Cetology
As you're enjoying the Cetology chapters (because, you know, who wouldn't?), I thought you might want to check out the American Cetacean Society's sheet on Sperm Whales.
You can even listen to a recording of a sperm whale's clicks (this totally gave me goosebumps).
Any theories on the purpose(s) of these cetology chapters?
Technorati Tag: Moby-Dick06
You can even listen to a recording of a sperm whale's clicks (this totally gave me goosebumps).
Any theories on the purpose(s) of these cetology chapters?
Technorati Tag: Moby-Dick06
posted by Erica at 11:26 AM
2 Comments:
Oof. I just read the Cetology chapters this weekend. While I do like the allusion to books (folio, octavo, etc.), this probably ranks as one of my least favorite chapters in the book. (The other one being the one about the story of the rebellious crew, told in town, to the Spaniards). Town-ho's story?
I happen to like Cetology and I'll tell you why: it's the whole damn book in miniature.
Cetology is an attempt to define the ever-elusive white whale and give a concrete explanation of who (what?) it is that Ahab so furiously hunts.
It's about the mastering of something unknowable through naming-- the specific parts, and through the detailed description of their function, size, and depth. It's through this methodical listing of whales that Ishmael attempts to draw Leviathan out with a hook.
What's great about Cetology is that each of his attempts to answer a question about the nature and true identity of whales leads only to more questions infinitely deeper and more profound then the last. The more knowledge Ishmael has to offer the less we know -- “is a ponderous task...to grope down to the bottom of the sea after them; to have one’s hands among the unspeakable foundations, ribs, and very pelvis of the world; this is a fearful thing.”
The chapter speaks of all the fears and uncertainty the narrator has with his story, all the uncertainty we the reader has, and maybe even Melville himself had with his big ass tome.
It doesn't get any better than the last lines:
But I leave my cetological System standing thus unfinished, even as the great Cathedral of Cologne was left, with the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower. For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave their copestone to posterity. God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught--nay, but a draught of a draught.”
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