'Call Me Ishmael' and the Loomings..

This post is a compilation of some of the most moving passages from the novel 'Moby Dick', a novel considered by many to be a masterpiece and the best American novel to this date.The themes tackled in this novel are far deeper than what appears in its fairly simple plot line.I am trying to create a mental framework that shall help me dive deeper into the book before actually embarking upon my reading voyage. Excellent 'sparknotes' on the internet have been a great help in this regard. I am dead sure the author will compel me to push the limits of each of my philosophical neurons to clinch the message he is trying to convey. All my collective observations and interpretations about the way i have seen this life are going to be put to test. Now this is not a book for entertainment. It's not even for the brain, as brain is limited by its understanding of only the tangible, literal things. This book is for the heart, if i can put it that way. It is for Someone who observes and interprets and not just sees and registers. Someone who frequently breaks away from the civilization to look within. It is for a soul that is conscious of the ultimate fatality at every second of its life and has questioned the innate banality of existence often. I have been forewarned that the book can be tiresome in its few chapters due to its detailing of the technicalities of the whole whaling business,but i am game for it.

For starters, this book is a narrative from a man who decides to go on a long sea voyage out of a deep spiritual quest and ends up with a group of disparate, notably uncivilized but enormously courageous men brought together by one common formidable task of hunting a huge white sperm whale. The ship's captain named Ahab is a mighty heroic figure. He is an angry, vengeful man who won't rest until he kills the whale-Moby Dick. But the plot and the characters in the book are mere metaphors for somethings deeper that can't be easily put down on a paper.

Let me also warn my readers that if they don't know much about the book, the passages can be difficult to comprehend. Basically due to the lack of proper context (I am to blame). But if you are really interested in understanding them, follow this link . I don't really expect comments on this post. This post is for myself. When emotionally overwhelmed, some people talk to themselves..while i write to myself :)

1) All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.

2) And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.

3) "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. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!" - Cap.Ahab

4) however baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may augment; yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make; nevertheless, by the continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.

5) these are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang.

6) Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Beautiful. Insanely good. Brilliant. Can't wait to begin.