Moby Dick, regarded as the great American Novel, is itself a metaphor today. The narrative we all know: crazy sea captain goes after a white whale. We all know "call me Ishamael". It's like we can't help but think about this American tale whenever we're face to face with narrowly focused ambition or obsession. Moby Dick is the objectified stand in for American values in times of intense, single minded focus. We might invoke the title when talking about athletes, or any competition for that matter. As we chase this giant thing, this life accomplishment, we do so intensely and, though we fail as Ahab does (you can't tell me you didn't know that), all glory is in the chase. It is truly American to try your whole life to accomplish one thing with fierce dedication. But for the most part, I find this "reading" of the book a damn shame.
That is to say, this is more of a cultural feeling towards the book than an actual contextual argument of what happens. The sentiment is annoying too; we can say all these great things about Moby Dick but at the end of the day not nearly enough people are going to read it. It's silly to think we're going to apply all these feeling of ambition we have no problem referencing in our own work and lives to actually pick up the book and literally suffer through it. Because that's what you would do; suffer. If you love language and poetry, dense philosophical reveries that go nowhere, then you might be able to get through the heartier sections, but it isn't as though you can blow through Moby Dick in a day, your mind can only actively read for so long. And you absolutely have to be active, you'll fizzle out in the middle of a chapter about paintings of whales if you aren't. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad or look down from a high horse either, I'd be lying if I said I never got distracted or that I was 100% present in every chapter. There are entire sections of chapters I know I missed and could potentially be forever lost on me. My point is this is hard, it is a hard book to read. But it is also worth it, which makes its reputation as a difficult but important book immensely frustrating. Why? Because Moby Dick is essentially all about getting out in the world and discovering the truth for yourself. Allowing this book's reputation as difficult and your preconceived notions about its themes stop you from reading it, is a crime against literature.
Here is something you might not know about Moby Dick; it is not about the Whale. There is a reason only small portions of this book are related to plot and why the massive chunks in-between seem to be about inconsequential things. That's because Ahab's hunt for the whale and Ishmael's hunt for the truth are practically one in the same; they are both "striking through the mask" as Ahab would say. The whale is not some allegory for God or a penis or something, Ahab is hunting him to escape his own Allegory of the Cave (Plato is the most present, but you'll find Locke, Hume, Kant, Epicurus, Aristotle, fucking everyone). When the white whale took Ahab's leg he "identified in him not only all of his bodily woes, but his intellectual and spiritual exasperation". To Ahab, Moby Dick is not just a shadow on the wall, but the wall itself. Ahab seeks to destroy the wall and find the truth behind the object at hand, perhaps even proving that it was indeed just a big whale and nothing more. Ishmael is less concerned with one single thing as he is with things like the whaling industry, the anatomy of a whale, bowls of soup, pieces of wood...etc etc. While Ahab's is a "monomaniac" quest in that he heaps all possible truth behind one single object, Ishmael seeks to find all possible truth behind every object. He is always butting heads with naturalists, academics, and those dedicated to the study of the physical world. Which means he is often wrong scientifically or factually (he calls a whale a fish for example). This is because Ishmael is not concerned with the accuracy of physical truth, but of the truth way down behind everything. Ahab is not concerned with the physical whale but the truth heaped on his hump (Ahab's words, not mine).
In short, the book is about ambition, but it is more an invitation to look beyond the physical world. Melville's ability to take the seemingly mundane object - a bowl of chowder, a rope, whale guts - and blow them up to philosophical proportions is the most inspiring thing about Moby Dick. The reason you should force yourself to read this violent, drawn out, and dense book is exactly because that is what the book teaches you to do. If you're not actively forcing yourself in pursuit of truth despite the difficulties and perils that come with such a journey, then you aren't truly living in reality. Who knows, forcing yourself to read Moby Dick could be the start of a more fulfilling life, but you won't know until you try.
**Quick aside: The final fight scene between Moby Dick and the Pequod's crew is like the most fun I've ever had reading. A three chapter long battle in which MD kicks some serious ass....
