217-218: "Though elephants have stood for their full-lengths, the living Leviathan has never yet fairly floated himself for his portrait." Anyone who's ever been whale-watching and seen an elusive fluke or tail, with a hint of a shadow of the rest of the animal's bulk, would agree.
You can only see the totality of a whale if you're under the sea, in the whale's own element, and this is out of the realm of human possibility (at least before modern dive gear--hey, it's 1851 here). Out of the whale's element, if you expose him to the air, "his precise expression the devil himself could not catch."
So . . . the decipherability, the readability, of a thing depends on seeing it in its proper element. But the catch is: it's impossible to be in that element. Our perspective, because it's coming from a standpoint "outside," will be skewed. Is this problem of observation, this limitation on what we can know, what makes the whale so particularly interesting to Ishmael/Melville? Or could the same be said about anything that's observed?
"The great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last."
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http://www.ashesandsnow.org/en/portfolio/
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(these three pictures (man with three whales, man with one whale, man with whale tail) are all real. the stylization was added after the photographs were taken and i personally saw this exhibit and the video documenation showing this.)
Obviously this is not an argument for being able to see a whale in its nature habitat. However, personally, this picture, evoked more curiosity as to why we are so fascinated by the whale. Its massiveness is still so unreal to us even now when we have 175 story buildings and jumbo jets.
The gigantic creature must have been so incredible to all the whalers, to Ishmael especially since he hasn't had the same contact with this animal.
It seems like the whale, in Moby-Dick falls under the same issue that America had with land, native Indians and anything else that is different from the norm. All these things must be conquered and ruled over. The wonder associated with different things, even a beautiful thing like a whale, takes the backseat to becoming something that is owned and needs to be tamed.
I think your idea of the whale, and the new America for that matter, needing to be conquered and owned to subdue fears that these men must have felt for these massive creatures beautifully articulates Moby Dick. However, for the sake of a counter-argument, I think that Moby Dick could also be portrayed not as a tale of battle and conquering, but as a tale of defeat from the get-go. It can be read that these whalers are going out to sea to battle and defeat the whales, but in fact they have been lured to sea by the ememy, already giving them a disadvantage, as the sea is the whales natural habitat, not the whalers. Further, when one goes out in search of the enemy, one also allows himself to become blinded by his revenge (Ahab...). This revenge, also seen in Ahab, causes borderline insanity, causing a yet further disadvantage. The whalers of The Pequod have entered into territory they do not know naturally, have been lured there by creatures infinitely larger and more powerful than them, their wooden ships, and their tiny-in-comparison harpoons, and their minds have been clouded by revenge and insanity, blinding them to the threats of the sea. Ahab in particular has essentially already lost his life to Moby Dick by going out to sea year after year in search of the whale. The novel, to me, is a sad tale of blind hatred which has enveloped and taken the lives of these whalers.
The massiveness of a whale is unreal, despite our buildings and planes, because the size is accompanied by a beating heart and functioning brain--it is alive, and in 1851, surrounded by tales of its voracity and rage upon men.
Also, it lives in a territory that is foreign, unknown, and unsuitable for humans. True, very similar to the New World, but even more serious, since land has long been conquered by man. More or less.
The fear of the unknown.
That because we cannot be in that element, nor can the whale be properly in ours, it is such a wonder.
Stick a goldfish in a bowl, a koi in a pond, a Shamu in a tank, but would it ever be possible to throw a live Sperm whale in a viewing area? Has it been done?
"Ashes and snow"
Finally got to the right place in the site. Wow, that's extraordinary--what a fantasy of utterly free movement it evoked in those photos.
Unfortunately I didn't highlight the passage, but I recall in the same chapter (or one of the following) Ishmael's mention of travelling across worlds between continents. As many of the sailors do not have a home on land, or do not feel at home on land as may be the case, they find comfort at sea. Yet even there they are strangers, as the oceans are worlds that operate in ways the human mind cannot fully comprehend. Perhaps one of the reasons Ishmael is astounded by such a creature as the sperm whale is that it matches its environment for immensity and power. To conquer the whale is to conquer a small part of its world. And given America's obsession with Manifest Destiny at the time, it makes sense that its citizens would be obsessed with conquering the oceans and gain power over them.
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