Whenever I’ve taken creative writing courses, the rule that always comes out is “Show, don’t tell.” It’s the number one rule to remember when writing fiction. You don’t tell the audience that a character is ruthless, you set up scenes that demonstrate the character’s ruthlessness. You don’t tell the audience that it is a dark and stormy night, you create the feeling with direct facts of trees blowing around and references to the darkness itself.

I’m now on chapter fifty-two of Moby Dick, and the section I just finished violates the “Show, don’t tell” rule throughout. I’m guessing that when people try and read this book, it’s this section that makes them quit.

What started as a good adventure story has taken a little pause in order to fill in the reader on all kinds of factual things about whaling. While I understand the potential importance of this, entire chapters have read more like a text book than a work of fiction. Chapter thirty-two for example is a complete description of all the different varieties of whale and how one goes about classifying the different types. Not the kind of thing that keeps you riveted to the book.

It’s also interesting to note that during this very chapter, the author mentions “God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught — nay, but the draught of a draught.” There are quite a few places during this section that feel like they were added after the story was created, and just thrown in willy-nilly, without much thought as to how it might affect the pacing. The chapters that push the story forward feel like they aren’t aware of these long chapters of exposition.

Other Characters

During this stage, a few characters have been introduced to us, and we’ve been given glimpses of Ahab and his own character. It’s interesting that I made the last note as pre-ahab, because the introduction of Ahab himself was done with quite a bit of buildup and suspense. He lived down in his cabin until the ship was out to sea, and when he finally really came alive and talked to the crew, it was to get them to commit their souls to hunting down the white whale.

We’ve also had small glimpses into the officers of the ship and the other harpooners (other than Queequeg). We haven’t learned much about their characters yet, other than Starbuck looks to be the most level headed of the group, and the one who will most likely challenge Ahab directly.

I hope that the next section of the book builds more on these characters and moves away from the textbook style of the last section. Then maybe I’ll get the next posting about this one up a bit quicker (it’s been a challenge to force myself through this last section).

New Questions

A couple new questions. With the textbook chapters, only so much of the story has progressed, so I don’t have too many new ones.

• How will the oath that the sailors took play into the story? How much of the influence of putting ones soul on the line will impact people’s actions?
• Ahab is intent on the White Whale, but will we get to see the crew in action taking on other whales as well? We’ve seen the start of one so far, but they got turned back by weather. I’m still curious about what the crew does when it actually catches a whale.
• The introduction of the stowaways that man Ahab’s boat was interesting and somewhat unexpected. How will these new characters influence the story and the crew? They were not part of the crew’s oath to Ahab, will that play into things?

Okay, so I’ve read through the first part of the book. The boys are on the boat, but they haven’t yet met the elusive Captain Ahab. At this point, I thought I’d jot down some first impressions.

First off, I have to say I’m enjoying the story quite a bit. The narrator has a unique way of putting his own flavor on everything, but seems to be a level-headed guy. Queequeg is an incredibly entertaining and curious character, and the initial meeting between Queequeg and Ishmael had me laughing to myself.

Secondly, there’s quite a bit of build-up in this first section. Almost too much, in my opinion. There are portents and prophecies and allusions to the dark, dangerous trip our narrator is about the embark on. It’s good, that it sets the mood, but I’m starting to think it’s a bit much. At some of the points, I found myself saying, “Okay, we get it, these guys are probably not making the best decision. Enough, let’s get on with it.”

There was also an interesting line in chapter 11 that keeps coming back to me as the book progresses. It’s when Ishmael is laying in bed, and he’s commenting on how the only way to really enjoy your body is being warm is when there’s a bit of it that is cold. The part that stands out is this:

… for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.

This leads me to think that the book itself will present us with quite a few points of contrast. We already have one going between the educated and Presbyterian Ishmael and the uneducated “savage” heathen that is Queequeg. I’m curious to see if we might see more contrasts such as this present themselves throughout the work.

Overall, though, a pretty encouraging start to the book.

Questions/Comments

• So far the narrator has made some decisions. The most important one being the boat that he and Queequeg got on. However, he also got pushed into making a decision by Queequeg and his idol. Will he continue to be a factor in the direction of the book or more of an observer?
• It looks like Ahab has already had his run-in with the whale before we met him. It’s been mentioned that he’s “sick”, is this sickness his need for vengeance or something else?
• I’m curious to see what the first meeting of Ahab and Queequeg is like. We know something of the character of Queequeg, will Ahab’s reaction to him tell us something about Ahab’s character?

I may have mentioned this before, but I’m kind of an anomaly. I’m a graduate with an degree in English Literature, but I’ve never once read Moby Dick.

It’s one of those strange books that everyone just assumes you’ve read, so it seems that it very rarely gets added to any reading lists any more. Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t know something about the book. I know how it starts (“Call me Ishmael.”). I know the basic story line, and that a couple of the themes in the book revolve around obsession and revenge. I believe I’ve even referenced in it in some of my papers in college. I’ve just never actually read it.

Well, that’s about to change. With a much appreciated gift card I received for Christmas, I’ve now purchased a copy of Moby Dick and plan on taking it on as my next “To be read” book.

I thought I’d do something a bit different for this one, since I do know something about the book, and since it’s one that is more of the “literary” persuasion. I thought before I started reading it, I would come up with some questions to answer during my read of the book.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to put it out there for anyone else who hasn’t read this book. As I go along, I’ll note my observations and thoughts, and if you’re reading along at the same time I would encourage you to do the same. The depth of books like this often are only understood when the book is discussed, so I’d like to take this post as the start of a kind of virtual book club. There won’t be any reading assignments or schedules — nothing that concrete — but let’s see what we find out as we go.

Here are some initial questions that I have going into the book:

• Who is Ishmael? The start of the book is with his name, so is he important to the story, or is he just the narrator and sitting on the sidelines?
• Are there early indications of obsession on the part of Captain Ahab? Is he already obsessed with the white whale a the beginning of the work, or does that develop during the story?
• What factors make the book a classic? It seems like kind of a niche story — why has it stood the test of time?
• How much of the book requires knowledge of whaling? How much is given to us? It was written in 1851, so life was different, but not everyone was knowledgeable about boats and whaling, so how much are we spoon fed on that?
• I know of Ishmael, Captain Ahab and the White Whale. A book this size and depth can’t contain only three characters, so what other characters play an important role in the book, and which ones do we find ourselves rooting for or against?

Well, that’s my first list of questions. Please, if you would like to play along at home, leave a comment. It’s all an experiment, so let’s see what we can figure out.