Moby Dick 2
October 14th 2010 09:20
Another quote (or set of quotes) from Moby Dick.
Moby Dick, chap XLV - by Herman Melville
Of all the tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are most apt to get out of order….[Ahab's] ascendancy did not cover the complete spiritual man any more than mere corporeal superiority involves intellectual mastership; for to the purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand in a sort of corporeal relation.
….the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure background (for few men's courage is proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action).
For even the high lifted and Chivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse 2000 miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre, without committing burglaries, picking pockets and gaining other pious perquisites by the way. Had they been strictly held to the one final and romantic object - that one final and romantic object too many would have turned from in disgust.
These three quotes all come from the same chapter....I must have had a pen handy the day I was reading it! Truth to tell, I've never actually finished Moby Dick. In spite of its being a classic, and highly recommended by literary types, I struggled with it, mostly because of its digressiveness. Unlike that massive story, Les Miserables, which has a number of complete chapters that are digressions from the story, Melville's digressions tend to be not so interesting. You just wish he'd get on with it. Victor Hugo, on the other hand, writes with such enthusiasm about his digressions, that I think there was only one in the book that I actually skimmed...
The photo is from the movie version of the story - a movie that wasn't a great success as I recall. Gregory Peck was miscast: he had the nobility of Ahab, because he could always do 'nobility', but he didn't manage the manic edge, the drive, the insanity. I remember the movie visually - at least in part. It must have been well photographed.
Moby Dick, chap XLV - by Herman Melville
Of all the tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are most apt to get out of order….[Ahab's] ascendancy did not cover the complete spiritual man any more than mere corporeal superiority involves intellectual mastership; for to the purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand in a sort of corporeal relation.
….the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure background (for few men's courage is proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action).
For even the high lifted and Chivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse 2000 miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre, without committing burglaries, picking pockets and gaining other pious perquisites by the way. Had they been strictly held to the one final and romantic object - that one final and romantic object too many would have turned from in disgust.
The photo is from the movie version of the story - a movie that wasn't a great success as I recall. Gregory Peck was miscast: he had the nobility of Ahab, because he could always do 'nobility', but he didn't manage the manic edge, the drive, the insanity. I remember the movie visually - at least in part. It must have been well photographed.
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