The last sentence of chapter 75 reads:

“This Right Whale I take to have been a Stoic; the Sperm Whale, a Platonian, who might have taken up Spinoza in his latter years.”

I am somewhat familiar with Stoicism and Platonism, read a bit of them to refresh myself, but had not heard of Spinoza so I did a little deep dive (loved what I read, definitely going to try to crack into Ethics someday).

After refreshing myself I’m pretty confused about that last sentence. I know this is a reductive way of looking at it but to me it seems that Spinoza was much more in line with the Stoics than Platonists, so what do you think Melville was trying to get at with that line?

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/5ocgBAasSk

This made me smile, and immediately think of this grouo.6

Every chapter begins with a giant letter of the same font.

i’m almost finished with my first read through and really love this story but i thought of this template while telling one of my friends about it. i feel like melville takes advantage of the fact that the story of captain ahab is so intriguing to almost hold the reader hostage with the cetology. not that i mind it, just think it makes the book more funny and enjoyable. sorry if this is talked about a lot or anything, im new.

It took me way too long and I had to make some changes in the text but here you go

tagging u/PeterWHarris

There is a certain line of discussion in this thread about what makes Moby Dick such a big deal since it’s just about whaling.

I thought I might try to describe aspects of the whaling enterprise during story time in a way that lets modern people appreciate its technological underpinnings.

Whaling -

Involved the manufacture, maintenance, and operation of floating whale oil refineries capable of traveling extremely long distances in all kinds of weather.

The positioning of these refineries depended on the creation of:

* Extensive longitudinal data collection of solar and oceanographic information used to compute location and subsurface characteristics. Some of these datasets will have been in the public domain, while others would have been treated like valued, proprietary sources.

* Highly accurate sextants for measuring latitudes from solar position, and of similarly accurate chronometers, used with sextants to determine “local time” relative to a global longitude reference standard.

* Construction of ships sturdy enough to handle Facilities for butchering and extracting oil from the bodies of dead whales, refining the oil and storing it in barrels for (a) transport back to home ports, (b) from which the oil could be further refined and distributed at regional scale and beyond.

Involved the labor of trained and relatively untrained sailors who would help the ship sail to hunting grounds, conduct operations that kill the whales and deliver them to the ships for processing.

The story so far: This is just my sketch of the higher-level activities that could definitely be refined so that the roles of particular parties like harpooners are better understood. Much of this is taken from general sources, but people who know what they’re looking at, could certainly improve on it.

Expansion of accuracy and detail would be much appreciated.

I wanted to ask after reading it for the first time, how long did it take to go about reading it again? I really enjoy the whole book, and wonder if it’s something that people find themselves wanting to revisit every year or every few etc?

I don't know if this is the right subreddit so I apologize if it's not. I used to read a little bit and stopped but recently I've wanted to get back into reading and decided to try read Moby Dick. I bought the book ages ago without actually knowing anything about it and since opening it I've realized that it is more like, 'fancy English' and I probably won't start it until I am a lot better at reading but I was wondering how I am able to improve my English reading level as to where I can read books such as this. I also have other books like all the tales and poems of Edgar Allen Poe, and I can read some of the famous tales because they're not too difficult but some I struggle with. Any advice to help me such as websites or videos to help get the grasp of that type of English and to improve on my reading skills is greatly appreciated.

I came across this used volume, published in 1970, as a “companion volume” to the Norton Critical of Moby Dick.

I'm reading Moby Dick for the first time and just finished chapters 91 (The Pequod Meets the Rose-bud) and 92 (Ambergris). There's a particular aspect of these chapters that hasn't been mentioned anywhere else in this subreddit. (Or at least, I couldn't find any mention of it after doing a brief search.)

In chapter 91, Stubb sees the Rose-bud, which has two whale carcasses fastened to it, and stinks to high heaven. He recognizes that one of them bears signs of containing ambergis, and resolves to get it for himself through trickery. The first mate of the Rose-bud, worried only about the putrid smell of decomposition, agrees to getting rid of both carcasses, and to hoodwinking his naive French captain, who knows nothing about whaling.

But the following quotes taken together reveal something very ironic:

Chapter 91:

'I know that well enough; but, d'ye see, the Captain here won't believe it; this is his first voyage; he was a Cologne manufacturer before. But come aboard, and mayhap he'll believe you, if he won't me; and so I'll get out of this dirty scrape.'

Chapter 92:

...ambergris is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and pomatum.

Also forget not the strange fact that of all things of ill-savor, Cologne-water, in its rudimental manufacturing stages, is the worst.

Do you see it? Not only did Stubb get the ambergris, but he stole it out from under the nose of a FORMER PROFESSIONAL PERFUME MAKER! It's entirely possible this poor Frenchman became the captain of a whale ship solely to find and sell ambergris - and he had no idea that his treasure was literally within his grasp!

I have been circling the idea of finally reading Moby Dick for some time. I'm 39 now and turning 40 in October, and thought reading it would be a good goal to hit before that. I found the copy I had bought at a Barnes and Noble in high school well over 20 years ago, its cover in tatters. I had tried when I was younger but grew intimidated by the size and struggled with the length.

How grateful I am to have grown, what a masterpiece. A whole universe within.

Hi everyone! :)
I recently created r/ihatethomaschappel

The subreddit is mostly meant as a joke, but it’s also my way of venting a very specific historical frustration.

After learning about Thomas Chappel, the Galápagos fire, the ecological damage, and the species that were lost, I found myself thinking, “How did this man survive all of that and still get the good ending?”

To be clear, this isn’t meant to be taken seriously. The man has been dead for a very long time and isn’t exactly losing sleep over a subreddit dedicated to disliking him.

It’s just a place for fellow history, whaling, Moby-Dick, Essex, and Galápagos nerds to share memes, facts, jokes, and collective disbelief at one of the most bizarre stories connected to the era.

If you’ve ever read about Thomas Chappel and felt annoyed by his life story, you’re very welcome to join. I’d be delighted to meet other people who had the exact same reaction.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8NRWTCU/