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Moby Dick白鯨記

→ The Great White Whale

→ A novel by Herman Melville, in which Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on the albino sperm whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee.

*naturalism

*文學類別(Gregory)→沒有海洋文學(sea literature or ocean literature)

*以前：煉精油→現在：挖石油

1. 1840年代捕鯨業興盛→從抹香鯨的鼻子把油吸出來(鯨油/脂)

2. Captain Ahab(亞哈船長) V.s. 白鯨(evil)

-Captain Ahab became a director獨裁者、偏執狂、思想偏激

-Starbuck(大副)→唯一對抗專制的意識形態(the only one person who fights the evil) (*evil→Captain Aba)

3. <航行到南太平洋時…>

-遇到食人族→文化衝擊(*eg:衣不蔽體，男人穿戴耳環、wear feathers)

→作者心態：Respect

4. 作者1850寫白鯨記時，就已經認識Hawthorne…

-認為當時的美國已經背離建國之初的理念

-和Hawthorne的關係很好，可說是心靈契合→有homosexual的嫌疑

5. Movie: The Sea Beast (1920~1930)

→讓大家重新認識Moby Dick

6.

*捕鯨業的興盛→會扼殺自然資產

*煉鯨油的火：The fire of Paranoid

-作者發現不能看著火太久→不能跟隨亞哈的腳步

-亞哈看太久→Finally, he only sees the fire.

*How come Ishmael would be a survivor?

 → Herman Melville was a critique of transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. While they thought a sublime life was to be found alone in nature, Melville (and other contemporaries like Nathaniel Hawthorne) sought to show that nature can be dangerous and inhospitable. Such pursuit of isolation and nature will eventually destroy the exile, much like Captain Ahab. Ishmael, being the only one to declare himself temporarily at sea, is the only one to return.