Lonely lonely man.
Absolutely devastating to me that melville just casually drops that Ahab was *forcibly straitjacketed* for a period of time after an already deeply mentally and physically traumatizing event. that utter lack of care and support was honestly in part probably more traumatizing than the intial event itself.
Patrons read three weeks ahead! Still working on planning out changes / expansions to the Patreon & rewards so again feel free to weigh in on things that might be interesting for you to see.
Is the cursive your hand?
I wish my cursive was as nice.
it is mine! thank you!
i keep meaning to make a font out of it so i don’t have to keep painstakingly handwriting all the narration, but i never get around to it 😅
oh this is lovely!! love queequeg and ishmael being cozy together... and the harpooneers spinning the yarn!! i love the contrast, the juxtaposition of the crew all chatting, and especially daggoo and tash excitedly telling the tale, meanwhile ahab broods and paces, all alone.. it really evokes how. singular ahab is, in so many senses. he's singular, he's outstanding, but he's also isolated... aa this is wonderful.
(also, do you hc that daggoo and tashtego were previously harpooneers aboard the pequod when ahab got de-legged? or did they hear about it ashore or during a gam or something? that bit where it's stated that ahab was straitjacketed and laced to the hammock and left pretty much alone until he recovered was. ouch.)
thank you!! and ough yeah it’s. very intentional that among all the crew who get to be in merry company with each other and all that, ahab is walking alone. there’s a point near the end of the book where ahab says of himself “Ahab stands alone among the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors!” and like. yeah!!! he’s alone!! he feels very deeply alone, in a way that was certainly not helped by the fact that the second he lost his leg everyone yeah, pretty much shut him up and left him all alone to deal with the physical and mental pain + trauma.
i don’t know if i think tash and dag were on the pequod when it happened! i lean towards no, because ahab earlier in this scene seemed shocked that the two of them knew of moby dick, which would make less sense if they had been present when it happened. i think tash & dag are telling (+ in some ways probably exaggerating, as storytellers are wont to do) this story based on rumors & other stories they’ve heard, like you said ashore or on gams w other ships and such, of how it all went down.
I was so thrilled to see a welcoming adaptation of this book, I've loved reading it so far!
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