other characters who grace the pages of the book helped to strengthen the story, bringing their own flavour to an already intense tale. As a story, Melville does a decent job in getting from A to B, but this was almost secondary in the literary experience. The reader is immersed in background, history, philosophy, and descriptions of all things whales, enough that they, too, can feel they know enough to track Moby Dick. Melville goes on and on so many times, stringing together metaphors and similes like no one I have ever read before...but it works. It gives the reader something on which to build their learning when it comes to a subject that is likely so out of their realm of understanding and not written about a great deal in the fiction I have read. Melville shows his past experience aboard a ship and those experiences bleed through on each page, but it is so full of information that the reader cannot catch their breath long enough to cite any degree of boredom. Ok, while I am not a fan of classics (and am not sure how this one is considered one), I would listen to it again. Read it? Hell no, but I would venture into the depths and let a skilled narrator guide me through it all.

Kudos, Mr. Melville for pushing me out of my comfort zone with a whale of a tail, er... tale!

This book fulfils the June/July 2020 monthly challenge of the Mind the Bookshelf Gap reading challenge.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

QUICK UPDATE: James Cameron totally ripped off and plagiarized Melville in the abysmally written Avatar 2. He should have listed Moby Dick in the credits…and saved the Ishmael character - the biologist - but, alas, he didn’t.


I re-read Moby-Dick following my research trips to the whaling museums of  New Bedford and Nantucket whaling museums. The particular edition I read from University of California Press is HIGHLY recommended as the typeface is extremely agreeable to the eyes and the illustrations are subtle and instructive without ever interfering or drawing attention away from the story. Perhaps that’s where the latent interest grew deep in my soul as regards the whaling museums and since life offered me recently the opportunity to see and enjoy both, I grabbed at the chance and am so glad to have done so. This reading of Melville is so much more interesting having now a lot more background on the various factors (social, economic, and physical) that informed the writing and structure of the story.


Many modern readers have been turned off of the unabridged Moby-Dick due to the many chapters of background information that Ishmael feels compelled to pass us about whales and whaling. I can understand that some folks want to get on with the story and don’t want to have all this detail. Personally, the whole book seems so much more real to me now. When I try to imagine the life of the 21-28 people on a 3-5 year whaling mission with a back-breaking job punctuated with long periods of boredom and intense periods of turmoil (whether from ocean storms or from the hunt and ensuing processing of blubber), I can appreciate how the story moves at its own pace and during those long hours at sea while the sailors are working on their scrimshaw or scanning the horizon for spouts, that Ishmael is in his cabin writing all this detail down about this job that he is so incredibly proud of. If you remove this description, it removes much of the texture of the book and reduces it to an adventure story rather than a more universal chez d’oeuvre.

Several moments merit mention: Father Mapples’ sermon on Jonah (Chapter 9) which sets the tone for most of the book, the speech of Ahab in recruiting his crew into his diabolical mission against Moby-Dick (Chapter 36) and the heart-breaking acquiescence of Starbuck, and my favorite part so far, The Grand Armada (Chapter 89). The description of the whale nursery with the mothers and children looking up through the water at their hunters was spectacular writing and makes one dream of being out there in one of those flimsy boats to see it.


The writing is by turns ironic, serious, violent, and tender. On one hand, is the famous Shark Massacre (Chapter 66) where Melville weaves in an image of the sharks actually eating themselves in their frenzy – amazing realism and exceedingly violent. On the other hand, the cleverness of Stubb as he manages to steal the sick whale with the ambergris away from the hapless French captain of the Rose-Bud (Chapter 91) was hilarious and I laughed out loud. Even the seemingly dry description chapters often have some high degree of tongue-in-cheek such as the suggestion that the Kings and Queens were all coronated in whale oil (Chapter 25). All of these add a certain unique texture to Moby-Dick and seem to be indispensable to the overall majesty of the book.

It was a breathless ending as one would expect, but there was also a feeling of anti-climax. I think that despite the excitement of the chase and the apocalyptic ending, I enjoyed the build-up of the suspense all from the book to the end. There was a bit of sentimentality towards the end that was not really present during the rest of the text...almost as if Melville was impatient to get to the end, to get the end of Ahab out of his system or something. And the whirlpool that swallows everything but Ishmael is a bit supernatural which shocks after having such vivid realism for the previous 550 pages. It was also strange that after occupying such a central (and tender) role for Ishmael through the first 100-200 pages of the book, Queequeg just disappears from the action. And how is it that, as a green hand, Ishmael suddenly replaces Fedallah in Ahab's boat? That seems like a bit of a stretch to me. But then, I am nit-picking on one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all-time and that probably sounds ridiculous and pretentious perhaps.


What I loved about this book: the atmosphere, the excruciating detail, the variety of dialogs...you feel like you are also on the deck of the Pequod when Starbuck and Ahab converse...ok that reminds me of another thing I found annoying. Albeit, the last soliloquy of Ahab is one of the best in Moby Dick, it seems almost out of character for him: the whole book he is this dark, moody almost one-dimensional character and suddenly we seem him shedding a tear and opening his heart to the one that nearly shot him, the First Mate Starbuck. Perhaps I am too influenced by television but it seems a bit incongruent this time around.

One aspect that just stuck out for me this time around was the latent homosexuality of the narrator, Ishmael. Besides the obvious coziness between him and Queequeg, the description of his hands deep in spermaceti squeezing pieces of oil but also friends of other sailors performing the same task seemed highly sexualized to me. I really hadn't thought about this aspect of Melville at all and upon doing a bit of research learned that he and Nathaniel Hawthorne of Scarlet Letter fame and to whom Moby-Dick is dedicated may have been lovers. Here is a letter from Melville to Hawthorne. It doesn't actually change my perception or understanding of the book, it is just a curious aspect that added a certain depth or texture to some of the passages such as the one I cited.

There is definitely something universal about this story where Ahab clearly feels above morality and is brutally crushed by his pride. The sad thing is that the entire crew pays the ultimate price for their adherence to his obsession. The last two encounters that are described with other boats are masterful: the contrast with the wild abandon of the Bachelor and the rejection of the forlorn Rachel were both perfect set up for the final acts of this tragedy.

I'll put this aside for now and come back to it in a few years. If this inspired you to reread this masterpiece, please let me know in the comments...and if I have any further thoughts, I'll be sure to share them here my mateys!

This is still one of my favorite books but I also read Bartleby the Scrivener, The Confidence Man, and Billy Budd from Melville which were so great! Need to re-read this one yet again. And please don't bother with the unabridged version - go for the whole whale!
Need to reread this again..

For my French speaking readers, there was a recording at Maison de la Radio in Paris which will be broadcast on France Culture on 27 October 2019 where a translated abbreviated version of this masterpiece was put to music. Although I have an issue with "appel-moi Ishmael" not being the opening line, the production was fantastic and the music was quite moving (despite occasionally drowning out the voices of the actors).

“¿Y si Ahab abandona de súbito la búsqueda? Es probable que la pierna inexistente le duela para toda la vida."

"Moby Dick" fue, es y será mi libro preferido de toda la vida. Esta es en realidad la tercera vez que lo leo dado que la magia que se desprende de sus páginas me hechiza sin soltarme. Más allá de que en la cima de mis escritores preferidos se yergue solitariamente y sin competencia mi admiradísimo Franz Kafka y que le sigue muy de cerca Fiódor Dostoievski, quien me enseño muchas maneras de ver la inmensidad de la vida, es Herman Melville también uno de mis autores predilectos y siempre recurro a sus libros para leerlos constantemente. Es mi manera de sostener mis horizontes literarios en un estándar alto.
Este gran autor fue parte fundamental del incipiente despegue literario de los Estados Unidos a principios del siglo XIX junto con Nathaniel Hawthorne o Edgar Allan Poe, por nombrar algunos, y aunque ya tenía varios libros publicados en su haber como "Taipí", "Omú", "Mardi" o "Redburn", todos ellos muestra fiel de su pasado como tripulante de barcos balleneros (en los que hasta llegó a convivir entre caníbales), es a partir de este libro en el que adquiere el desarrollo total de sus facultades narrativas para plasmarlas en un libro épico, único e inolvidable.
Cuando terminó de escribirlo, dentro de una de las tantas cartas que le escribía a su fiel amigo Hawthorne (a quien le dedica "Moby Dick"), le expresa: "He escrito un libro perverso, pero yo me siento tan inocente como un corderito". Evidentemente, Melville sabía que había tocado la cuerda justa de su genialidad y que sólo era cuestión de tiempo para que su libro fuera recordado por siempre.
También sostuvo una idea durante el proceso de escritura de "Moby Dick" en la que afirmaba que "Para escribir un libro de proporciones importantes hay que elegir un tema de proporciones importantes" y no se equivocó. Lo que comenzó como el esbozo de una novela corta fue transformándose en un volumen poderoso y extenso. Se le fue de las manos hasta transformarse en una mole equivalente a la Ballena Blanca que surca los mares en los que el Pequod de Ahab la persigue.
En cierta forma, este libro es de esos que yo denomino "universales", puesto que son tantos los temas que trata acerca de todo aquello lo que nos define como seres humanos y estas características nos son mostradas desde mil ángulos distintos.
"Moby Dick" es una novela polifónica y con esto me refiero a ese estilo de novelas que inventó el gran Fiódor Dostoievski en donde cada personaje funciona como un ente independiente con su voz y sus ideas dentro de la novela, pero que a la vez, unido a los demás hacen funcionar el argumento de la novela de manera conjunta mientras el autor por momentos los deja actuar, quedándose en un costado.
Como toda novela de esta naturaleza genera adhesiones y rechazo en el lector. Ya en su momento (1851) cuando fue publicada, "Moby Dick" naufragó en el olvido casi instantáneamente empujando a Melville a un auto exilio del que nunca se recuperaría. Al año siguiente publicaría "Pierre, o las ambigüedades", que hace fiel eco de su nombre por lo inclasificable y de manera post mortem se publica "Billy Budd, marinero", esta sí muy bien recibida por la crítica.
Para ese entonces, Melville, que prácticamente estaba fuera de la literatura, se dedicó a escribir poesía mientras trabajaba como un siempre empleado administrativo (casi bartlebiano) en la Aduana de Nueva York.
Si uno eliminara los capítulos a los que podríamos llamar "descartables", nos quedaríamos con una novela de menos de trescientas páginas en vez del ladrillo de más de setecientas treinta que uno tiene que leer.
Melville se toma gran parte del libro para contarnos acerca de todo lo que rodea al mundo de los barcos balleneros y es esto lo que hace que muchos lectores lo abandonen. Los capítulos como "Cetalogía", en donde Melville hace un detalle de todas las ballenas que existían en esa época, parecen interminables como también en, "De las ballenas pintadas", "La ballena como plato", "La cabeza de cachalote: estudio comparativo", "El gran tonel de Heidelberg", "Cisternas y baldes", "La cabeza del cachalote: estudio comparativo", que son algunos que enumero, aunque estimo que deben ser más de veinte.
En cierto modo es una lástima, dado que la historia narrada es maravillosa y estos apartados distraen o aburren al lector que no está al tanto de la obra melviana.
Yendo precisamente al libro, lo más importante de él son sus personajes, y a mi modo de ver, junto con Moby Dick es fundamentalmente Ahab el motor de la historia. Es el personaje más logrado de Herman Melville e iguala a otros grandes de la historia literaria. Ahab, es un personaje forjado por Melville con todo el andamiaje trágico de Shakespeare y la profundización psicológica de Dostoievski. De hecho es que fuera de Dostoievski el personaje más dostoievskiano de los que me he encontrado.
De todos modos, el nombre de Ahab ha sido escrito en la literatura con letras de oro.
Este poderoso personaje tarda bastante en aparecer en la novela (más precisamente en el capítulo 28), para mostrarse con intermitencias en la mitad del libro y hacerse omnipresente durante los capítulos finales en donde se desata la tragedia, dado que en realidad "Moby Dick" es una novela de fuertes connotaciones trágicas pero dotadas de muchas capas en las que Melville inteligentemente trabajó para darle un concepto de obra total.
Su constante inclusión de alegorías y simbolismos son incontables y lo más curioso es que los simbolismos son generados en forma inconsciente por el lector. Cuando Ahab descarga con profunda circunspección filosófica sus soliloquios existencialistas lo que hace es generar un clima de negros presagios y esperanzas funestas, puesto que íntimamente sabe que si bien Dios dispone las cosas, es el Destino el que sellará su suerte.
Dos de los capítulos más elevados y filosóficos del libro son un monólogo existencialista maravilloso de Ahab en el capítulo "La sinfonía". El otro es "La blancura de la ballena", el más metafísico de todo el libro, en el que Melville nos ofrece estudio profundo sobre la simbología del color blanco.
Así como Ahab es una de las piezas fundamentales del libro, Ismael, quien es el narrador casi omnisciente, es el que llevará la batuta y el ritmo de la narración. Él abre la historia con esperanza y él la concluye con melancolía y nostalgia y en el medio, desfilan otros tantos personajes maravillosos como los son su fiel amigo Queequeg, ese salvaje tatuado y experto arponero que se transformará en su hermano del alma así también como los tres oficiales principales, el primero Starbuck (de quien la gran cadena internacional de cafés fundada en Washington toma su nombre agregándose una "s"), quien es el que más enfrenta a Ahab, Stubb con su inseparable pipa y Flask, quien tiene toda la pinta de no estar en su sano juicio.
Junto con Queequeg conoceremos a los otros dos famosos arponeros del Pequod, Tasthego, un indio de complexión colosal y Dagoo, un negro enorme dispuesto a enfrentarse a todo y a todos. También en un uno de los capítulos iniciales, antes de que Ismael se embarque, nos encontraremos con el Padre Mapple, quien da su sermón desde un púlpito transformado en la quilla de un barco y como no puede ser de otra manera, nos hablará del único personaje bíblico que tiene relación directa con una ballena, Jonás, del que además Melville utilizará un capítulo para que su parábola sea considerada históricamente, o sea que el autor intenta demostrar cuál fue el periplo real de Jonás a partir de su huida.
Volviendo al padre Mapple y a Ahab, un dato muy interesante es ver la más famosa película basada en el libro, dirigida por John Houston en 1954 y para la que el gran autor norteamericano Ray Bradbury escribió el guión, nos encontraremos con el afamado Orson Wells haciendo el papel del sacerdote.
La película cuenta con el mejor Ahab fílmico de toda la historia, me refiero a Gregory Peck con su potente voz y su traje de cuáquero. Es imposible no asociar esa voz a la del "viejo trueno" de la novela cuando uno la lee. Peck actuará nuevamente en una serie de Moby Dick de 1998 como el Padre Mapple y en donde el actor Patrick Stewart encarna el papel de Ahab.
Para no irnos por las ramas, no quiero dejar de mencionar a un extraño y misterioso personaje que se llama Fedallah, un parsi fantasmal que aparece de la nada y que oficia de socio inseparable de Ahab o del negrito Pippen, "Pip", el grumete del Pequod que aporta la cuota de frescura e inocencia a tanta tragedia.
En muchos capítulos del libro son constantes las referencias de Melville a personajes bíblicos y a la propia Biblia en sí. Por ejemplo en un contrapunto entre Peleg y Bildad, quienes son los propietarios del Pequod con Ismael le hacen saber a este que Ahab fue un rey bíblico muy poderoso.
Pero también muy cruel, a punto tal que cuando fue asesinado, los perros no lamieron su sangre. Pareciera que este rey influye sobre el capitán Ahab quien por momentos es despótico, cruel y cínico respondiendo a su obsesión monomaníaca: la de cazar y dar muerte a Moby Dick, la temible Ballena Blanca que le arrancó una de sus piernas.
Para la creación de este cachalote asesino, Herman Melville se inspira en suceso real en el que un cachalote también albino hunde al Essex en 1820, frente a las islas de Mocha en Chile (Melville fantaseó con el nombre de Mocha Dick para su libro) luego de una cruenta persecución.
Moby Dick que es la representación del mal en esta novela es el partenaire perfecto para Ahab, a quien le arrancó la pierna para disparar todo el odio y rencor ilimitado de este capitán que recorrerá el mundo con el objetivo de la venganza que enceguece sus días a bordo del Pequod, cuyo objetivo era la de cazar ballenas para comercializar su esperma, o sea el aceite que se aloja en la cabeza del cachalote y que era el medio para iluminar las casas del siglo XIX, aunque también son muchos los productos que se extraían de las ballenas.
De este modo el Pequod zarpará de la ballenera isla de Nantucket (en la cual hoy se emplaza un museo ballenero), siguiendo hacia las Islas Azores, las Islas Canarias, Cabo Verde, el Río de la Plata, el Cabo de Buena Esperanza, el Mar meridional de China, la zona ballenera de Japón, para encontrar su destino final en los Mares del Sur, luego de tres días de intensa caza a Moby Dick en donde la novela alcanza su punto más álgido y fatal.
"Moby Dick, o la ballena", esta novela imponente, eterna, inabarcable, enorme, la que Faulkner quiso escribir y nunca pudo, que se desarrolla durante tres tercios del libro a bordo de un barco, que posee la más bella y rica narrativa que Herman Melville pudo sacar de sus entrañas es hoy una recompensa a este autor que cuando la publicó pasó inadvertidamente para ser re descubierta recién 73 años después de su publicación, quedará para siempre entre los mejores clásicos de la historia.
Herman Melville, que escribió casi siempre libros sobre historias de barcos, como sus colegas Robert Louis Stevenson y Joseph Conrad tiene hoy el sitial que se merece en la historia de la literatura.
Dijo una vez Jorge Luis Borges sobre Moby Dick: "En el invierno de 1851, Melville publicó Moby Dick, la novela infinita que ha determinado su gloria. Página por página, el relato se agranda hasta usurpar el tamaño del cosmos: al principio el lector puede suponer que su tema es la vida miserable de los arponeros de ballenas; luego el tema es la locura del capitán Ahab, ávido de acosar y destruir la ballena blanca; luego, que la Ballena y Ahab y la persecución que fatiga los océanos del planeta son símbolos del Universo".
Supo reconocer su gran amigo Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Es una obra épica digna de Homero. Será una epopeya americana".
Me quedo con esta última frase. Creo que resume notablemente lo que Herman Melville y "Moby Dick" significan para la literatura mundial. La profecía de Hawthorne se hizo realidad y es por todo ello que siempre será mi libro preferido.

I have to admit to a long-standing curiosity about Moby-Dick (not least of which is why the albino whale’s name is hyphenated in the title but just plain Moby Dick in the text itself). I read and loved a Reader’s Digest condensed version (gasps of dismay echo across the Metaverse at this news) of this book around second grade and have always wondered what the arbiters of taste at Reader’s Digest decided to leave on the cutting room floor. Could it have been an illicit love scene between Ishmael and his cannibal harpooner Queequeg? A scene in which the first mate, Starbuck, purchases some coffee beans from an Islamic trader, thus finally making sense of that brand’s name? Did Ahab put aside his vendetta with Moby in order to form a chorus line of ivory-appendaged amputees?

Sadly, none of those things came to pass. Instead I quickly learned that Moby-Dick is not one book, but two. The first is familiar to all of us: a sailor, let’s call him Ishmael, signs on to crew with the Pequod, a whaling ship from Nantucket (no word on whether the limerick is true) captained by the monomaniacal Captain Ahab. Want to know how I knew he was monomaniacal? Because that’s the only adjective that Melville uses through the course of the book to describe Ahab’s obsession with hunting and killing the whale that bit off his leg. I’m unsure of the timeline here, but I’m pretty positive that Melville was writing before the advent of thesauruses (thesauri?). Regardless, this half of the book is exactly what you would expect from a yarn of its sort. The sailors are a mixed bag of old sea dogs, young cabin boys enchanted by the glittering romance of the sea, and pagan harpooners living solely for the hunt. This segment of the story flies by like an albatross over the azure sea (prolonged exposure to this book has left me unable to make any non-nautical metaphors)- brisk, refreshing and nigh effortless.

Mixed in among Melville’s ruminations of sea life and epic foreshadowing is another book, far more dense and infinitely more difficult of a road. The second is more in line with the Naturalist writings of the 19th Century and is nothing less than a complete history and biology of whales, whale hunting, gutting whales, refining their blubber into oil, and the unique structural adjustments made to ships to allow the processing to take place while at sea. I have to admit, I thrilled at reading the first few of these chapters. Melville writes them well with great description of the inner workings of the sperm whale and I laughed at his chapter on how the placement of their eyes meant that whales were effectively blind- he was obviously writing before the discovery of sonar. Little-old 21st Century me liked the idea of having a piece of knowledge that Melville, for all of his in-depth research (and trust me, it's in-depth), could not possess.

The struggle came when these chapters extended for first twenty, then fifty, then finally a hundred pages. The pacing of the story fell off as I was treated to descriptions of the oxygen:water ratio in a whale's spume, descriptions of all known types of whales hunted by man, the bell tool used for scooping the valuable sperm from it's brain cavity or how the sperm whale possesses a thick and hard battering ram of a head with which it can defend against predators. I understood what Melville was doing- if he's not going to introduce the actual nemesis in this tale until the very end of the book then he's going to make damn sure that the reader knows just what this whale is capable of. It just dragged so slowly that by the time we did finally catch a glimpse of Moby, I greeted it with a sigh of "finally" rather than much excitement.

I think that, in the end, I don't regret taking the time to read this tome. There are some absolutely rapturous descriptions of the ocean, a body I never tire of hearing about, and the hunger that the crew showed for the hunt (especially the antics of Stubb, the second mate, and the harpooners) made for some exciting reading. However, the endless treatises on whale physiology just went on too long for me to be able to rate this over two stars.

There once was a grouchy alpha whale named Moby Dick who -- rather than being agreeably shorn of his blubber and having lumpy sperm scooped out of his cranium like cottage cheese -- chose life. Unlike so many shiftless, layabout sea mammals of his generation, Moby Dick did not go gentle into that good night. This whale, in short, was not a back-of-the-bus rider. He assailed a shallow, consumerist society, which objectified him only as lamp oil or corset ribbing, with the persuasive argument of his thrashing tail, gaping maw, and herculean bulk.

In his seminal (in more ways than one) animal rights saga, Herman Melville conjures an aquatic, rascally Norma Rae out of an elephantine albino whale. Reasonably enough, Moby Dick (hereafter M.D., despite possible confusions with the profession) is irritable when people are chasing him, stabbing him with harpoons, and trying to kill him. Thus, in an act which would be protected by law as self defense in most enlightened nations, M.D. bites off part of the leg of one of his many hunters, the humorless Captain Ahab.

Gall alert! Gall alert! Ahab has the nerve to hold a fucking grudge against the whale for this entirely ethical dismemberment. (He also holds a grudge for some incidental damage incurred to Lil' Ahab as a very weak corollary of his lost limb, but I'm not even getting into that. Judge Wapner would've never stomached that half-baked reasoning, so neither will I.) Now mind you, M.D. doesn't, like, come ashore in Nantucket, rent a lowrider horse-drawn carriage, and try to put a cap in the ass of that one-legged old bitch-ass captain who wanted to decapitate him. So, I mean, who's really the petty one in this equation?

The novel Moby-Dick eschews a first-person whale narrator in favor of Ishmael, a bit of a rube who shows up in New Bedford with big dreams of a whaling career. (Whaling was the Hollywood of that era.) He meets this reformed cannibal harpooner named Queequeg who hails from the South Seas, has lots of tattoos, and moonlights as a decapitated-human-head salesman. So basically he's rough trade. Ishmael and Queequeg become fast-friends and do all kinds of jovial homoerotic things together, like cuddle in bed and curiously espy each other undressing -- despite their pronounced cultural differences. I think Ishmael acts as a keen ethnographer when he highlights the variances: Queequeg, the savage, idol-worshipping, hell-condemned, unenlightened, "oogah-boogah" heathen, and Ishmael, the... white guy. Yet their love endures. It's as if all the sexual currents in Neil Simon's Odd Couple were suddenly foregrounded.

Ishmael and Queequeg find employment on the whaler Pequod, helmed by none other than the killjoy Captain Ahab himself -- he of prosthetic whalebone leg, abbreviated schlong, and legendary grudge-holding. So the Pequod embarks upon a three or four year whaling adventure around the globe, ostensibly in search of valuable whale oil, but in fact -- as we later learn -- to bring about Ahab's vengeance against the Marxist whale M.D., who refuses to be expropriated by the Man.

Interestingly enough, as the journey goes on, Ishmael's character seems to evaporate. In other words, he gradually shifts from a compartmentalized first-person narrator to an omniscient third-person narrator. He seems almost to have rescinded his identity (or he only rarely invokes it) in the latter part of the novel, as if -- while we have been distracted by gloppy whale sperm and passing ships -- he morphed into the Star Child. This transformation is, of course, intentional and creates a sense of broadening perspective throughout the novel -- of transcending the menial and specific to embrace a grand, universal tragedy.

Here's the bottom line. Moby-Dick is an American classic that sounds as though it would be absolutely torturous to read. A six-hundred-page nineteenth-century novel about the pursuit of a whale? You've got to be kidding. Did I mention that there are chapters after chapters that merely detail the processes and (often gory) procedures of whaling? I know. Try to control yourself before you run out to the bookstore or library, right? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

This novel is magnificent. It proves what I have held true ever since I started writing myself -- that any subject at all, from whittling to colonoscopies to Riverdance to bagpipe playing, can be enthralling in the hands of a competent writer -- a writer like Melville, who simultaneously locates the universal in this seemingly very particular narrative and makes even the occasionally perplexing rituals of whaling seem fascinating.

Also, it's a captivating historical document chronicling M.D.'s groundbreaking role in the nascent Whale Power movement. Eat tailfin, honkies!

Dedicating a book to Nathaniel Hawthorne is a great way to put me off(I read “The Scarlet Letter” last year and hated it.).To say I was apprehensive to get into Moby-Dick is an understatement ,I thought I am going to hate it,really regret reading it.But I was so wrong!!.
First things first,I will generously forgive Melville for his infamous long sentences.In fact they were not so hard to understand ,not like sentences in “The scarlet letter”.

This might be an encyclopedia for whaling,but it’s not just that.There is so much more to it.Melville explores faith,vengeance,concience and human nature in general so extensively,every chapter is an allegory. The first 200 pages hooked me.Queeqeg and Captain Ahab kept my attention,so did all the information about Nantucket ,it’s people ,Whales and Whaling.The rest of the book was an absolute fascinating great adventure full of stories, facts,historical and biblical refences.I love all the allegories ,similes and metaphors,these things are done so exceptionally well.The best part is of course Melville’s disscection of Captain Ahab’s monomania.I see why he understands it so well,this book was a result of Melville’s monomania with Whales.I am not complaining!!.

His sense of humour is amazing,the irony and the wisdom deserves utmost respect.
There are some amazing quotes.It’s one of those books which gives you a great peek into the author’s mind.I feel like I got to know Melville on this adventure and I have nothing but genuine affection and respect for him!!.
He opened up a new world to me,of Whales,of course!!.

I am pretty generous with my star ratings,that does not mean all five star books are masterpieces,but this truly is a masterpiece!.Totally deserves to be among the greatest books.
Thank you Mr.Melville for this grand adventure and the life lessons.
I shall happily go on this voyage again!!!

Există oare cărți importante, capodopere, cum ar veni, neglijate de public și critică? Dacă luăm aminte la soarta romanului Moby-Dick (1851), s-ar zice că da. Herman Melville nu a vîndut mai mult de 3000 de exemplare (din Moby-Dick ) în toată viața lui (a murit în 1891, uitat de toți), iar criticii contemporani ori i-au adus reproșuri (romanul ar fi un amestec de ficțiune și informații lipsite de relevanță) ori l-au neglijat cu totul. Abia peste 70 de ani, criticii își vor revizui judecata. Cel dintîi care a sesizat măreția cărții a fost D.H. Lawrence...

***
Dacă inspectăm literatura critică, ne apucă durerile de cap.

Unii au văzut în Moby-Dick un roman de aventuri (cînd l-am citit prima dată, aceasta era interpretarea dominantă), alții au descifrat o tragedie zguduitoare: căpitanul Ahab e mînat de hybris, lucru vădit, de altfel. Cei mai subțiri dintre exegeți au coborît / urcat pînă în abisurile teologiei și au prezentat romanul lui Melville ca pe o confruntare cu Dușmanul absolut. Pentru acest motiv, am ales să menționez numai două interpretări. Nu fac un secret că optez pentru prima.

E. M. Forster a spus apăsat, în mai multe rînduri, că Moby-Dick se referă cu maximă precizie la „capturarea unei balene”, cu toate că tocmai eşecul acestei vînători îl preocupă pe Melville.

Nu ar fi inutil, am impresia, să citim încă o dată afirmaţia lui Forster: „That is what the book is about, and Moby-Dick was about catching a whale”. Fraza lui Forster e îndreptată, dacă nu greşesc, împotriva acelor exegeți care văd în Moby-Dick o alegorie complicată. Dar însuși Herman Melville a spus, într-o epistolă, că nu a intenționat să construiască o alegorie. E îndrăzneț, prin urmare, să pretinzi că ai înțeles mai bine intenția lui Melville decît Melville însuși (deși se poate). În rezumatul său succint, E.M. Forster tocmai asta sugerează. Moby-Dick descrie încercarea nesăbuită de a vîna o balenă albă, cu numele Moby-Dick, și sfîrșitul tragic al acestei încercări. Așadar, lectura lui Forster e simplă, literală.

În pofida afirmației lui Melville, repet, unii istorici literari au văzut în Moby-Dick o confruntare cu Răul, ca stihie intenţională, ispitirea demiurgului malign. Eu văd, mai degrabă, în romanul lui, o confruntare cu implacabila indiferenţă a naturii. Cruzimea ei este fără intenţie, nedeliberată. Natura e crudă, fiindcă e crudă, nu fiindcă ar intenţiona să fie aşa...

P. S. În lectura lui Borges (care nu ține seama de avertismentul lui Forster), Moby-Dick descrie, în realitate, o coborîre în infern, o nekya:

„Nu s-a relevat pînă acum, din cîte ştiu, o afinitate încă şi mai profundă, cea a lui Ulysse din infern [e vorba de Ulysse în viziunea din Infernul lui Dante, 26: 90-142, n. m.], cu altă căpetenie nefericită, Ahab din Moby-Dick. Primul, ca şi celălalt, îşi atrage propria pierzanie după nenumărate nopţi de veghe şi mult curaj; trama generală este aceeaşi, deznodămîntul este identic, ultimele cuvinte sînt aproape la fel”.

In 1819 in Manhattan, a strange trial was commencing. A merchant of that great city had been found in possession of barrels of spermacetti, the fine-quality oil which may be obtained from the head of the Sperm Whale. When an inspector demanded he pay the proper taxes on his goods, the merchant, who apparently made a hobby of science, declared that he had no fish product in his possession, and so the tax did not apply. He was duly arrested and, contending the charges, a trial was begun to determine, once-and-for-all, if whales were indeed, fish.

This was becoming an increasingly important question in the wake of Linneaus' great work and the recent codification by numerous biologists of the many families in which plants and animals numbered their descent, which would soon culminate in the great discovery of Darwin. Is it possible there was some familial connection between whales and dogs? Or more troublingly, between these alien monsters of the deep and humans? It was important to determine an answer, but it is singularly strange that the venue chosen to answer this question was not the halls of academia, or even the wild world of the working naturalist, but a courthouse, with judge, lawyers, and jury arguing the question.

Certainly, numerous scientists were brought in to testify, and so were experienced whale-hunters, who tended to give contradicting accounts. As D. Graham Burnett puts it, in his book on the trial, n  Trying Leviathann, these were men with 'lay expertise'--they dealt everyday with the subject at hand, but had no grasp of the history or theory behind it. One might point to the difference between the man who drives a car every day to work, and the man who knows how a car is built.

So it is somewhat strange that, thirty-two years later, Moby Dick seems to show us relatively little progress on this question. Melville first declares that whales are definitely fish (though he does not discount their mammalian structures), laments the many futile attempts to depict them accurately, and then embarks on an attempt to classify members of the species which is hardly scientific.

His approach was not a modern, thoroughly-researched analysis of the subject as it stood, but a conceptual exploration, and in the end, a flawed one, a failed experiment, and not the only one in Melville's great work.

There are mistaken details, dropped plotlines and characters, vast shifts in style and tone, changes in point-of-view, as if several different sorts of book were combined together. This is not a classic lauded for its narrow, precise perfection, but for its wide-reaching, seemingly-fearless leaps into waters both varied and deep.

Reading Melville's letters, it is clear he knew his experiment was not an entire success, but he pressed on boldly despite his doubts, refusing to write anything less grand just because he feared it might, in some parts, fail. It is a difficult thing for an author not to give in and write something smaller and safer, something certain. It is Achilles' choice: to live a small and easy life, which will be long and passing pleasant, or to strike at the skies, to die in the flame of youth, and become a song. Like Ahab, Melville attempts something grand, dangerous, and unknown.

'Like Ahab'.

It is a phrase we hear, which we understand, something pervasive. There are a number of reasons that Melville's great work, ignored and sneered at in his lifetime, is now preeminent. For all the flaws of his book, it is still full of remarkable successes.

It begins with several strange, ominous notes, like a Beethoven symphony, calling us to attention, with the mystic and dark theology of "There stand his trees, each with a hollow trunk, as if a hermit and a crucifix were within". But then it strikes away--there are still some dark shadows which flit across the scene, but for the most part, we are following Ishmael, in all of his funny, bumbling, pretentious, self-deprecating little adventures. It is, at the first, fundamentally a Sea Story in the old tradition, and we should not forget that it is a grand Romance, not serious-minded realism.

One thing I was not prepared for was this book's often subtle and sometimes uproarious humor. Sadly, that part seems to be missing from its great reputation. As a Romance, it is not precisely concerned with developing holistic character psychology, it is enough to have types and archetypes, though they are often twisted. The individual pieces on the board act less like individuals and more like different aspects of one mind, the central mind of the book itself, of which each character forms a small part.

So if relationships are sometimes rushed, or lapse, or are unfinished, those may be flaws in pacing, but each relationship is building together, contributing to the vision Melville gives us of his little world, so they are hardly pointless elements. It is more that Melville takes shortcuts here and there to tell the central story, for as he himself points out, to tell the whole story of Moby Dick is more than any one author could do.

Much has been made of the vast symbology of the book, probably too much. It is not an allegory, there is no one thing that the whale stands for, or Ahab, or the ship. They are all parts of a story, and while we may understand them by thinking about evil, or good, or fate, or faith, to try to boil them down to some simple meaning is to miss the point, and to turn a great story into nothing more than a fable. It is a mistake to go in asking 'what does this represent', it does the book a disservice. Asking this question is not necessary for us to understand the work.

Melville's bleak vision captured the imagination of the emerging post-modern thinkers who had seen the world wars tear apart concepts and assumptions which been long unchangeable and taken for granted. But it is not that this is a dark, hopeless book, but rather that it is a book which lacks simple, familiar answers. It does not wallow in the notion of hopelessness, but rather seems troubled by the fact that hope so often leads us to an inescapably hopeless place.

In the thirties and forties, this book became a sort of 'test' for intellectuals. It gives no easy answers, yet it displays a wide array of ideas, conclusions, conflicts, and worldviews. So when one literary critic asked another what he thought of Moby Dick, he was asking what he was able to create from this basic toolset of ideas which had no simple, right answer.

Unfortunately, this open-endedness has given the book an undeserved reputation of being inaccessible and requiring some vast store of knowledge in order to 'get' it. It is fundamentally a story about characters, and the only thing required to get it is to be a human being with an interest in other human beings. In fact, at one point, Melville makes a parody of the idea of the text which is full of allusions that only experts will understand, with the tale of 'Darmonodes and the elephant', which is not actually a real reference to anything, but was made up by Melville to tease those who are obsessed with dissecting every allusion.

Certainly, it does slow down around the middle, when we start getting various explanations about the history and methods of whaling, but the book is not a series of dry explanations, these are the collected stories and ideas of men. Though Melville, himself, only worked as a whaler for less than two years, he researched and compiled many different accounts to create his book. And these explorations of whaling, like the characters, all contribute to our understanding, they build meaning and help to color certain words and actions.

There are some terms which Melville likes to re-use throughout, and some of these seem to be stylistic oversights, but his repeated use of the term 'monomania' (monomaniacal, monomaniac) is a reference to a specific psychological condition, which is how Melville intends it to be taken, instead of as a simple description, so I don't count this as a 'favored word' of the author's but an example of specific use of a term.

Another of his experiments is to play around with the voice of the book, which starts as a first-person narrative by Ishmael, but also includes Shakespearean soliloquies and choral scenes (complete with stage directions) and a number of scenes which it seems impossible for Ishmael to have witnessed. As with most of the book, these are not obscure, nor do they make the action difficult to follow, they are just more example of Melville's playful experimentation.

Indeed, there is much of Shakespeare here, from the speeches of personal intent to the broad humor, the crew's sing-song banter, the melodramatic, grandiose characters, the occasional half-hidden sex joke, and the references to Biblical and Greek myth. But being a modern author, Melville's writing is easier to comprehend, particularly because much of his styling and pacing has passed into the modern form of books, movies, and television.

There are also some particularly beautiful passages where the prose begins to resemble poetry, and between the grotesque, funny characters and the thoughtful, careful writing in some scenes, I began to compare the work to The Gormenghast Novels, though while Peake maintains this style throughout, Melville often switches back and forth between styles and tones.

So, with all his mad switching about, his vast restlessness, Melville reveals that his own is more of a 'polymania'--an obsession with varying things--and while this does mean that his work has many errors, many experiments which didn't quite pan out, it also means that the book as a whole is completely full of remarkable, wonderful, funny, poignant, charming, exciting, thought-provoking, philosophical, historical, and scientific notions, so that even taking the flaws into account, there is just such a wealth of value in this book, so much to take away from it. And yet, don't worry about taking everything away--that's a fool's errand--Melville did his best to write what he could, trying not to worry about whether it was all perfect, so the least we can do is to be bold enough to read it as it is, and take what we can from it, without worrying whether we've gotten all of it.

Walk the beach, and do not worry about picking up every stone you see, but take a handful that please you and know that it was worth your while.