Beginnings.
 Ten chapters of Mr. Dick is jam packed with stuff.  It's hard to know where to start, so just two things that struck me.  First, I was struck by the ahead-of-his-time comments, through Ishmael, against prejudice.  Mostly this is focused on the first encounter with Queequeg:  "I to myself - the man's a human being just as I am: he has just as much reason to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him.  Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."  Melville chooses to make Queequeg not just an exotic, dark-skinned import from the South Seas, but a cannibal to boot.  All the more to drive home the idea that we are all human beings who can't be judged by skin color (original or tattooed), dress or diet.  Related to this is the question of who is civilized and who is not.  Queequeg is certainly the more gracious while sharing the bed.  His habits are decidedly odd, dressing from his hat down and putting his boots on under the bed.  But he does agree to dress first:  "Thinks I, Queequeg, under the circumstances, this is a very civilized overture..".  Then Ishmael goes on to say that "these savages have an innate sense of delicacy" - they're polite, but still savages.  Then comes what must be every professor's favorite quote for the first day of class: "He was just enough civilized to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manners.  His education was not yet completed.  He was an undergraduate." 

That's my theme for today - I'm sure we will revisit it.  Alison mentioned a suicide mission, which this clearly is for Ahab.  And I think the civilized/savage, sane/insane, dichotomy plays out between Ahab and Queequeg as well.  But we will see.

Just one other tidbit:  I was curious about the "Pythagorean maxim" and so googled around.  Found this, which Sara will particularly enjoy:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1204/does-the-pythagorean-maxim-tell-us-to-avoid-eating-beans

Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through water.

T/D