[lit-ideas] Re: Moby Dick and America
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:11:05 -0330
The closest I ever get to Moby Dick in my teaching is in the logic component of
the Philosophy in Education course or the Critical Thinking and Knowledge in
Education course:
The syllogism reads:
Shakespeare wrote Moby Dick. Moby Dick is a science fiction novel. Therefore
Shakespeare wrote a science fiction novel.
Questions: What is the logical point of the given syllogism, and do you want
your kids' school teachers to be able to correctly answer that question? If
yes, explain why. If not, explain why not. If you have no opinion, explain
why.
You have 2 hours. You must write in full sentences; no note-form answers will be
read. Write only on the right side of the booklet.
Walter O
MUN
Quoting Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Okay I read the piece about _Moby Dick_ and Bush. Not
> quite what I expected. It combines ignorance of the
> novel with some missed opportunities for Bush-bashing.
> Had Stephen Kinzer been a more astute reader, he could
> have taken his punditry to a higher level.
>
> Consider this paragraph:
>
> "Ahab was a tyrant who combined his business – finding
> oil – with the blind pursuit of personal vindication.
> Never was he able to see his plight from any
> perspective other than his own."
>
>
> First, it wasn't Ahab's business. He was merely a
> captain in the employ of Quaker ship owners. Secondly,
> we don't see "Ahab's perspective" since the story is
> told through Ishmael. That's part of Melville's point.
>
> And here's where Kinzer missed his best chance to bash
> Bush. Ahab has his "second-tier" crew hived away below
> decks until the ship sails. They emerge and take the
> ship into a new venture, away from mere whaling, and
> into Ahab's obsession. That "second crew" would be
> Cheney's national security team re-evaluating
> intelligence estimates on Iraq. Tsk-tsk.
>
> What would be Europe's paradigmatic novel during this
> period of the rise of Islamofascism? One classic
> immediately comes to mind: _Oblomov_ by Goncharov,
> where we meet an epitome of indecision and triviality.
>
> I can see the movie pitch: _Moby Dick_ meets _Oblomov_
> as narrated by Dostoevsky's Underground Man. Sylvester
> Stallone as Ahab, Sean Penn as Oblomov, Underground Man
> voiceover by Anthony Hopkins. Halfway through the
> movie, a postmodern twist as the whole set is blown up,
> and the cast killed, by al-Qaeda, who resent, in the
> words of al-Zawahiri, that the US has elected a "house
> Negro," Queequeg, as President.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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