November 08, 2005

Big Fish

I’ll call my house The Pequod. The electric bill will be referred to as the leviathan. If I lose my job, I’ll go home and say to the wife, hey, call me Ishmael. Before I fly into road rage when I get cut off in traffic, I’ll remind myself that it might be wiser to be a Starbuck than a Flask.

I’m thinking 2006 is going to be a year of taking Moby-Dick seriously. And I don’t mean simply rereading it and staying awake, although let’s face it, Moby-Dick is the Stonehenge of American Lit – you don’t have to go there to see it. I’m talking about an organic approach, Moby-Dick as an organizing principle, employing it as a metaphor for living. All Moby-Dick all the time.

Right off the bat, isn’t Moby-Dick a metaphor for just reading Moby-Dick?

Posted by Bobby Farouk at November 8, 2005 01:10 PM
Comments

Moby-Dick is the Stonehenge of American Lit – you don’t have to go there to see it.

I'm not quite sure what metaphor is in operation here, but I can assure you that if you want to see Stonehenge you do have to have to go there to see it. It won't come to you.

Posted by: Alan Allport at November 8, 2005 01:36 PM

Stonehenge is a sort of icon, is it not?

Posted by: Bobby Farouk at November 8, 2005 01:46 PM

While the urge to elaborate is powerful - since to me, the Stonehenge metaphor is apt - I'm going to resist. Another voice is telling me that any time you have to explain a metaphor, it just means you have chosen a poor one.

Posted by: Bobby Farouk at November 8, 2005 03:21 PM

As I remember, the folks of alt.smokers.pipes agreed several years ago that one couldn't smoke a pipe correctly without having read Moby Dick.

Incidentally, I vote for Moby Dick for our next reading group.

Posted by: Ben Brumfield at November 8, 2005 07:43 PM

Incidentally, I vote for Moby Dick for our next reading group.

Pshaw. How about Decline of the West? (Untranslated, natch).

Posted by: Alan Allport at November 9, 2005 06:52 AM

Pshaw?

Posted by: Bobby Farouk at November 9, 2005 08:41 AM

Actually, I think a case could be made that Moby-Dick is a metaphor for Decline of the West.

Posted by: Bobby Farouk at November 9, 2005 10:08 AM

I'd be glad to reread Moby Dick if others are up to it.

Posted by: Martha Bridegam at November 9, 2005 05:10 PM

Well, I started yesterday, so if anybody wants to join me, that's great. This will be a long slog, though, I think. I want to give Melville the time I never gave him before.

Posted by: Bobby Farouk at November 10, 2005 07:03 AM