/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15128301]

What does Moby symbolize?

[Anonymous No.15128327]

>>15128301
nothing its a whale ffs

[Anonymous No.15128340]

What do you think? Hint: it's in the title of the book

[Anonymous No.15128359]

>>15128301
Me fucking your wife

[Anonymous No.15128368]

>>15128301
cultural marxism

[Anonymous No.15128389]

>>15128340
My huge (moby) dick

[Anonymous No.15129470]

There's no one, right answer. The whale is supposed to be strange and enigmatic. It represents whatever you interpret it to represent.

I've heard people say that, to them, the white whale represents God, or Nature; forces that men often (unwisely) struggle with and ultimately cannot overcome.

For Captain Ahab, the whale represented a past event that he bitterly regretted- but no matter how much he tried to conquer it, in the end, obsessing over it was his undoing. He should have just moved on, and accepted what happened to his leg; you can't change the past any more than the crew of the Pequod could defeat Moby Dick. Revenge is ultimately pointless and only prolongs conflict which it would be wiser to lay to rest.

[Anonymous No.15129483]

>I do not know where I can find a better place than just here, to make mention of one or two other things, which to me seem important, as in printed form establishing in all respects the reasonableness of the whole story of the White Whale, more especially the catastrophe. For this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error. So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.
Chapter 45 THE AFFIDAVIT

[Anonymous No.15129512]

The whale is the Absolute, Ahab is the man-as-magus who embarks on his odyssey of the soul to gain knowledge.

[Anonymous No.15129534]

>>15128301

See you in 8 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=eq5LDSZDr2E

[Anonymous No.15129597]

the WHALE is THE DRAGON
the DRAGON is GOD

[Anonymous No.15129607]

>>15129534
I have listened to this many times

[Anonymous No.15130030]

>>15129512
Who is ishmael?

[Anonymous No.15130233]

>>15128340
the BWC?

[Anonymous No.15130247]

>>15129534
always bugs me how he takes it as a given that moby dick is an "unthinking sea beast" just cus atarbuck says it.there are so many points at which ishmael talks about the inner thoughts of whales.

[Anonymous No.15130291]

It's a tragic struggle of man against nature. Queequeg, after recovering from illness, expresses the belief that a man can decide when he dies, and that only some violent force of nature such as a typhoon can say otherwise. The whale is the physical embodiment of the force of nature rebuking Ahab, the embodiment of a fallen man in a fallen world.

[Anonymous No.15130294]

>>15128301
DICK

[Anonymous No.15130324]

>>15130030
Not him, but a vehicle for plot. His existence and survival is necessary so that we may come to know the story of the true protagonist, Ahab.

[Anonymous No.15130331]

>>15128301

>Of course he is a symbol.
>Of what?
>I doubt if even Melville knew exactly. That's the best of it.

— 'Moby Dick', D.H.Lawrence

It's a good essay. I recommend it.

[Anonymous No.15130377]

>>15128301
your mom

[Anonymous No.15130398]

>>15130030
Ishmael is Melville the polytheist who acknowledges the multiplicity

[Anonymous No.15130468]

>>15130331
lmao that absolute retard.

[Anonymous No.15130491]

>>15130331
Lawrence, D. H.-- Execrabel

[Anonymous No.15130498]

Call me Ahab, what, monomaniac
Obsessed with success unlike Steve Wozniak
On the hunt for this mammal that once took my leg
With my warn down crew and my man Queequeg
“You're never going to find him!” He's a big sperm whale
“The ocean is enormous!” Shut up, we're setting sail
This scar that you see that runs down my face
Has scarred my soul and inspired this chase
Mental sickness has got me on the run
Full speed ahead! This is American fun
There is wisdom that is woe, so welcome to my life
It was fine until Moby scarred me like a knife
Towards thee I sail, thou unconquering whale
To stab my spear into your white tail
The first one to stop him gets this gold doubloon
Now excuse me while I go be melancholy in my room!
Bad trip thanks to Moby Dick!
(And a stone cold feeling inside)
Peg leg, sperm whale, jaw bone, what!
(And I just can't stop messing my mind up)
Whale crash so fast
(Or wasting my time)
Oh no, oh no!
The ship's got a hole, plug it up, plug it up!
“We're never going to find this white whale,
Are we captain?”
Hey Ishmael… can I call you annoying?
Grown up Beluga in the deep blue sea
Swims so fast and swims so free
With the heaven above, Moby Dick stressing me
And this crazy drenched crew below
Call it idiot pride, or call me Oedipus
My main tragic flaw… “But what about us?”
It's your battle too, crew, man vs. beast
At least have respect as we sail south and east
And north and west, look I'm doing my best
While the rain keeps pouring
we're exhausted and stressed
Pip went insane when he almost drowned,
So profound when he shrieks like a little sailor clown
Random ships we met warned us of our doom
They said our boat would be our tomb
Near the Mariana Trench, deep and oceanic
We spotted Moby Dick so white and titanic
I said, “You took my leg, and for that you must die!”
I threw my spear and hit Moby in the eye
He charged the boat, it began to sink
I said, “How about that? Hubris really stinks!”
I didn't think that it would end like this
Pride met fate, this captain got dissed
Let it be a lesson, revenge is never sweet
So I stomp my peg to this Supergrass beat!
That's it, thanks to Moby Dick!
(And a stone cold feeling inside)
Peg leg, sperm whale, jaw bone, what!
(And I just can't stop messing my mind up)
Whale crash so fast
(Or wasting my time)
Oh no, oh no!
The ship's got a hole, plug it up, plug it up!

[Anonymous No.15130499]

>>15130398
ok drefus
aren't you supposed to be dead

[Anonymous No.15130628]

>>15130491
Melville, Herman-- adore him, though quite a strange fellow, would have loved to see him

[Anonymous No.15130821]

>>15130491
Tyпoй мyдaк. Чeм oн aмepикocaм тaк нpaвитcя?

[Anonymous No.15130829]

>>15130499
I've returned from the grave to remind you of the importance of the whiteness of the whale
If the focus is centred on a specific character it should be Moby Dick himself but as a whole it should focus on the whale in general

[Anonymous No.15130869]

The entire book is just an excuse to write that one chapter making fun of the French

[Murphy's law No.15130875]

>>15128301
Mystery.

[Anonymous No.15130918]

>>15130869
It was actually just an excuse to pioneer the "nigger smiling in the dark" (you can only see his teeth) joke.

[Anonymous No.15130955]

>>15130918
man i loved that chapter

[Anonymous No.15130964]

“Oh, bury me not in the deep, deep sea,”
These words came low and mournfully
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay
On his cabin couch at the close of day.
He had wasted and pined till o'er his brow
Death's shades had slowly passed, and now,
When the land of his own loved home drew nigh,
They had gathered round to see him die.
“It matters not, I've oft been told,
Where the body lies when the heart is cold,
Yet grant, oh grant this boon to me,
Oh, bury me not in the deep, deep sea!

“Let my death slumbers be where a mother's prayer
And a sister's tear will be mingled there.
'Twill be sweet ere the heart's gentle throb is o'er
To know that its fountain will gush no more.
I had even hoped to be laid when I died
In the little churchyard on the green hillside.
By the home of my father my grave should be—
Oh, bury me not in the deep, deep sea!

And there is another whose tears shall be shed
O'er him who lies low in his ocean bed.
In hours when it grieves me to think of now,
She could wreathe these locks, she could press this brow.
In the hair she twined shall the sea serpents hiss
And the brow she hath pressed shall the cold waves kiss.
For the sake of that loved one that's waiting for me,
Oh, bury me not in the deep, deep sea!

“She hath been in my dreams . . .” His voice failed there.
They paid no heed to his dying prayer.
They lowered him low o'er the vessel's side,
Above him rolled the cold, dark tide.
For to dip their light wings the sea birds rest,
And the blue waves dance o'er the ocean's crest.
Where the billows bound and the waves sport free,
We buried him there in the cold, deep sea.

>>15129512
you could have said that more plainly by sticking to the traditional:
>The whale is God.

[Anonymous No.15131029]

>>15130964
>The whale is God.
its more than that, jew boy.

[Anonymous No.15131041]

BWC

[Anonymous No.15131471]

>>15131029
>if someone says God they can only mean the Abrahamic God
>I have never heard of God being used by those who are not in that tradition