Scriblings for 6 November 2003, submitted by a sub sub
We will cover:
-Potential Paper Topics
-Moby Dick
-If time, see some of the thrilling (irony-free zone) John
Houston version of Moby Dick
We heard the story of how Sam got his name. Only Ahab makes “pacts
with the universe.”
Paper Topic
1)What is it? What are we thinking
about?
2)SEE HANDOUT (for tips)
3)All topics sounded great!
Moby-Dick
Melville, travel writer, banker, Killed wales,
lived in
tribe, then lived in
1844 comes back from Traveling and starts writing
1846 First book
1851 Moby Dick
-we looked at quotes and extracts from novel
Cpt. 1: Loomings
(verb loom on horizon, but also a noun, a frame to weave on)
Question: Does God exist?
"Call Me Ishmael." Why is this so important?
Calls attention to what we call things
Bible: Ishmael is Abraham's illegitimate son - isolated
Ishmael, wanderer, orphan
Sea is refuge. Questions asked: Why go to sea? Why go as a
sailor?
Sea is untouchable, inscrutable. Sea is a “phantom.”
Cpt. 2: Carpetbagger
Where do I fit in? Sense of Place
Cpt. 3 &4: Introduction to Queq. and homoerotic suggestions
Cpt. 10:
Looking at Ishmael's and Queq. friendly relationship
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Following page # will vary
pg 601 Squeeze Squeeze (Eros)
The Castaway
pg 599 Blame not on Stub
Try Works (Thanatos)
tryworks
boil blubber of whale
-non-christians
feeding the fire "devils of hell"
-harpoons like pitchforks
-red hell
Maybe Ahab is right wisdom that is woe and a woe that is
madness
-eagle can know misery, pain, suffering
-trying to dive into something but remain whole
The Brit
-morning moves
-sometimes compares sea to prairie
-Canablism of the Sea
“Insular
conver.
between Rick and Tim
"Yeah, that Moby Dick is so damn long" - Rick
"yeah, wait till they get to
know it better" - Tim
Buell is arguing that the whale is
not just a symbol
Group work on Moby Dick
The Blanket Josh/Kristen
Don't know where the skin ends and the blubber begins. Can
skin be thinner
than skin of newborn baby. Wants to
know the difference in skin and blubber,
then realizes distinction doesn't
matter.
Sphinxes Sarah Jo/Joey
Nothing can be called neck. Head is 1/3 of body. Never know
if mouth speaks.
Battering Ram Jenny/Mark
Front of head vertim to water,
nothing under head. Eyes, Ears to side. Head is
a dead blind wall. "A Wad of something" Honeycomb shape stuff in head.
No
sensation lurks in it. Cannot get at full truth.
A Bower in the Arsacides
Amanda/James
Measureing inside, tries to measure outside of body. What length is. When
everything is gone it still
functions? In ribs life and death. Body
becomes scale w/ whale information
The Tail Jeremy/Lauren
Tail begins at trunck where it
tapers to girth of a man. Upper surface 50 sq
foot average. 20
feet across. Fibers power the tail (3 membranes)The
tail is
the concentration of power, body
tapers to tail. Side fins steer. Tail never
RIGGLES
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-whale helps stand for the ocean
-Buell - barry lopez
understanding of animals and a sense
of their own separate entity
Buell 222 interspecisim
- you can get obsessed with knowing
Perhaps there’s an environmental ethic in leaving whales as whales, not as free-willyized pets.