The Beating Heart of Moby Dick

What the White Whale Means to Ahab and Ishmael

I had a really helpful conversation on X with a new friend. Here is a link to it!

Because it is a space, you need to skip the first 6 - 7 minutes while hazy Beach Boys music plays as we waited for people to join the live conversation. Whether you have a deep familiarity with Moby Dick, a passing glance at the book in high school, or intend to the read the book in the near future, I think that you will enjoy especially Fritz’s opening salvo for how to frame the book. Namely, that Ishmael as a sailor—the character on the Pequod—indicates that he is suicidal or at least in deep despair in the opening chapter; however, Ishmael the narrator, looking back years later, seems to have healed or convalesced. He appears even to be cheerful. Does the book somehow explain how he achieved the perspective of the narrator while beginning at the perspective of the sailor? That is the question that we take up for the rest of the conversation, while comparing Ishmael to Ahab, who seems to fall far short of Ishmael’s cheerfulness.