My post is rather
inspired from Victoria's post. What a fascinating question… why should we feel
the need to categorize? Perhaps we are driven to familiarity. After all, the
very interpretations we make are founded on the information we are familiar
with. I feel safe in saying that I haven't encountered anything quite like Moby
Dick.
In a way, it is
perfect because we see how the whole book focuses on the "new." When I address the "new" I'm
referring to advancement or more generically, change. In our studies we see it
directly in terms a new digital age. However, we all can clearly see how
interpretations could lead us to allegories for any "new" societal
development. As it is not fully an
allegory (or any other literary classification per our class discussion), the
ambiguous structure itself drives the content of facing the new. This is
fascinating to me as I realize, we're trying to decipher the structure and
composition of the work just as much as we are wrestling with themes,
characters, etc. Perhaps that's why we read this years and years after its
initial popularity and feel we're sailing in uncharted territory, if you will.
This book makes you
think out of the box and encourages innovation. I love that in class, Kristen
was talking about perspectives because right when you think you have an idea of
how you're supposed to think about Christians, you look at the perspective of
Queequeg and you're back at the beginning trying to find something bigger. As
it is a fundamental part of literary history to classify a work to develop the
trends during a period of time, Moby Dick is a work of the future. It forces us
to get uncomfortable, to swap perspectives, and challenge it all. The very
structure intimates the depth found within Melville's ideas and therefore, our
inability to classify it means we're on the right track to understanding that
this book is more about the new, or what we don't know, instead of what we
know.
I love it. Moby Dick certainly forces us to dwell in uncertainty. As you brought up, as human beings we do NOT like uncertainty, hence why we often categorize things: it gives things an element of uncertainty. I agree that one of the beautiful aspects of Moby Dick is that it cannot be categorized, forcing us to "think outside the box" and look beyond what we are used to to something much deeper.
ReplyDeleteI love this! I especially appreciate reminding us about Kristen's comment in class and the constant need to change our perspective. I think that is especially relevant in today's world, with so many cultures coming together on the web and trying to figure out how we can all get along and how we can interact with each other. It's so easy to get on a comment thread and explain to everyone exactly why their wrong - from the perspective of your culture - but the minute you change you're thinking and try to figure out what they might believe it changes everything! Queequeg is the perfect example of this. We can all be friends, but can we all really understand each other? This book is really amazing in that it can ask these questions that are still particularly relevant.
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