balding angrily

This is my third attempt at Moby Dick. The last time I got to page 150 and put it down. The problem I had in the past is no matter how much I tried to convince myself that it was going to be an adventure story, I couldn’t get past the feeling that I was pursuing an esoteric exercise.

This weekend I came across a passage I want to share. For background, Queequeg is Ishmael’s, the narrator’s, bed-mate. As Ishmael describes him, he is a huge, unrefined “cannibal” with a barrel chest. Contrast this with Ishmael, who comes off as refined to the point that he struck me as a prig in the first ten chapters. Ishmael calls them bosom friends, and while sleeping, Queequeg inadvertently hugs him like a wife. I’m not going to get hung-up on whether Queequeg and Ishmael are lovers because that’s not interesting to me. It’s better for me to picture a skinny guy being nightly, affectionately assaulted by a lunk.

Upon opening my eyes then, and coming out of my own pleasant and self-created darkness into the imposed and coarse outer gloom of the unilluminated twelve-o’clock-at-night, I experienced a disagreeable revulsion. Nor did I at all object to the hint from Queequeg that perhaps it were best to strike a light…

I read the passage to Jerry, and he didn’t believe that Queequeg farted. He thought (and still thinks) I’m projecting.

I read this passage to my teacher after class and said, “Queequg farted, didn’t he?” He gave me an uncomfortable smile. I told him by explaining what I just told you why this was funny to me. “I can just imagine the kinds of foods they’re eating…half-rotted fish, lots of fat, no clean fiber…that must’ve been one really smelly fart.”

He smiled uncomfortably again and said, “Melville’s wanting you to see how these two cultures are mixing. These two guys are literally in bed together. One can barely speak English and has no problem letting one fly in bed where Ishmael would never think of it…isn’t even comfortable sleeping with another man, let alone one that farts and worships idols. What comment might Melville be making about cultural differences?”

The question that’s been bugging me the last couple of days is this. If you read Moby Dick in high school or college, wouldn’t it increase your enjoyment of this dry classic if the teacher read this passage and opened up a discussion to the class of whether or not Queequeg farted? Yes, we can discuss the symbolism of two people from different cultures sleeping in the same bed. But wouldn’t it be more relatable if these literary figures became more human by tooting every once in a while? I know I would have read a lot more Melville if my teacher in high school had highlighted like passages in Billy Budd.