ahab as luddite (Quakerism)

[jbor]

on 6/2/02 4:31 AM, The Great Quail at quail at libyrinth.com wrote:

> Terrance writes,
> 
>> You wouldn't, but the narrator of M-D does.
> 
> Well, you certainly have a point there!

Isn't Ishmael the narrator of _Moby Dick_?!

Ch. 57 - OF WHALES IN PAINT; IN TEETH; IN WOOD; IN SHEET-IRON; IN STONE; IN
MOUNTAINS; IN STARS

    [...] Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a
    man to that condition in which God placed him, *i.e.* what is called
    savagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I
    myself am a savage, owning no allegiance but to the King of the
    Cannibals; and ready at any moment to rebel against him.
      Now one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic
    hours, is his wonderful patience of industry. An ancient Hawaiian war-
    club or spear paddle, in its full multiplicity and elaboration of
    carving, is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin lexicon.
    [ ... ]
      As with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white sailor-savage. With
    the same marvellous patience, and with the same single shark's tooth, of
    his one poor jack-knife, he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not
    quite as workmanlike, but as close-packed in its maziness of design, as
    the Greek savage, Achilles shield; and full of barbaric spirit and
    suggestiveness, as the prints of that fine old Dutch savage, Albrecht
    Durer.
    [ ... ]
      Nor when exceedingly lifted by your subject, can you fail to trace out
    great whales in the starry heavens, and boats in pursuit of them; as
    when long-filled with thoughts of war the Eastern nations saw armies
    locked in battle amongst the clouds. Thus at the North have I chased
    Leviathan round and round the Pole with the revolutions of the bright
    points that first defined him to me. And beneath the effulgent Antarctic
    skiesI have boarded the Argo-Navis, and joined the chase against the
    starry Cetus far beyond the utmost stretch of Hydrus and the Flying
    Fish.
      With a frigate's anchors for my bridle-bitts and fasces of harpoons
    for spurs, would I could mount that whale and leap the topmost skies, to
    see whether the fabled heavens with all their countless tents really lie
    encamped beyond my mortal sight.

best