Week 5 storytelling: Moby Dick - what it's all about

Call me Patrick. Some years ago, while I was was mingling at the Spouter Inn, I heard stories of great whaling adventures. I heard stories of great men who caught great whales and of great men who had lost great sons in such journeys. But particularly in this case, I heard one that struck me to the core and now I live to tell this story.

The date and time was April 20th, 1851, at 16:20. I arrived at the Spouter Inn thirsty for adventure. After retiring from my acting career, I decided to go into the whaling industry. Nothing at the time spoke of anything more American and masculine than some good ol' whale catching. Up to this point I read amazing books by one Herman Melville, such as Typee and my mind was filled with this romance of seatological stories of honor in whale catching. I wonder what ever happened to that guy. He seemed to have just fallen off of the face of the earth after the release of his last novel.

Anyways, upon entering the inn I saw a terrific painting of a devil sperm whale being stabbed through the masses of a giant ship. A foreboding image indeed is what that image was. Fast forwarding a few days, I was boarding my first adventure aboard the Pequod, a whaling ship which belonged to a certain Captain Ahab. Up until this point i have only heard rumors of the great accounts of Ahab and his undying attitude to hunt. There was no greater honor than whaling on the brinks of certain death and doom.

The story I share is one that brings lightning down my spine. After setting sale in the Pequod, Captain Ahab finally made his debut. Opening the door of his cabin, Ahab steps out looking like a devil or a fallen angel:

"Here is what its all about!" said Ahab as he revealed his fake leg.

Under Ahab there stood two legs - 1 fake and 1 real.

"A certain DICK of a WHALE bit off my leg! And I am here to get it back! In this journey it does not matter where or when we find Moby Dick, but we are all in this together! I don't care if it takes me one year or fourteen years but I will get him!"

The crew cheered but some started bawling.

"WHY ARE WE ON BOARD FOR THIS MAN'S VENGEANCE!" said one crew member

"I never expected our captain to be such a nut! God help us!" said Starbuck, another crew member

Being a person of sense, Starbuck went to persuade the senile Ahab,

"What good is it to pursue such whale? Would it not be better for you to go home man and take care of your family! Can no reason persuade you anymore?"

Ahab looked at the member with glaring eyes.

"Oh please come home Ahab! We all will surely die for your personal vendetta against a dumb brute!"

"Dumb brute?! That brute is the epitome of what I HATE! I will hunt, kill, and scout all the whales in the world for the rest of my life if it means I can kill that whale! Leave this ship! Your senses need you more than does my senselessness!" harked Ahab

With that Starbuck grabbed his things and proceeded to get off the ship, when all of a sudden the white fiend, Moby Dick, burst out from beneath and knocked Ahab off of the boat with such force that his fake peg leg fell off fell right next to me. With Ahab nowhere to be found, I decided to take command of the Pequod.

"WITH THESE FAKE LEGS I WILL LEAD YOU SHIP MATIES!"

"AYE AYE PATRICK AYE AYE PATRICK!"

Vowing to never return home without until Ahab is found or Moby Dick is killed, Patrick assumed the senile persona of Ahab and continued his vendetta.


image of spouter inn painting by Aaron Zlatkin
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Author's Notes:

In my class Fate and the Individual, we are read Moby Dick this week.

The scene is inspired from Bharata's conversation with Rama about who is more fit to rule the Kingdom. After Rama made it clear that he will not come back to rule until he is done with his 14 year hiatus, Bharata said he will only rule for 14 years and while ruling, he will use Rama's sandals as a symbol for when Rama will be back to rule.

In order to emulate the scene, I took an iconic exchange in Melville's Moby Dick between one of the Nantucketeers, Starbuck, and the Pequod's captain, Ahab. The conversation between the two characters maintained the same exchange of sentiments of Starbuck trying to persuade Ahab to drop his vengeance for the whale just as Bharata wanted Rama to drop his self-imposed exile. Both Ahab and Rama depicted similar level of this 'search for meaning' and I wanted to portray that in my story.

What I changed however, is of course, I replaced the narrator of Moby Dick, Ishmael, with...Patrick. And I changed the scene up entirely, allowing Moby Dick to show up and knock Ahab off of the ship so that Patrick could use Ahab's peg leg to lead the crew just as Bharata used Rama's sandals to rule the kingdom.

Bibliography:

The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan
Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Week 5 Planning: The Battle Between Moby Dick and Ahab

For my next story, I will incorporate Melville’s Moby Dick into The Ramayana or The Mahabharata. This week in my Fate and the Individual course, we are reading Moby Dick and will be done with the book by Thursday. By that time I expect to have enough background information from my lectures and from reading the story itself to form some type of love-obsession battle story behind Ahab and the Whale… I plan to discuss with Dr. McClay about what was happening in America at the time of Melville’s writing and describe all these events in a story where we have Ahab’s obsession with taking down the whale – just as Rama’s obsession with finding Sita, and somehow juxtaposing that to America.

Another thing that I realized would be great to incorporate into my final project is to have Auden guide Patrick through Hell, just as Virgil Guided Dante through Hell. The difference between my blog and the Inferno will be as Patrick is going through hell, he encounters all of the literary characters – both villains and heroes – and he will listen to how they all got sent to hell. The storybook/portfolio will follow Patrick in 4 days going from the top of the earth into the very core of hell where in those 4 days he will encounter characters that represent the 3 main sins – incontinence, violence, and fraud. I have not yet decided who ALL will be in hell.. but I definitely want to include Goethe’s Faust, Melville’s Ahab, and… maybe William Blake?..... I’m not sure yet. Then, at the very center of hell, I will include Albert where he is eating all of the bad guys in Hell. SO Albert will be like a superhero-good guy in hell where all the literary western bad guys will be dying. Anyways, All battle scenes and drama scenes will be taken from The Mahabharata and The Ramayana.


The 9 circles of Hell from Dante's Inferno image from abc.net.au

Bibliography:

­­Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Ramayana by Dharma

Reading Notes B: Rama's sorrow - pat's view

Once again, Dharma's version of The Ramayana is way better than R.K. Narayan's version. Pertaining to the depth of the character, whereas in Narayan's version, the author really just explained what happened quite dryly and then moves on, Dharma actually focuses on the anguish and hurt that the character's face.
Specifically, I really like the part where Rama realized that Sita is missing. Having realized his mistake, the author describes Rama running and crying all over. The author even went as far as to assess that if Sita were to be dead, Rama would surely want to kill himself. Such scenes of grief portray Rama less as a deity and more of a human being. The mood of human weight really fits well and connects with me.

Then again, I wouldn't know too much. I am made of wood afterall~

- pat


taken from sagarworld

bibliography:

The Ramayana by Krishna Dharma

Reading Notes A: Krishna Darma's Version of Bharata as King

What most surprised me from Krishna Dharma'a version of The Ramayana is the detail that he goes into as to how each character felt. The focus on Bharata's anger and Dasaratha's sorrow is awesome and really added a new layer of depth to the story. My favorite part, was when the messenger came back he saw Dasaratha fainted on the floor, only to wake up and die again. In R.K. Narayan's version of the story, Dasaratha was only viewed to be in total silence and sorrow, but Dharma portraying how Dasaratha was passed out on the floor portrays a deeper sense of sorrow. I very much appreciate Dharma's more detailed depictions of the characters emotions and that really adds to me understanding of the Rama as a character.
Lastly, I like the depiction of Bharata's insisting that Rama should rule and the tone that Rama replies to him. At one point, the author used the word 'love' to describe how Rama looked at Bharata. Little details and nuances as to how the characters interact with each other make the story a lot more compelling and drawing to the audience it seems.


a photo of Bharata and Rama's sandals king bharata

Bibliography:

The Ramayana by Krishna Dharma - the ramayana