Science For Science's Sake

I 'm a little sad not to incorporate more links to other people's blog posts, but when I get an idea of something I want to write about, I'm going to write about it okay? Though before I start I do want to point out that there's a Moby Dick flash game that Mary Layton posted a link to and I recommend you all go play it for hours and hours with no moderation.

I've been going a little crazy while reading this whale story because in class we've talked a lot about why Herman Melville would write such a long story with so much detail about whaling. What could he have meant by it? What is it that he's trying to tell us about the world through his depictions of whales being slaughtered and boiled down into oil?

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

powered by Fotopedia

I've encountered this issue in many an English class and there have been many teachers who have asserted that certain texts are meant to mean certain things. There are way too many Jesus allegories that have been found and it is my assertion that sometimes we think way too hard about something that can be simple.

 Are we closed minded to the idea that maybe it doesn't mean anything deeper and this guy is just really interested in whales? Maybe the story of Ahab is not so much the focus, but a vehicle for delivering his much-adored whale facts.

"But Heidi, this is a 500 page classic literary piece. There must be way more to it than just a whale story!"

You might be right. And I'm sure as Melville was writing, his beliefs and his code of living have seeped into the text to make it more than just a whale story. Let me tell you, though, that there have been times that I have written things or painted pictures with nothing more in mind than to write a simple story or to paint pictures of clouds and my teachers and classmates have read much more than what I intended. In some ways, this was good: I was able to see more in something that I had created. Their perception of meaning created more meaning in the subject for me. In some instances it was frustrating because they were creating meaning where I had not intended any to exist.

I also point to an example from my younger years: I, like many other children, loved to read animal books. I would drink up all the information I could from animal programs and animal encyclopedias. This love of inhaling information everywhere around me branched into other subjects and led for an inevitable need for frequent regurgitation of information. My mom, whether she wanted to or not, became well acquainted with a working knowledge of a beehive and the peak speed of a cheetah while chasing a meal as well as the other volumes of information I would repeat. (I actually really liked the chapters about the dissection of the whale and the harvesting of blubber and the process of turning that blubber into oil. I was genuinely interested in how the heck they would deal with the whale once they caught it. What I really need as a companion to Moby Dick would probably be a whale Eyewitness book.)

When you like to read a lot, it has to go somewhere. Melville clearly liked to learn about whales. He spent time on whaling ships and he read so much it would almost seem a waste not to spend entire chapters detailing the significance of a whale's blow hole and the peculiarities about the bones in the fins.

My friends and countrymen, couldn't we all use a little more science for science's sake? Some facts that will not make us wiser, but which will tell us everything we never wished to know about whales?

I say unto you, yea.