[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Additionally, the Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dickglosses the chapter s title in a footnote, explaining: A nautical sense island or ships beyond the horizon, dimly seen by reflection in peculiarweather conditions. While this meaning of the word also indicates a fore-shadowing or foreknowledge, it also draws attention to the very nature ofperception, for those loomings are seen only through reflection.As youcontinue to read the chapter, then, you might ask yourself how it fore-shadows the events of the novel.Do you see particular images or themesfor the novel as a whole? Still further, you might wonder whether thenautical sense of the word asks readers to think about the very processof perception.How is it that we can see something beyond the horizon?How reliable is such vision? Loomings carries yet another connota-tion that might be relevant for the reader of Moby-Dick.The word is alsoassociated with the process of weaving something on a loom: The actionor process of mounting the warp on the loom (OED).The chapter titleseems to evoke the metaphor of weaving for the act of storytelling, asIshmael is about to weave together the story of Ahab s hunt for MobyDick.You might assess the relevance of this metaphor and look for simi-lar uses of it as you read Melville s novel.Along with the chapter s title, its first sentence, Call me Ishmael, should attract your attention.Consider what this simple sentence indicatesabout the text that will follow.Immediately Ishmael establishes himself asa first-person, participant narrator.Already you know that he is both char-acter and storyteller, and thus you must analyze him as both a characterand as a storyteller.Perhaps you might also ask about the phrasing of Ish-mael s introduction.Since he says that readers should call him Ishmael,you might suspect that is not his given name.Why might he have chosenthe name Ishmael and asked readers to call him that? What does the nametell us about Ishmael and his sense of self? Since the biblical Ishmael wasan outcast (see Genesis 16:12), is the narrator also an outcast? If so, whyis he an outcast? Readers also quickly learn something of Ishmael s styleand tendencies as a storyteller.He begins his chapter telling of his reasonsfor going to sea.After explaining the draw of the sea, he links himself tothe rest of humanity ( If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree,some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings toward the oceanwith me ); he links the sea to the process of meditation ( Yes, as everyoneknows, meditation and water are wedded for ever. ); and he claims that the Moby-Dick 107myth of Narcissus (which he alters) is the key to it all. It does not takemore than a few pages for readers to understand that Ishmael is a ramblingand discursive storyteller and that the text he weaves is no straightforwardseafaring adventure.Having finally explained why he has gone to sea, Ishmael proposes toexplain why he has gone to sea as a common sailor on a whaleboat.Thefinal four paragraphs of Loomings introduce quite a few of the novel sthemes and issues:But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a mer-chant sailor, I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage;this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the constant sur-veillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unac-countable way he can better answer than any one else.And, doubtless,my going on this whaling voyage formed part of the grand programmeof Providence that was drawn up a long time ago.It came in as a sort ofbrief interlude and solo between more extensive performances.I take itthat this part of the bill must have run something like this: Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. Whaling voyage by one Ishmael. BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN. Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, theFates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when otherswere set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easyparts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces though I cannot tellwhy this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I thinkI can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly pre-sented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performingthe part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choiceresulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the greatwhale himself
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]