so does the name “Moby Dick” conjure up thoughts of a sailor’s life on an 1800′s whaling ship, sailing with Captain Ahab, on his quest for the giant white sperm whale in Herman Melville’s classic text by that name?
or do you instead think of the amazing drum solo by the late John Henry Bonham, drummer extraordinaire for the band Led Zeppelin?
thoughts? does it have to be either/or?
what if we combine the two – and rock out with some Led Zeppelin, WHILE sailing on your boat, preferably without a crazy white whale nearby to capsize you.
The most profound work of literature America has produced.
Of course an Englishman has been the most insightful: D. H. Lawrence wrote the best essay on Melville’s White Whale.
Here’s a link to an audio recording of the Lawrence essay and a brief piece of my own about the novel’s impact.
http://storm-nemesis.blogspot.com/2013/02/it-moves-awe-in-soul.html
http://storm-nemesis.blogspot.com/2013/02/every-word-whale.html
Pierre, thanks for stopping by and commenting. truth be told, I’m not sure I’ve read Moby Dick since middle school (and even then it was probably a shortened version). I should probably read it again.
[maybe with a little Zeppelin playing softly in the background.]
My pleasure. If you don’t want to read it I’d recommend listening to the audiobook from Recorded Books, read by Frank Muller.
thanks again!
A whale of a drum solo. I’d recommend listening to the soundtrack of the song remains the same.
Starbuck: “To be enraged with a dumb brute that
acted out of blind instinct is blasphemous.”
Ahab: “Speak not to me of blasphemy, man;
I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. Look ye, Starbuck,
all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks.
Some inscrutable yet reasonable thing puts forth
the molding of their features. The white whale
tasks me; he heaps me. Yet he is but a mask.
‘Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate;
the malignant thing that has plagued mankind
since time began; the thing that maws and
mutilates our race, not killing us outright but
letting us live on, with half a heart and half a lung.”
Baydog, strangely – the Song Remains the Same is one of the few Zeppelin albums that I don’t own! will have to remedy that, I see.
and great quote from the book!
Baydog, I’m watching the Song Remains the Same movie tonight.