All angel is not'ing more dan de shark well goberned

OK, first things first for this week's post.  Here is an early illustration by Alison, for the children's edition of Moby Dick:

 You can clearly see Ahab at the bow.  Probably that's Ishmael struggling with the sails.  If you look carefully you can see a whale fluke (though clearly not Moby) just ahead and off to the port side.

OK, on to this week's reading...
We are treated this week to another few forebodings of doom.  It seems to be a regular feature, beginning with Elijah's prophecy before they even set sail.  Here we have the sighting of the giant squid "..which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld, and returned to their ports to tell of it."  And then there is "Gabriel" on the Jeroboam who is a walking, talking, prophecy of doom, and warns Ahab not to pursue Moby Dick.  So I wonder, hasn't this point been made?  And why does Melville want to make it over and over?

On a similar note, and since I wrote last time about some of Melville's wonderful writing, one of his habits I am not so fond of is to tell you of some action and then explain to you why it is important (what happened to "show, don't tell"?). For example, in Ch. 64 when they kill the whale, it's quite clear that Ahab's mood darkens after the chase is over and the whale is secured alongside the Pequod: "Vacantly eyeing the heaving whale for a moment, he issued the usual orders for securing it for the night, and then handing his latern to a seaman, went his way into the cabin, and did not come forward again until morning."  Good job of "show" Herman!  But then this: "Though, in overseeing the pursuit of this whale, Captain Ahab had evinced his customary activity, to call it so; yet now that the creature was dead, some vague dissatisfaction, or impatience or despair, seemed working on him; as if the sight of that dead body reminded him that Moby Dick was yet to be slain;..."  Herman, why "tell"?  I got that already, quite clearly.

But far be it from me to criticize Melville.  Every chapter is filled with wonderful things.  The scene with Stubb and Fleece and Stubb's supper is priceless - back to the humor of the early chapters, but with an edge.  Fleece's sermon to the sharks is similarly priceless, and this little nugget contains the whole book: "Your woraciousness, fellow-critters, I don't blame ye so much for; dat is natur, and can't be helped; but to gobern dat wicked natur, dat is de pint."  And then: "..all angel is not'ing more dan de shark well goberned."  Queequeg is de shark well goberned.  Ahab, not so much.

Until next time, fellow-critters.