SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Whale Music (1992).
The Rheostatics are from Etobicoke Canada. Their second album was called Melville (named after a town in Saskatchewan, but it has a whale on the cover so…). Their third album (this one) is called Whale Music (inspired by the novel by Paul Quarrington). When they made a film of Whale Music, the Rheostatics were asked to make the soundtrack for it, which they released as Whale Music. So, the band have 2 albums called Whale Music and one called Melville. Perfect soundtrack to Moby-Dick.
The album is chock full of all kinds of music: country tracks, folky tracks, metal tracks, and hooks galore. And it’s all wrapped up in the oddity that is the Rheostatics. This album features guest spots by the Barenaked Ladies and Neil Peart as well as horns, strings, spoken word parts, and “power tools”.
“Self Serve Gas Station” is a great opening. It begins with swirling guitars and a beautiful solo (Rheostatics guitar lines sound so elemental as to seem like they’ve always been around). But just as the vocals begin, the song becomes a sort of country track: a folkie song about adolescnece. But it returns to a good rocking (and falsetto fueled) rock track.
“California Dreamline” is a wonderfully weird track, with more gorgeous guitar melodies. It also has a disjointed section with squealing guitars. While “Rain, Rain, Rain” opens with a lengthy percussion section (played by Neil Peart of Rush) with a weird time signature. It’s a fun singalong. “Queer” meanwhile has some great chugga guitars that turn into a rocking tale of an ostracized brother (and features the great line: “But I wish you were there to see it/When I scored a hat-trick on the team/That called you a fucking queer.”
“King of the Past” is another great track, with a wondrous string sound near the end. It’s a gorgeous song with (again) different sections conveying shanties and jigs (and you can dance to it). Like Moby from last week, Rheostatics, also bust out a fast metal track, but this one works well: “RDA (Rock Death America)” has a major hook and name checks everyone from The Beatles to The Replacements.
“Legal Age Life at Variety Store” is a great folky singalong (and features the piercing harmonies of Martin Tielli). “What’s Going On Around Here?” is the most traditional song of the bunch, a poppy little ditty which avoids complacency with a rocking coda.
“Shaved Head” is a moody piece, wonderful for its roller coaster sensibilities, which is followed by the beautiful Tim Vesely sung ballad “Palomar.” This track is followed by the humorous (but serious) shouted-word piece “Guns” which also features Neil Peart.
“Sickening Song” is an accordion based shanty song. Followed by another pretty, poppy-sounding track, “Soul Glue.” Drummer Dave Clark sings “Beerbash,” an upbeat song. And tye final track is the epic, “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds.” It opens with a beautiful acoustic intro and a wonderfully catchy wheedling guitar solo. It ends delightfully: “Where the dope fiends laugh And say it’s too soon, They all go home and listen to
The Dark Side of the Moon.”
I had been listening to the band live a lot recently, and they play these songs a lot. So it was quite a treat to go back and hear the original with all its full instrumentation.
[READ: Week of June 14, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 62-86]
I never thought I’d ever say this, but I really enjoyed Moby-Dick this week. So far, these twentysome chapters have been my favorite (even the gruesome whale sections), there weren’t any chapters that I thought really dragged. So, good for me!
This week’s read begins with Ishmael stating that harpooners should not have to paddle and then be expected to harpoon as well. They should save their strength for that last, all important act. And that seems logical to me, although one also expects that the harpooners would feel kind of bad while everyone else is paddling.
And then we get to focus on Stubb for a bit. He has killed the whale, and like with burning the wickets in cricket or cutting down the net in basketball, Stubb is going to eat a piece of this newly caught whale. While Stubb is waiting for his whale steak (by the light of sperm oil) sharks have discovered the new kill as well, and are making quite a scene [how shocking!]
When old Fleece finally brings him his steak, Stubb is rather dissatisfied with it, saying it is very overcooked. An insult-match follows with much abuse hurled at old Fleece. And, in what may be the weirdest scene in all of literature, Stubb orders Fleece to preach at the sharks and make them stop causing such a racket in the water. Fleece harangues and pleads with the sharks, and Stubb criticizes him:
“Fellow-critters: I’se ordered here to say dat you must stop dat dam noise dare. you hear? stop dat dam smackin’ ob de lip! massa Stubb say dat you can fill your dam bellies up to de hatchings, but by Gor! you must stop dat dam racket!”
“Cook,” here interposed Stubb, accompanying the word with a sudden slap on the shoulder, – “Cook! why, damn your eyes, you mustn’t swear that way when you’re preaching. That’s no way to convert sinners, Cook!” (293).
Although after a final passage he admits, “Well done, old Fleece!” cried Stubb, “that’s Christianity; go on.” (294).
Ishmael then details the more edible sections of the whale and then discusses at great length the way to strip a whale. It includes the removal of the layer of blubber, the removal of the head, the hoisting of the head on board ship, etc. The carcass, after stripping, is let back into the sea to sink (and someday float back up, where it will be consumed by all).
The most amusing section of the whale description is that of the nose (The Sphinx). It is especially amusing if you have never really thought about the fact that a whale has no nose, and that its front of its head is like a wall.
Jeroboam
And then we encounter the next ship: The Jeroboam. Before we get to the ship itself I wanted to comment about Melville’s language usage. Several people on the Infinite Zombies site have discussed favorite words/passages in the book, and I myself have noted some peculiar word choice which I have appreciated for their peculiarity. And this chapter has one of my favorites. In reading the description of Gabriel (more on him in a moment), we get: “He was a small, short, youngish man, sprinkled all over his face with freckles, and wearing redundant yellow hair” (312). I had to go to the dictionary to see if “redundant” had a different meaning than I thought it did. And in fact, it does. I’d always thought of it as superfluous or unnecessary. But the actual definition is “exceeding what is necessary” which is slightly different and makes that phrase much more sensible. It’s till amusing though, wearing redundant hair. Heh Heh.
The Jeroboam’s story hearkens back to the Town Ho’s although I don’t recall the Town Ho talking about this man (so perhaps it was another story while they were gamming). Stubb, seeing the redundant hair, claims, “”That’s he! that’s he! the long-togged scaramouch the Town-Ho’s company told us of!” (312). And what we learn is that Gabriel, for that is indeed his name, is a Shaker, from the Neskyeuna community. [Shakers are mocked pretty badly here]. Gabriel has more or less commandeered the Jeroboam away from Captain Mayhew.
The Captain shouts to Ahab that the ship is under quarantine. Ahab pooh poohs that and says he’s not afraid. But then Gabriel begins shouting and wailing, and over the course of several paragraphs we learns that Gabriel, calling himself the Archangel, has convinced everyone on board that he is indeed the holy man, the prophet. And he proceeds to scare the beJesus out of everyone. Mayhew intends to drop him off at the next port as he is clearly more than a nutter, he’s a danger, but when Gabriel gets word of this plot, he tells the crew and they make holy hell on his behalf. If anything bad happens to him they will mutiny.
When Ahab mentions Moby Dick, it sets Gabriel off in a frenzy. For when the Jerobaom first saw the white whale, Gabriel warned that they would come to harm if they went after him. And then they relate the story of Macey, the mate, who, upon seeing Moby Dick went headlong after him. Upon getting close, the whale hauled him bodily from the boat and into the sea some fifty yards away. The boat and everyone else was unharmed.
Gabriel pounced on this and claimed that he was correct and that he has brought a curse upon them (which manifests as the plague on board). Ahab has pretty much had it with these clowns, “‘Curses throttle thee!’ yelled Ahab” (316). But he remembers that there’s some mail for The Jeroboam. Starbuck fetches the mailbag and the letter is for–wait for it–Macey. Awkward. Ahab tries to get the letter to the Captain anyhow, but Gabriel snatches it and throws it back to the Pequod saying they should keep it as they’ll be seeing Macey soon enough: “Nay, keep it thyself…thou art soon going that way” (316).
We get some comic relief after that with The Monkey Rope. I’m not entirely sure what is going on here, but the movie scene that I picture is [cue Benny Hill music] Queequeg standing on top of the dead whale spinning it with his feet (like a log roller) while the men are trying to strip the carcass. All the while sharks are nipping at his heels and the crew are stabbing at the sharks with sharp poles. Naturally, Ishmael is tied to Queequeg with the monkey rope, trying to keep him upright.
The humor continues when Queequeg comes back on board. Rather than giving him something strong, Dough-Boy gives him a ginger drink that Auntie Charity made for them. Stubb rails at Dough Boy and demands something stronger. The final line of the chapter is one of my favorite in the book so far: “When Stubb reappeared, he came with a dark flask in one hand, and a sort of tea-caddy in the other. The first contained strong spirits, and was handed to Queequeg; the second was Aunt Charity’s gift, and that was freely given to the waves” (321).
At this point, the boat sees a right whale. Typically whalers don’t bother with the right whale because there’s not much sperm on them. However, with the Sperm whale hanging from the side of the boat, they thought it would be a good idea to get a right whale and have it hang from the other side, for balance. And, as Flask tells Stubb, “did you never hear that the ship which but once has a Sperm Whale’s head hoisted on her starboard side, and at the same time a Right Whale’s on the larboard; did you never hear, Stubb, that that ship can never afterwards capsize?” (323). Stubb and Flask get the right whale and then have a chat about Fedallah. The upshot of which is that Stubb says, “I take that Fedallah to be the devil in disguise. Do you believe that cock and bull story about his having been stowed away on board ship? He’s the devil, I say. The reason why you don’t see his tail, is because he tucks it up out of sight; he carries it coiled away in his pocket, I guess.” (324).
When they get the other whale hoisted up, Ishmael makes a philosophical comparison, “So, when on one side you hoist in Locke’s head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant’s and you come back again” (326).
Ahab then gets back to describing the whale. He contrasts the head of the sperm whale with the head of the right whale. The sperm whale’s head contains all of the sperm (it’s brain is in there somewhere), while the right whale has very little of the precious oil to offer. And then he describes the whale’s front end as a battering ram. A large sheer wall 
(since the eyes and ears are on the sides) of solid mass. (And for crying out loud how can it see?).
Inside this massive sperm whale’s head is the Heidelburgh Tun. This vast cask is where all of the sperm is housed. (I had to look this up to see a picture of the inside of the whale’s head. There are surprisingly few online, but I attached one to the bottom of this post.)
After this introduction, we learn exactly how the sperm is extracted. Tashtego climbs the yardarm, dangles over the whale and then
lands on the summit of the head…. A short-handled sharp spade being sent up to him, he diligently searches for the proper place to begin breaking into the Tun. In this business he proceeds very heedfully, like a treasure-hunter in some old house, sounding the walls to find where the gold is masoned in. By the time this cautious search is over, a stout iron-bound bucket, precisely like a well-bucket, has been attached to one end of the whip…. Tashtego downward guides the bucket into the Tun, till it entirely disappears; then giving the word to the seamen at the whip, up comes the bucket again, all bubbling like a dairy-maid’s pail of new milk.
No kidding? He just dips bucket after bucket into the whale’s head and retrieves the sperm. But then, in perhaps the most exciting scene yet, Tashtego slips and…ew… falls into the whale’s head! And the commotion causes the head to swing out and crash into the sea! Holy toledo! Tastego is drowning in a whale’s head of goop while drowning in the sea. Call Queequeg! For despite all the comic interludes, Queequeg is emerging as a real hero in the book. He dives into the sea and extracts Tashtego from the whale’s head. Both come back okay.
The scene of Queequeg telling the tale of his rescue is humorous enough in that it is described as a birth sequence.
[Queequeg] thrust his long arm far inwards and upwards, and so hauled out our poor Tash by the head. He averred, that upon first thrusting in for him, a leg was presented; but well knowing that that was not as it ought to be, and might occasion great trouble; – he had thrust back the leg, and by a dexterous heave and toss, had wrought a somerset upon the Indian; so that with the next trial, he came forth in the good old way – head foremost…. affording Queequeg a fair chance for performing his agile obstetrics on the run, as you may say. Yes, it was a running delivery, so it was (343).
Speaking of the whale’s head, Ishmael gives a little phrenology lesson about it as well.
And then the Pequod encounters another ship. The call it the Virgin, but it is a German ship called the Jungfrau. It is bearing down on them quickly, and as Flask notes, the Captain is holding out something: “it’s a lamp- feeder and an oil-can. He’s out of oil, and has come a- begging.” (349).
And indeed, the captain is requesting some oil because they have none. The captain, Derick De Deer, comes aboard and thankfully accepts the gift. But just as he gets back on board his ship, a fleet of whales is spotted. Derick quickly gets his and three other boats in the water and they take off. Well, that is no kind of manners, as Starbuck notes: “‘The ungracious and ungrateful dog!’ cried Starbuck; ‘he mocks and dares me with the very poor-box I filled for him not five minutes ago!'” (351). [Although, really, if the Jungfrau is indeed empty, aren’t they more needy of the oil?]. Clearly not, because the Pequod races after them; even the waves are on the Pequod’s side as one of the German oarsmen trips up in the waves causing them to flounder. And lo, three harpooners stick an old and somewhat pathetic whale (and, yes there’s even some sympathy for the poor thing: one flipper almost gone, flapping madly trying to escape).
When they lance the whale, Flask, the one who hates whales, wants to pierce it once more in an ulcerous spot. And when he does, the whale more or less explodes all over them, capsizing Flask’s boat. Ew. And then for all their trouble, the blasted whale sinks and no one can use him.
The Germans, no doubt gloating over this, spot a school of Fin-Back whales and haul ass after them. But the Pequod crew laugh, knowing that the Fin-Back is useless for sperm.
The last few chapters are devoted to the honorableness of whaling and some more details about whales themselves. Ishmael creates a lengthy list of notable whalemen: Perseus, St George (surely it was a whale, not a dragon that he fought!), Hercules, Jonah and Vishnoo. And then goes on to discuss the blowhole: whether the spew is vapor or water (an age old question). He sides with vapor.
The reading ends appropriately enough with a chapter about the tail. Ishmael says there are “five great motions… peculiar to it. First, when used as a fin for progression; Second, when used as a mace in battle; Third, in sweeping; Fourth, in lobtailing; Fifth, in peaking flukes” (374).
COMMENTS
The action is growing ever more furious in the book. And the taxonomy sections are growing shorter. There’s still fifty chapter left, so no doubt there will be a lot more digressions, but it feels like we’re really getting to the heart of the battle. And, yes, I’m finding it very exciting.
I have a scintillating post at the Infinite Zombies blog about Week 3, as well.
The monkey-rope chapter does provide some comic relief, but I think it’s also a central, important, serious chapter as well. Melville uses the phrase “joint-stock” again here, as he does here and there throughout the book, and the philosophical focus of the chapter is of course how irrevocably tied we are to others. This is illustrated also, I think, in the fact that these hunters fix themselves to whales and await their fate while the line quivers below them. It has a whole lot to do with fate (and control of your own fate, or lack thereof), which is a theme from beginning to end.
One niggling point re sperm. My impression is that sperm is a substance unique to the sperm whale. It’s found in the head and is not a synonym for oil. Spermacetti was used to make things like perfume and fancy candles, whereas the more crude oil rendered from the blubber was used for fuel. There’s a more detailed chapter on the stuff coming up.
I find it interesting that the chapter in which there’s much about obstetrics and the breach rebirth of Tashtego (and in which Tashtego in fact starts out by pumping his long rod harder and deeper into what amounts eventually to the womb from which he is delivered) is followed by a chapter about a virgin ship. I haven’t made much of it yet but did make a mental note.
Glad you’re digging the book and will be eager to hear if you have any thoughts regarding this book next to “; or, The Whale.”
Daryl,
You’re right about that Monkey Rope business. And it seems like despite my Benny Hill characterization, a lot of the comic scenes do have a sense of pathos involved. The earlier scenes in the hotel room are kind of silly, and yet Ishmael is quick to point out that he considers this savage a friend. And so with this careening around business, they are twins. I hadn’t thought of the fate connection though, so thanks!
I admit that my grasp of the whale essential oils is a little vague. I still have a hard time believing that a whale carries and abundance of this stuff in its and we can use it for anything. So, yes, I don’t mean to mis-characterize the stuff. And I look forward to a bit more of a clarification. Is the sperm ambergris?
Sometimes I totally miss symbolism. So yes the thrusting of the spear and the pulling out of buckets should have been more obvious (and here I am thinking that he laid the birthing metaphor on a bit thick). Hee Hee. Virgin.
No, sperm and ambergris (about which also more later) are different things. Ambergris is a digestive byproduct, and spermacetti is actually a sort of organ whose function is a bit uncertain, though it’s proposed that whales use it to change their bouyancy and in echolocation. I don’t mean to be pedantic and mentioned the distinction only because I thought you’d be interested (I don’t feel like you called me out for being pedantic or anything; I just want to make sure it’s clear that I’m not trying to be pedantic).
My observation regarding Tashtego’s pole was less about symbolism than it was a “that’s what she said” sort of observation. I’ll let Melville’s quote speak for itself: “Towards the end, Tashtego has to ram his long pole harder and harder, and deeper and deeper into the Tun”.
No pedantic behavior implied. (If you’re reading Letter for Insurgents, there’s a whole thing about pedagogues that I’m reading, and you are absolved of that accusation).
I am actually quite interested in this whole sperm business. In part because I am five years old and it makes me chuckle. But also because, having been immersed in the book, I’m curious about whales in ways that I’ve never been before.
A long while ago I learned why the Right Whale was called that, and since then I’ve been kind of fascinated. But now, more so than ever.
Of course, if sperm assists with buoyancy, shouldn’t all whales have it? (And this sounds like a discussion we should be having on the Zombies site!).
Hee Hee. And Yes, I don’t know how I missed that opportunity for explicit sexual obviousness.
Alas, I’m not doing Insurgents. As much as the idea of reading along with Jeff Paris again appeals to me, I just don’t have bandwidth for it. I can’t fathom how you manage to read and write so much. It’s like a superpower. I’m jealous.
The way the book invites further curiosity about whales is one of the reasons I like it so much too, and though I had the passing curiosity about whales that probably most people have (ie, I’d stop and watch a Discovery Channel show about them), M-D really focused my interest a bit more, to the point that a few years ago, I dug up a copy of the original Scoresby book that Melville cites a number of times. Hoare’s book “The Whale” is by no means exhaustive but is pretty good auxiliary material for somebody interested in whaling and in Moby-Dick.
Maybe sperm whales sound more deeply than other whales to get squid? The other huge whales are baleen whales, I believe, and I imagine they can feed closer to the surface. So a buoyancy regulation organ might be a special adaptation for the sperm whale. Just speculating without any real knowledge or science behind the speculation.
Amusingly, I complain all the time that I don’t have enough time to read what I want either. If it makes you feel any better, I do very little by way of socializing (and my wife is a reader too, so we spend time cozied up with books).
I suspect that my son will show an interest in whales soon (he’s almost 5 and loves sharks). My daughter (2 1/2) loves “orca vales” as she calls them. So, maybe it’s time for this librarian to bring home some books for them that will teach me a thing or two about whales, too.
My whale knowledge is quite limited. But it sounds reasonable that the sperm whale would need such a buoyancy device. When I bring those kids books home I’ll let you know.
[…] hadn’t read Moby-Dick, but they knew it was all subtext about sex anyhow. On my post from last week, Daryl and I were having a discussion about the not-so-subtle sexual speak in Chapter 78 (Cistern […]