loomings: moby dick chapters 1-15
Chris promotes the gay agenda. McKenzie goes to church. Everyone stays on dry land.
M: We did it! We’ve officially started Moby Dick. What were your first impressions of the first 75 pages?
C: We are not yet on the boat. When will we get on the boat? No spoilers, but the next chapter is called The Ship, so…
M: The boat better be soon. I didn’t sign up to read about the LAND.
C: Here’s a brief synopsis: Our main character, Ishmael, has made his way to Nantucket to find a whaling ship to join. He finds an inn, he meets the innkeeper, he goes to church, and he meets his bedmate. It’s a lot of “then he did this” and “then he did that”.
M: Lots of exposition, lots of very vivid descriptions of what he's up to. This didn't surprise me a ton, because I predict this book will be nothing but vivid description and granular detail.
C: Honestly, in books, I am down to clown with that. It's been dry and dense, but it’s a lot more readable than I anticipated. What do you think?
M: It's way funnier than I expected. In the first paragraph, we get the following:
Tonally, the book is not at all what I was expecting. There are constant moments where he tosses something in there that makes me do a double take and think “Wait, that was funny”. It’s a very dry, sneaky humor.
C: I keep writing “lol” in my margins. It’s a very formal writing style, but he sneaks his little bits in there.
M: Have you read anything recently with non-contemporary language like this?
C: I have mainly been reading contemporary novels written in the last 20 or 25 years. I’ll rarely go back and read something this old. I read The Shadow Over Innsmouth, which was… 1936. Moby Dick was published when - 1851? That’s close, right?
M: Close enough. I was going to say that I like to challenge myself periodically with older stuff, but as I skim my Goodreads, I think that may be a lie. In actuality, it’s all very contemporary. I’m not as sophisticated as I thought I was. It’s laziness - I don’t pick up older novels because they’re objectively harder to read. If I’m reading a book that isn’t written in the same vocabulary you’d use today, it is more work to get through. And right off the bat, the first 75 pages of Moby Dick are packed with nonstop references to people, places, and words that I have never heard of before. Did you feel the same way? How much did you look up?
C: It was funny because you texted me midweek and said “I'm Googling so much stuff!” I haven't Googled a single thing. I looked up some stuff before we chatted today, but while reading, I’m very insulated. I’ll put question marks in the margin to look some things up later, but in the moment I just get by on context clues. I caught a lot of Biblical and Roman references. What about you?
M: I mean you know I travel full-time. I cannot carry books around with me because I have about one cubic inch of spare space. I travel with an ereader, which ideologically I hate, but logistically is an astounding piece of technology. I can just hold my finger down on a word and it just looks it up so I don't have to exit the flow, you know? I just press and a little definition pops up, and then I keep rocking. However, I kept looking up words in Moby Dick and it said “No result found”. Melville has outwitted my technology. But - my edition has footnotes! Does yours?
C: Mine does not have footnotes.
M: To be fair, I only have a footnote available for about one out of every ten things I don’t understand, but there have been some fun insights. You’re right about the Biblical references - they are absolutely nonstop. I feel like I'm getting a religious reeducation. Maybe we should read the Bible together next.
C: Speaking of: one of our biggest sections in these pages is the church sermon on Jonah and The Whale. Any thoughts?
M: My main thought was that it was a really good sermon! It was my favorite part of the first chapters. I find many contemporary church services so banal: pastors will write sermons that just vaguely gesture around a few verses and vaguely relate them to some important virtue, but I would attend church way more regularly if I had a preacher who gave us such rich and meaty textual analysis. It was so vivid. He took us on a journey.
C: I highlighted the conclusion he came to, which talks about how true repentance is being faithful to the punishment and wanting that punishment.
I don’t totally know if I agree with that, but I’m looking at it through the lens of how this is going to apply to the story. This is presumably the last time he is in a church before they set sail, we’re laying the groundwork for a big voyage, so clearly the sermon must be an important indicator as to where this journey will take him. It might be interesting to revisit in a few weeks and see how we look at the sermon, knowing what we know now.
M: What are your thoughts on Ishmael?
C: I have two things to say about Ishmael. Number one: he’s a very melancholy boy. He does a lot of thinking about loneliness, talking about loneliness. He describes all of these whalers at church who have lost someone dear to them and are silently praying to themselves, and the priest is up alone on his inaccessible balcony, and when he’s at dinner with all of his whaling buddies, none of them are talking to each other. So there’s a theme of whaling as a solitary experience. And number two: I’m developing a theory that Ish is gay. He’s so nervous to spend the night with Queequeg, but they wake up cuddling, and then he calls himself married to Queequeg. Is there a gay romance brewing in this book? And is Queequeg a queer icon? I’m mostly kidding, but am I??
M: Here’s my counterpoint: do we need to conflate gayness with healthy male friendship? Why can’t two boys just snuggle? I also think that if a book written in 1851 was going to have gay undertones, there would be a lot more distress and longing and tortured gazing. Instead, we’ve got two pals clasping arms and pledging to be bosom friends for life. I’d be more inclined to flag a gay romance if they hated each other instead of if they were besties.
C: I agree with that, but here’s another counterpoint: my perspective is more fun. I do have a fun question for us to wrap up with. In the first chapter, Ismael talks about how he travels on the sea as a sailor, not as a passenger. He walks us through the different types of people on a boat: you can be the captain, you can be the sailor, the captain, the commodore, the cook. My question is: on this ship of life, what are you?
M: I’m speed-reading that section again. Okay. I am tagging myself as the cook. Here’s why: in navigating the waves of life on my little ship, I’m willing and happy to take on the metaphorical broiling of the fowls, which I would equate to the legwork required to create good and fun experiences. Things like planning logistics, sending the invites, making the shopping list, writing down the itinerary, and reading reviews. There’s not any glory in it, but a girl’s gotta eat, and it all has to get done for the benefit of the masses.
C: I’m kind of mad because I was going to say cook too because I’m currently on a cooking journey where I’ve been very inspired to cook different things recently.
M: Have you been reading/listening to/watching/cooking anything good recently?
C: I saw the second week of previews of Death Becomes Her in Chicago, which was delightful and gay and stupid and very well written. While I was in Chicago, I also went to Open Books in Logan Square and bought a few new reads: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and The Idiot by Elif Batuman.
M: All three of those are five-star reads for me, so I can’t wait to hear what you think. We both hung out in New Orleans last weekend with our beloved friend Carolyn and consumed massive amounts of seafood and alcohol. I’m watching season nine of Married at First Sight. I read A Court of Thorns and Roses in a moment of weakness just to see if it was secretly phenomenal, and it was not. Sorry to my 31 mutuals on Goodreads who loved it. I guess I’m more of a Moby Dick girl at heart.
C: Each week, I think we should check in with each other and predict if they are going to catch Moby Dick or not. At this point, 75 pages in, how do you feel? Are they going to catch a whale?
M: They are going to catch the whale because it’s part of God’s plan for them.
C: They’re not going to catch the whale, but they will make friends along the way.