Authors Preface
Herman Melville unleashed the Greatest, White-est, Whale of an American Myth. All of subsequent High American Culture has been the lowering of whaleboats - life/ death struggle with IT - the oceanic mystery that surrounds and pervades the human condition.
The Gnostic Prophet Melville’s good news is that America is the vessel, the container, the incubator, of humanity-to-be. The Pequod and most all of the other ships in ‘Moby Dick’ are undeniably American vessels. And these American vessels/containers are the places where humanity is experiencing its further possibilities. They are fulfilling the further brutal possibilities of early American industrial civilization. But they are also places where it is possible to envision humanity’s further experiental, existential powers.
This isn’t a political or social or economic process. It is an Emersonian, American Transcendental, Experiencing, Knowing.
This is what is happening to Ishmael/Jonah in the only part of the novel that occurs after the death of Ahab and the sinking of the Pequod. It is happening at the Golden Inn in Lima, Peru, after Ishmael/Jonah has been rescued by the ‘Rachel’ and we can surmise, after the ‘Rachel’, soon after, went to Lima’s port of Callao to enlist replacements for her lost crew-members.
As he is coming into his further possibilities, his further powers, Ishmael/Jonah is beginning the narrative of The Greatest, White-est Whale of an American Myth. The Golden Inn is the place where he is entering into the further possibilities of the human vocation. He starts by telling the story of the Steelkilt Mutiny.
The Revolutionary, Heretical, Gnostic, Transcendental Experiencing, Knowing of Melville is that it was never about being Christians it was always about realizing the further human potential of being a Christ.
This is what the story of the Steelkilt Mutiny is about. This is why Ishmael/Jonah begins the first public narrative of his experiencing of The Myth with Steelkilt’s story.
The denying of the mystery is the denying of death. And denying death is denying life. Steelkilt’s story, Ishmael’s/Jonah’s parable is about the right posture in the face of the mystery, in the face of life-its-ownself.
Mysteries will always be mysteries. The Great Prophet Melville accepted, embraced, opened himself to the mystery - as a mystery. He did not deny it with a religious, magic, folk-tale. In the telling of the parable of The Righteous Mutiny Ishmael/Jonah/Melville face into the storm, face into the great oceanic mystery that surrounds and pervades the human condition. And they begin their ministry.
Herman Melville unleashed the Greatest, White-est, Whale of an American Myth. All of subsequent High American Culture has been the lowering of whaleboats - life/ death struggle with IT - the oceanic mystery that surrounds and pervades the human condition.
The Gnostic Prophet Melville’s good news is that America is the vessel, the container, the incubator, of humanity-to-be. The Pequod and most all of the other ships in ‘Moby Dick’ are undeniably American vessels. And these American vessels/containers are the places where humanity is experiencing its further possibilities. They are fulfilling the further brutal possibilities of early American industrial civilization. But they are also places where it is possible to envision humanity’s further experiental, existential powers.
This isn’t a political or social or economic process. It is an Emersonian, American Transcendental, Experiencing, Knowing.
This is what is happening to Ishmael/Jonah in the only part of the novel that occurs after the death of Ahab and the sinking of the Pequod. It is happening at the Golden Inn in Lima, Peru, after Ishmael/Jonah has been rescued by the ‘Rachel’ and we can surmise, after the ‘Rachel’, soon after, went to Lima’s port of Callao to enlist replacements for her lost crew-members.
As he is coming into his further possibilities, his further powers, Ishmael/Jonah is beginning the narrative of The Greatest, White-est Whale of an American Myth. The Golden Inn is the place where he is entering into the further possibilities of the human vocation. He starts by telling the story of the Steelkilt Mutiny.
The Revolutionary, Heretical, Gnostic, Transcendental Experiencing, Knowing of Melville is that it was never about being Christians it was always about realizing the further human potential of being a Christ.
This is what the story of the Steelkilt Mutiny is about. This is why Ishmael/Jonah begins the first public narrative of his experiencing of The Myth with Steelkilt’s story.
The denying of the mystery is the denying of death. And denying death is denying life. Steelkilt’s story, Ishmael’s/Jonah’s parable is about the right posture in the face of the mystery, in the face of life-its-ownself.
Mysteries will always be mysteries. The Great Prophet Melville accepted, embraced, opened himself to the mystery - as a mystery. He did not deny it with a religious, magic, folk-tale. In the telling of the parable of The Righteous Mutiny Ishmael/Jonah/Melville face into the storm, face into the great oceanic mystery that surrounds and pervades the human condition. And they begin their ministry.
