Midnight’s Children Group Read: Book Two (Part A)

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Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

This is the second of four discussion posts for the Midnight’s Children Group Read hosted by Dolce Belleza, The Literary Stew, and Ripple Effects.

SPOILER ALERT!

I’m putting up a notice here that I might spoil certain things.  So, for those who are not willing to be spoiled, you can stop right here.

Links to previous posts on “Midnight’s Children“:
Midnight’s Children Book One

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Book Two picks up with the events that transpired when Saleem Sinai was taken home from the hospital and jumps to events that happened when he was nine to ten years old (“Alpha and Omega” chapter).

I really enjoyed the chapters that were part of this reading.  It was a mixture if fun and fact.  And we finally got to meet the other Midnight’s Children.  And we get a somewhat closer look at Shiva, the only other child born at the stroke of midnight.

Saleem has the ability to look into the past.  Specifically, he can recall the memories he had when he was still a baby.  ”It’s amazing how much you can remember when you try,” Saleem says.  He leads us through how he has made his fathers life much worse from the moment he was born: breaking his toe, falling into alcohol addiction due to feelings of neglect, and having his assets freezed by the government which eventually led to the conception of his sister, The Brass Monkey.

The Brass Monkey is a year younger (born in 1948) than Saleem and is called such because of her thick thatch of red-gold hair.  His sister is an interesting character because she is a very mischievous child who does not like being shown affection, spreads lies, and apparently burns shoes just because she can.  Saleem credits this to her being born without much fanfare that if she needed attention, she would have to make a lot of noise.

Saleem fast forwards the narrative to 1956 where he is nearly nine years old.  This is the point where he starts to become aware of his “abilities,” so to speak.  All this was brought about by the incident in the washing-chest.  Saleem liked hiding in the washing-chest because according to him, “I became afraid that everyone was wrong–that my much-trumpeted existence might turn out to be utterly useless, void, and without the shred of a purpose.  And it was to escape from this beast that I took to hiding myself, from an early age, in my mother’s large white washing-chest.“

Around this time, Amina (Saleem’s mother) has been receiving calls from ex-hubby Nadir Khan.  How he figured out she was now Amina Sinai instead of Mumtaz, I dunno. His abilities were triggered when his mother caught him in the washing-chest (his nose itched before being caught) and sentenced him to a day of silence.  He began hearing other people and when he told his parents about it, he received a smack in the head which apparently helped enhance his abilities as he found out that he can enter into other people’s thoughts.

As with anyone given special abilities, he uses this to his advantage.  He cheats in school to better his grades.  He also discovers that he can control what he hears and who he wants to hear, just like a radio.

Saleem then takes us to 1957, the year that he fell in love with Evelyn (“Evie”) Lilith Burns.  She is a girl that moved into the area where Saleem was staying.  Sadly, this love was not reciprocated.  Evie is another interesting character with a somewhat shady past as when Saleem enters her thoughts, he sees a scene that looks as if she killed some lady.  He also discovers after he probed deep into Evie’s thoughts that “when you go deep inside someone’s head, they can feel you there.“

On Saleem’s tenth birthday, he was ostracized by his friends at the behest of Evie.  Shunned by his friends, he makes a connection with the remaining 581 (the only one’s remaining of the 1001 born) other midnight’s children and calls it his Midnight Children’s Conference.  Through this connection, he got a hold of Shiva, his fellow midnight child who we learn is attracted to violence and has a huge pair of knees.  We also find out that these kids have varied abilities with one having the ability to walk through a mirror and another having the ability to change sex.

This reading of Book Two ends with “Alpha and Omega” Saleem’s parents discovering that he is not their son.  All this was brought about by an unfortunate accident at a school dance where he was trying to impress a girl.  He ended up losing part of his fingers and had to be given a transfusion as he lost a lot of blood.    His parents do not know his blood type and when he was tested and none of them matched his, his father began to have doubts about his wife’s faithfulness.

I’m interested in how all of this plays out. It is really getting very interesting.  Plus there is the mystery of his son (who is the mother? Is she the someone who must not be named?), what his sister did to hurt him, Parvati the witch, and the Widow. I’m excited to read about those people and how they integrate into Saleem’s story.

Midnight’s Children Group Read: Book One

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Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

This is the first of four discussion posts for the Midnight’s Children Group Read hosted by Dolce Belleza, The Literary Stew, and Ripple Effects.

SPOILER ALERT!

I’m putting up a notice here that I might spoil certain things.  So, for those who are not willing to be spoiled, you can stop right here.

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I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country.

There is a lot to digest with this book and seeing that this is just Book One, we have a very long way to go. We get loaded with real events in Indian and global history intertwined with the lives of the characters.

Midnight’s Children is narrated by Saleem Sinai, who was born at midnight of August 15, 1947, the day of India’s independence.  For a story in which he is the narrator, he takes all of Book One to tell us about his family’s history.  He begins recounting his grandfather Aadam Aziz’s early life and friendship with the boatman Tai, the moment that led his grandfather to meet his grandmother Naseem Ghani in 1915, their marriage, their children, and finally to the moment of his birth at Doctor Narlikar’s clinic.

Throughout Book One, there was a lot of emphasis on the nose.  It was the dominant feature of Aadam Aziz’s face and something which he passed on to his children.

I WISH TO PLACE ON RECORD OF MY GRATITUDE TO THIS MIGHTY ORGAN–IF NOT FOR IT, WHO WOULD EVER HAVE BELIEVED ME TO BE TRULY MY MOTHER’S SON, MY GRANDFATHER’S GRANDSON?–THIS COLOSSAL APPARATUS WHICH WAS TO BE MY BIRTHRIGHT, TOO.

And the boatman Tai believed that the nose could sense things that are not right and that it should be trusted.

Tai tapped his left nostril. “You know what this is, nakkoo? It’s the place where the outside world meets the world inside you. If they don’t get on, you feel it here.”

And Tai the boatman seemed to be right about his belief of the nose.  It once warned Aadam while he was at Ghani the landowner’s house to treat his future wife Naseem.  And it saved his life when he had to sneeze at the massacre at Amristsar.

There is a reason for this entire narrative of his family’s history.  Saleem Sinai is now approaching 31 years old and thinks (or knows ) that his time is about to come as he seems to be “starting to crack.”  He commits to write everything down before he disintegrates into dust.

Please believe that I am falling apart.

I am not speaking metaphorically; nor is this the opening gambit of some melodramatic, riddling, grubby appeal for pity. I mean quite simply that I have begun to crack all over like an old jug–that my poor body, singular, unlovely, buffeted by too much history, subjected to drainage above and drainage below, mutilated by doors, brained by spittoons, has started coming apart at the seams. In short, I am literally disintegrating, slowly for the moment, although there are signs of acceleraton. I ask you to accept (as I have accepted) that I shall eventually crumble into (approximately) six hundred and thirty million particles of anonymous, and necessarily oblivious, dust.

The birth of Saleem Sinai is a tricky one.  His parents are Mumtaz Aziz  (renamed Amina Sinai by her husband) and Ahmed Sinai.  He leads us to believe that he is their son through the mention of his prominent nose and the fact that he is armed with the knowledge of the Aziz family history.

However, at the end of Book One, we find out that he is in fact the son of another couple, Wee Willie Winkie and Vanita and was supposed to bear the name Shiva.  Both children were born at the same time and intentionally switched by a midwife named Mary Pereira who did it for the love she bore for a man who did not seem to love her back.  The child that Vanita bore had the fortune of having a prominent nose that he inherited from his biological father, Methwold, who used to own the estate that the Sinai’s are living in.

Eventually, the crime of Mary Pereira was found out but that it didn’t matter because “I was still their son: they remained my parents.“

And that about wraps up Book One of Midnight’s Children.  Looking forward to Book Two.

Favorite passages:

Most of what matters in our lives take place in our absence.

We all owe death a life.

… we should either–optimistically–get up and cheer, because if everything is planned in advance, then we all have a meaning, and are spared the terror of knowing ourselves to be random, without a why; or else, of course, we might–as pessimists–give up right here and now, understanding the futility of thought decision action, since nothing we think makes a difference anyway; things will be as they will. Where, then, is optimism? In fate or chaos?

What’s real and what’s true aren’t necessarily the same.

[March - June] Midnight’s Children Group Read

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Midnight's Children, Readalong, Salman Rushdie

I read about this group read a long time ago and never got around to declaring my intention to join.  Well, now is the time. I’ve had Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children on my shelf for a very long time and it would be nice if it finally left its spot.

Works by Salman Rushdie take time to digest and I think that a group read will also help as you can read what others are thinking about as well.  The group read will run from March to June and posts will go up on the following dates:

• Book One – March 31
• Book Two (Part A ending with ‘Alpha and Omega’) – April 30
• Book Two (Part B starting with ‘The Kolynos Kid’) – May 31
• Book Three – June 30

The Literary Stew, Dolce Belleza, and Ripple Effects are doing the group read.

Moby Dick Readalong Post #4

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Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Readalong

This is the second in a series of four for the Moby Dick Readalong hosted over at The Blue Bookcase.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #1.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #2.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #3.

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Well, what can I say? Its over with a very big smile on my face. I honestly just felt relieved to have finished it.  I can now see why a lot have said not so nice things about Moby Dick.  Well, for one, we only get to see the aforementioned whale in the books last three chapters.

Anyway, from Chapters 94 down to the Epilogue, Melville discusses an amalgam of things.  He discusses the squeezing of spermacetti down to the final process of processing whale oil.  He even discusses whale skeletons and their measurements.    Melville is one very odd man.

We also get to meet the Pequod’s carpenter who not only serves as a carpenter but an all around man.  He even does dentist’s work! This carpenter is the one who makes a new leg for Ahab.  Not once but twice: one made of whale bone and the other made of the remnants of Ahab’s boat that was destroyed in pursuit of Moby Dick.

Melville also goes on about the ships that they have encountered: Samuel Enderby, The Bachelor, The Rachel, and the “most miserably misnamed” Delight.  The Rachel is searching for her lost crew and will hold importance later on in the story.

Melville also does not stop with his play like chapters.  He must really love plays to integrate them into his own work.

We also learn earlier that Queequeg falls ill and thinking that he is about to die, has the carpenter make a coffin for him.  This coffin will play an important part in the end of the book.

The final three chapters detail the three days they spent chasing Moby Dick.  I found it odd that they referred to Moby Dick both as a he and a she.  ”There she spouts!” and then they describe Moby Dick as a he again.  I dunno what it was for though.  It seemed as if they were referring to the whale as he all along before those three chapters.  Or maybe there was something I missed?

The final three chapters also show Ahab’s persistence in killing this whale that despite two failed attempts and some misgivings by his crew, he still sets out to hunt this whale.  He does lose his leg again and the carpenter creates one hastily for him out of the wreckage of his boat.

Given that there were already signs that this story was going to be gloomy from the earliest chapters, Ahab’s quest does not end well.  Moby Dick sinks the Pequod on the third day of the chase and Ahab is dragged under the sea by Moby Dick.  What became his quest for vengeance turned out to be Moby Dick’s vengeance against him and his crew.  Ahab’s story is sad and it shows that not every desire for vengeance ends well.

The epilogue tells of Ishmael’s survival.  He was thrown off on the third day of the chase and was first saved by Queequeg’s coffin which served as his life buoy.  Ishmael is then saved by The Rachel, “that in her retracting search after her missing children, only found another orphan.“

Moby Dick Readalong Post #3

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Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Readalong

This is the second in a series of four for the Moby Dick Readalong hosted over at The Blue Bookcase.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #1.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #2.

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This post concerns Chapters 56 – 93 of Moby Dick. This section of reading gives us an insight into what goes down during whaling and the process that is to be performed after the whale is killed. Melville also gives us some insight into the equipment used in whaling as well as describing in detail the parts of the whale like its head and its tail.

In Chapter 55, we read about the erroneous depictions of whales. In Chapter 56, Melville tells us about the seemingly appropriate depictions of whales but wonders why the French seem to get it right when they are not a known whaling country. In Chapter 57, Melville’s obsession with whales continues as he tells of whale figures carved out of wood and even goes as far as giving samples of how whales can be seen on geological formations such like ridges but he adds “But you must be a thorough whaleman, to see these sights; and not only that, but if you wish to return to such a sight again, you must be sure and take the exact intersecting latitude and longitude of your first stand-point, else so chance-like are such observations of the hills, that your precise, previous stand-point would require a laborious re-discovery.” He also adds that you can observe whale figures in the “starry sky.”

Melville then discusses about brit, which is a yellowish substance that right whales feed on. I also loved how this discussion of brit suddenly turned into a discussion of atrocities at land and at sea. “But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it, but it is also a fiend to its own off-spring.” The video I saw of a pack of killer whales attacking and successfully killing a baby grey whale in the presence of its mother comes into my mind. It was really heartbreaking but its the way of the ocean. Anyway, moving on. Melville also compares this to us: “do you not find astrange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling oceansurrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of thehalf known life.“

The Pequod then hunt what they think is a whale but it turns out to be a giant squid.

Chapters 60, 62, and 63 details the equipment used in hunting whales: the line, the crotch, and the dart. In one of those chapters, we also learn the rather tiring job of a harpooner: “But however prolonged and exhausting the chase,the harpooner is expected to pull his oar meanwhile to the uttermost;indeed, he is expected to set an example of superhuman activity to therest, not only by incredible rowing, but by repeated loud and intrepidexclamations; and what it is to keep shouting at the top of one’scompass, while all the other muscles are strained and half started.“

I liked the bit of comedy inserted in between those three chapters above when Stubb kills a whale and eats its meat for dinner. The scene between him and the cook was particularly funny when he commanded the cook to lecture the sharks that are feeding on the carcass of the whale that he killed.

Melville then moves on to describe what I like to call “whale cuisine” and adds that only Stubb and the Eskimos (“Esquimaux”) are the only ones that remain who feed on whales.

The following chapters discuss the dirty business of getting the most out of a whale carcass. I really felt sorry for the whales back in the day because of what needs to be done to it.

The Pequod meet another whaling ship, the Jeroboam. Apparently there was an epidemic on board so its captain, Captain Mayhew, rows a boat to talk to Ahab. One of the men who was rowing the boat was a man who proclaimed himself to be the archangel Gabriel. Ahab asks about Moby Dick and Mayhew tells the story about one of their brew, Macey, drowned because they tried to hunt the whale. Out of the blue, Ahab remembers that they are bearing a letter for one of the crew of the Jeroboam and it just happens to be a letter for Macey.

In the chapter titled “Monkey Rope” the “love team” of Queequeg and Ishamel is brought back. Apparently they need to do this for “cutting in.” “It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded.“

Since the Pequod have a sperm whale, it is said that they should also hunt for a right whale so that the ship would not capsize. Stubb and Flask had the honor of killing a right whale and its head is lifted opposite that of the sperm whale’s. The two chapters that followed examined the differences between the heads of the sperm whale and the right whale.

The chapters that followed has Melville detailing the various aspects of the whale’s head. He then goes into a phrenological and physiognomic analysis of the whale. After which, Melville turns his attention to the whale’s skull.

They meet another whaling ship, the German whaling ship Jungfrau. Asked about the sighting of a White Whale, the captain says he did not see it. After, whales are sighted and they go hunting. The Pequod is able to capture one that is rather old.

Melville the digresses from the whaling profession to talk about the heroic history of whaling and also discusses the story of Jonah and the Whale.

Melville then jumps back to whaling and discusses the greasing of the underside of the boat. “To make them run easily and swiftly, the axles of carriages are anointed; and for much the same purpose, some whalers perform ananalogous operation upon their boat; they grease the bottom. Nor is itto be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm, it may possiblybe of no contemptible advantage; considering that oil and water arehostile; that oil is a sliding thing, and that the object in view is tomake the boat slide bravely.“

The following chapters then describe the spout and the tail of the whale.

When the Pequod is sailing through Sunda, the Pequod encounter a group of sperm whales and are pursued by Malay pirates.

The next chapters describe groups of whales. On group are composed primarily of females with a male headmaster while the other group are composed of all males.

Melville also goes into discussing fishing laws of England.

The Pequod meet another whaling ship, Rose-bud and the Pequod ask about Moby Dick but they have not heard of him.

Melville also discusses ambergris, which is from a whale’s bowels but is used for perfume.

Melville dives again into the perils of whaling when he details that Pip, the cabin boy, jumps out of the boat in fear of the whale they are chasing. When he jumps out the second time, he is left to fend for himself while the others go hunt but they rescue him again.

I personally did not enjoy this as much as the previous readings. I dunno why. I enjoyed the previous digressions. But I did have a lot to think about the past week, so maybe it affected my reading somewhat.

Moby Dick Readalong Post #2

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Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Readalong

This is the second in a series of four for the Moby Dick Readalong hosted over at The Blue Bookcase.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #1.

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This post covers Chapters 29 to 55 of Moby Dick.  And what can I say? I’m still loving it!

In these chapters, we get to read about whalers and whaling, cetology, and we also get to read the thoughts of Ahab’s chief officers Starbuck and Stubb.  Where was Flask’s? Just wondering.

In the chapters that were read, questions like “How is Ahab ever going to find Moby Dick considering the vastness of the ocean?” and “How does one identify Moby Dick among the rest of the sperm whales?” were answered.  We also learn about how Ahab lost his leg to Moby Dick.

Another thing to notice is that Melville sometimes creates chapters that seem to follow the format of a play. There is a certain stage direction (e.g. Enter Ahab; To Him, Stubb) and descriptions of what characters are doing.  Chapter 40 (Midnight, Forecastle) also really takes the form of the play with the way it was scripted.  I don’t know if Melville was a fan of the theater or wanted to write for the theater or was a fan of Shakespeare (the Introduction by Charles Child Walcutt in the Bantam Classic edition that I am reading states that he drew heavily from the Bard) because there are a lot of theatrical stuff in the chapters that were just read.

In Chapter 41, aptly titled Moby Dick, we finally get a description of the sperm whale being hunted by Ahab.  Moby Dick is being distinguished from the rest of his brethren by his “peculiar snow-white wrinked forehead, and a high pyramidical white hump” and that he has a “deformed lower jaw.”  In this chapter, we also learn how Ahab lost his leg to Moby Dick (he attacked, Moby Dick tore his leg off).  I also liked how Melville described Ahab’s madness:

Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab’s full lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted; like the unabated Hudson, when that noble Northman flows narrowly, but unfathomably through the Highland gorge. But, as in his narrow-flowing monomania, not one jot of Ahab’s broad madness had been left behind; so in that broad madness, not one jot of his great natural intellect had perished. That before living agent, now became the living instrument. If such a furious trope may stand, his special lunacy stormed his general sanity, and carried it, and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark; so that far from having lost his strength, Ahab, to that one end, did now possess a thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon any one reasonable object.

In Chapter 41, The Whiteness of the Whale, we learn that the whiteness of Moby Dick appalled him:

What the white whale was to Ahab, has been hinted; what at times, he was to me remains unsaid.

…

It was the whiteness of the whale above all things that appalled me.

Furthermore, Melville also stated in this chapter that white is the symbol of beauty, nobility, gladness, racial superiority, divine spotlessness, and power.  However, he also adds that white “coupled with any object terrible in itself hightens that terror to the furthest bounds.”  I actually liked reading the various examples he gave for the use of the color white.

In Chapter 44, The Chart, we learn how in the world Ahab plans to track down Moby Dick.  We learn that he has obsessively kept a log of sightings and captures of sperm whales as well as taking note of currents and eddies.  Melville seems to echo my sentiments when he says “it might seem an absurdly hopeless task thus to seek out one solitary creature in the unhooped oceans of this planet” but adds “But not so did it seem to Ahab, who knew the sets of all tides and currents; and thereby calculating the driftings of the sperm whale’s food; and, also, calling to mind the regular, ascertained seasons for hunting him in particular latitudes; could arrive at reasonable surmises, almost approaching to certainties, concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that ground in search of his prey.“

Chapter 45, The Affidavit, has got to be one of my favorite chapters because in here Melville details whaling and cites real whaling adventures.  Although speaking through Ishmael, he tells us “I have personally known three instances where a whale, after receiving a harpoon, has effected a complete escape; and, after an interval (in one instance of three years), has been again struck by the same hand, and slain.” He then cites an example and then lists some popular whales that have been identified by whalemen.

Melville also takes this time to address two things about whaling so that people would not think of Moby Dick as a “monstrous fable, still worse and more detastable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.”  One is that most most men have an idea of the dangers of whaling but they “have nothing like a fixed, vivid conception of those perils, and the frequency with which they recur” and adds that this is because not every disaster is recorded.  I loved how he phrased this one:

Do you suppose that that poor fellow there, who this moment perhaps caught by the whale-line off the coast of New Guinea, is being carried down to the bottom of the sea by the sounding leviathan–do you suppose that that poor fellow’s name will appear in the newspaper obituary you will read to-morrow at your breakfast? No: because the mails are very irregular between here and New Guinea. In fact, did you ever hear what might be called regular news direct or indirect from New Guinea?

I also loved how he addresses the people to be more caring about how they use lamps and candles: “For God’s sake, be economical with your lamps and candles! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of man’s blood was spilled for it.“

The second point he wanted to make was that “The Sperm Whale is in some cases sufficiently powerful, knowing, and judiciously malicious, as with direct aforethought to stave in, utterly destroy, and sink a large ship; and what is more, the Sperm Whale HAS done it.”  He then proceeds to give a few examples of sperm whales sinking ships, including the whaleship Essex, and several other adventures with whales.

In Chapter 48, The First Lowering, the crew of the Pequod get their first taste of adventure in going after a whale.  In this chapter we also find out that Ahab has been keeping other whalers who he described as individuals with “vivid, tiger-yellow complexion peculiar to some of the aboriginal natives of the Manillas.”  Oh hey, Filipinos present in classic literature.  I didn’t know what to make of it actually and have read different varying opinions on the matter.  Sad to say, this adventure was not successful.

The further chapters address things such as Ahab’s extra whaling crew, meeting other whaling boats during their voyage (The Albatross, The Town-Ho) and about the Town-Ho’s experience with Moby Dick.

Lastly in Chapter 55, Ishmael (or I would like to think Melville through Ishmael) considers a couple of graphical depictions of whales but he seems to insult them all and tells us: “So there is no earthly way of finding out precisely what the whale really looks like. And the only mode in which you can derive even a tolerable idea of his living contour, is by going a whaling yourself; but by so doing, you run no small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him. Wherefore, it seems to me you had best not be too fastidious in your curiosity touching this Leviathan.” Of course, its a lot different these days with the advancement of technology, “proper pictures” of whales have already been taken.

Just to share a picture (its not a sperm whale but its a really beautiful picture nonetheless):

Adult Southern Right Whale | by Brian Skerry

Moby Dick Readalong Post #1

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Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Readalong

This is the first in a series of four for the Moby Dick Readalong hosted over at The Blue Bookcase.

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Most of what I’ve read about Moby Dick seem to be negative as others say that Melville can go on and on about the sea and write about things that deviate from the plot.  These speak true from the day it was published up to this day.  However, there are some who appreciate Melville and his work.  This is from the introduction provided by Charles Child Walcutt in the Bantam Classics edition:

Its first readers were shocked and startled by the strange world it revealed to them.  It was greeted by most English and American reviewers with respect but also with impatience and bewilderment.  More than half the leading periodicals ignored it.  The reactions of the rest ranged  from glowing praise for its lively and vigorous style to severe censures  for its bombast and its unnovelistic form.  The consensus of reviewers described it as a wild mixture of philosophy, blasphemy, fancy, wit, exuberance, and adventure.

Walcutt continues

His book is difficult and complex because Melvill does not reduce the dilemmas of the world and life to childish simplicities.

Now, I for one, was concerned with starting this book because of what I have been reading and hearing about the book.  But that introduction by Walcutt seemed interesting enough to go on and give it a try.  And after reading the first twenty-eight chapters? I’m loving it … so far.  :)  I also loved reading the Etymology and Extracts.

I honestly don’t know how to view Moby Dick.  I’d like to think of it as a diary since the events that have happened are in a sequential manner.  But somehow it also seems like a recollection as the narrator says in the beginning “Some years ago–never mind how long precisely“.  Since Owen Chase’s chronicling of the events that happened when their ship was rammed by a large sperm whale was one of his inspirations for this tale, it might be the latter.  A sort of survivors tale. I dunno.  What do you guys think?

Anyway, since I mentioned earlier that one of the complaints was that Melville could go on and on about the sea, I found that I actually liked reading about Melville go on and on about the sea/ocean in the first Chapter (“Loomings”).  I have also underlined quite a few of those passages about the sea and learned quite a few things from them.

In this story, our narrator who asks as to call him Ishmael, itches for the sea as he is feeling rather depressed.  He adds that instead of taking his own life, he opts to sail the sea:

I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. 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. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

In the passage above, Ishmael mentions driving off the spleen.  And though a bit of Googling, I found that the spleen was thought to be the seat of melancholy and thus driving off the spleen would mean to do something that would make one person less sad or depressed.

I also love that the narrator is rather observant:

Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. … But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster-tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks.  How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?

I could somehow relate to that passage above since going to the beach is one of the ways we Filipinos love to unwind after a weeks labor.  :)

I also loved Ishmael’s reasons for going to sea as a sailor rather than a passenger:

For to go as a passenger you must needs have a purse, and a purse is but a rag unless you have something in it.

…

Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, passengers themselves must
pay. And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But BEING PAID,–what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!

I also liked this passage towards the end of the first chapter:

 I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on
barbarous coasts. Not ignoring what is good, I am quick to perceive a horror, and could still be social with it–would they let me–since it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in.

In this novel, we also get to meet Queequeg who becomes Ishmael’s “bosom friend” and companion on his whaling voyage.  Queequeg is a rather odd character as he observes Ramadan yet he worships an idol.  Ishmael keeps referring to him as a savage and a cannibal despite Queequeg’s displays of civilized behavior.  I also found this comment rather interesting: “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.“

Another topic that keeps popping up in the novel is religion, religious belief, and religious attitudes.  When Ishmael arrives in Nantucket, he walks into a church in Chapter 2 (“Carpet-Bag”) where the sermon was about the “blackness of darkness” and the Whaleman’s Chapel in Chapters 7-9 (“The Chapel”, “The Pulpit”, and “The Sermon”) where the preacher used Jonah’s story from the Bible as the topic for his sermon and told the attendees “to preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood.”  Also seemingly unavoidable in those chapters are the constant references to the sea or ships: the pulpit was in the “likeness of a ship’s bluff bows,” the preacher being a former sailor and harpooner, the painting that Ishmael describes as being of a whale attacking a ship, the preacher’s referring to the congregation as Shipmates and his treatment of the church as a ship when he mentions starboard and larboard.

Getting back to the topic of religion, I don’t know much about Melville’s beliefs but if I were to think that Ishmael’s were the authors own, I think this passage says a lot:

I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth — pagans and all included — can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible! But what is worship?— to do the will of God? that is worship. And what is the will of God?— to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me — that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator.

Another seemingly unavoidable topic is the somewhat homoerotic overtones mentioned in the book with regards to the relationship between Queequeg and Ishmael.  I don’t know if Melville intended for his readers to think of it that way but he definitely wasn’t to scared of putting it in the book either.  Of course, I don’t know the extent of male bonding in the 19th century but things like the passages below can’t help but rouse suspicions:

• “I found Queequeg’s arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner.  You had almost thought I had been his wife“
• “and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said henceforth we were married“
• “Thus, then, in our heart’s honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg–a cosy, loving pair“
• “… and blowing out the light, we rolled over from each other, this way and that, and very soon were sleeping“

I don’t know yet how this is played out in succeeding chapters but it would be interesting to find out.  And with that I will end this rather long post and looks forward to the next couple of chapters.

Of whales in literature, Moby Dick, and Herman Melville

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Herman Melville, Moby Dick, whale symbology, Whales in literature

As part of my participation in Moby Dick readalong hosted by The Blue Bookcase, I decided to read about whales, the background of Moby Dick, and Herman Melville to gain more insight into the story.

Since I’ve heard that the whale in Moby Dick might symbolize something, I did a search on Google for whales in literature and whale symbology.  It turned up a few interesting results.  I liked this post by Adair Jones that lists whales featured in literature.

In that post, there are different takes on the symbolism of the whale in Christianity.  Some consider the belly of the whale to represent Hell while its jaws represent the gates of Hell.  But in the Bible, the “great fish” that swallows up Jonah (interpreted as a whale) and spits him out after he has repented is considered as God’s ally and comes to represent rebirth or resurrection.

Whales are also associated with divinity in Vietnamese culture.  The Vietnamese refer to the whale as “Lord” and whenever a dead whale washes up on the shore, they hold a funeral, bring the carcass to a nearby whale temple to be buried in the cemetery, and exhume the bones after three to five years to be paraded on the streets.  You can read more about it here and here.

I also read about the background of Moby Dick and how the novel came into being. According to the Wikipedia entry on Moby Dick, it says that two events served as the basis of Herman Melville to write this story.  One was the attack of a large sperm whale on the Nantucket ship Essex 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America, which caused it to sink.  One of the survivors, Owen Chase, wrote about the event in  Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex in 1821.  The other was the alleged killing of an albino sperm whale called Mocha Dick in the late 1830s as the whale was reportedly attacking ships premeditatedly.

I have always seen whales as rather harmless despite their enormous size and it is interesting to know that they do attack.  But here is an interesting article from New Scientist about why whale smash into boats.

As for my background on Herman Melville, I read the introduction provided by The Blue Bookcase and read the Wikipedia entry.  One fact mentioned was that when Melville was a bit younger, they were rather well-off and were in financial trouble when Melville was around 12.  Melville did go on a whaling voyage aboard a ship called the Acushnet and jumped ship and actually lived among cannibals in the Marquesas Islands.

Basically, those were the reading material that I have been sifting through in preparation for this read-a-long.  I will be posting my thoughts on the Chapters 1 – 28 in a bit.

Moby Dick Readalong

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Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Readalong

I saw this one while browsing Jillian’s blog at A Room of One’s Own and despite the number of books I have to read by January, I still want to read this one as it has been collecting dust on my shelf for a very long time.  :)

The read-a-long will be hosted over at The Blue Bookcase and will run throughout the entire month of January.  The reading will start on January 5.  Below is the schedule of the discussions:

• January   12 : Chapters 01 – 28
• January   19 : Chapters 29 – 55
• January   26 : Chapters 56 – 93
• February 02 : Chapter 94 – Epilogue

I read somewhere before that Herman Melville can go on and on about the sea  and I’m very willing to read about that!

War and Peace Read-a-long [2011-2012]

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Leo Tolstoy, Readalong, Russian Literature, War and Peace

I’m so happy when I saw a post on A Room of One’s Own that the read-a-long for War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy was gonna be extended until June 2012.  I started reading the book this year but only managed to finish Part I (Chapters 1 – 25; Rupa Classics; translated by Constance Garnett) and started a  bit of Part II.  Distractions got in the way and I abandoned reading the book.

Anyways, hopefully with this read-a-long I could finish this book by June 2012.  I think I’m gonna start this December and see if I could catch up.  I’m really looking forward to this challenge.