Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick In Breadth

When I learned of this new study of Melville's "Moby-Dick", "Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick", by George Cotkin, I ordered it immediately. I was in the middle of rereading the novel. With its 135 short chapters each devoted to the corresponding chapter of "Moby-Dick" I thought the book would be useful as a running commentary. I became deeply involved in my rereading of the novel, however, and completed the lengthy book before Cotkin's study arrived in the mail. As it turned out, there was no loss because I had been somewhat mistaken in what I thought was the character of Cotkin's work.

Cotkin, Professor of History at California Polytechnic State University, has written extensively about American culture, including books about William James, American existentialism, and current American moral dilemmas. In "Dive Deeper" he writes simply and with contagious enthusiasm about Melville. In spite of the arrangement of his book to correspond to chapters of Melville, however, his book is far from a direct chapter-by-chapter analysis of the text. Instead, Cotkin's study is broad-ranging, digressive, and suggestive, much like the book it celebrates. It is better read on its own, as I did, rather than as an ongoing commentary to accompany a reading of "Moby-Dick".

The book parallels the arrangement of its subject in that it begins with a Prologue, follows with 135 named chapters, and ends with an Epilogue. The format of each chapter varies. In most cases, Cotkin begins with a paragraph with only the barest summary on what occurs in the corresponding chapter of the novel. Cotkin then uses each chapter as a springboard for a discussion of an aspect of "Moby-Dick" that in many instances is only loosely related to the text at hand. In the process, Cotkin offers a fascinating look at how "Moby-Dick" has been appropriated in American culture over the years. In the process, and in passing, he offers his own excellent insights into the novel.

Take for example chapter 48, titled "The First Lowering". In "Moby-Dick" this chapter tells of the first time in the Pequod's journey that the boats were lowered to the water to hunt a whale that had been spotted from the deck.

Cotkin doesn't say much more than this about the content of chapter 48. He uses the term "first lowering" creatively to refer to the first publication of "Moby-Dick" in 1851 in both Britain and the United States. His discussion in the chapter offers an overview of the early reception of the book in the reviews it received, positive, negative, and mixed on both shores of the Atlantic. It is a good parallel and worthwhile even if it is not novelistic criticism.

Some of Cotkin's chapters explore historical figures in Melville's book, which is in line with a traditional commentary. In chapter 124, "The Needle" Cotkin suggests, the fiery Commander Charles Wilkes, commander of the U.S. Exploring Expedition to Antarctica, as a possible model for Captain Ahab. For the most part, Cotkin discusses a procession of American critics, novelists, artists, musicians, actors, and others who have engaged with "Moby-Dick" and enriched understanding of the text or used it as a basis for their own original work. Several chapters discuss film versions of the novel, including director John Huston's famous 1956 movie. There are discussions of the lives and thoughts of Melville scholars including Richard Weaver, Lewis Mumford, Lawrence Thompson, and Charles Olson. I am familiar with some of this material and learned a great deal from Cotkin's treatment. I was glad to be reminded of Olson.

Cotkin discusses the way in which literary figures used Melville's text, with reference, for example to Albert Camus, Jack Kerouac, and, in an extended analysis, the American poet Hart Crane. Cotkin explores artistic reaction to Melville in the form of celebrated illustrations for various editions of "Moby-Dick" and a series of paintings by Frank Stella. He explores how the novel has inspired music, from opera and cantata, to Bob Dylan and rap. And Cotkin discusses recent novels which explore the world of Melville and his great book. Among other things, the book offers two references to boxing matches which had been analogized to the conflict between Ahab and the whale: Rocky Marciano-Archie Moore (1955) and the proposed match between Jack Dempsey/Primo Carnera from the 1930's.

Interspersed with his soundings of other writers and artists, Cotkin's offers his own observations on the text: "Melville created a world of symbols in Moby-Dick, and into this world we voyage. No less than Ahab, we attempt to harpoon meaning, to attach ourselves to this great bulk of a volume, its white pages teeming with signifiers of something." To take another example, Cotkin writes the following about Father Mapple's sermon in the ninth chapter of "Moby-Dick".

"Mapple's sermon, then, represents a vision of God as loving and forgiving. It may also be framed as absurd in content and in presentation, issuing forth from a ship's bow and flavored with the salty language of sailors in a church that sweats with bloody deaths. Melville might listen to this sermon and consider it a grand illusion, a sop to those living in a world that is apparently meaningless and obviously horrific."

I was excited by my recent rereading of "Moby-Dick" and thought I had understood more of the book than in my earlier readings. The novel is inexhaustible. Cotkin's book helped continue my excitement and made me want to think more about the book its multiple levels of meaning, and the art and novels that it has inspired. Cotkin covers much material in a short volume. The book thus has more breadth than depth. Even so, it shows the depth of Melville's thought. Melville's book is one of the few works of literature with power to transform readers. Cotkin's book encourages readers to explore Melville and to explore his injunction to his readers to "Dive Deeper".

Robin Friedman