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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
{{quote| ''Call me Ishmael.''}}▼
| title = Moby-Dick
| original title = Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
| image = Wrong Hands Moby-Dick.jpg
| caption = Now that we're caught up on [[Everybody Knows That|what everybody knows]] (thanks to ''[[Wrong Hands]]), onward to the article.
| author = Herman Melville
| central theme = The dangers of obsession
| elevator pitch = A man infatuated with the sea enters in the tripulation of a ship whose captain is obsessed with the whale that ate his leg. [[It Gets Worse]].
| genre = Epic, Sea story
| publication date = October 18, 1851
| source page exists = yes
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
▲{{quote| ''Call me Ishmael.''}}
 
Described by many as the greatest American novel, '''''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale''''', by [[Herman Melville]], is either a story about [[Animal Nemesis|the hunt of a wicked whale by a madman]] that [[Shown Their Work|shows Melville's work]], or [[Author Filibuster|an encyclopedia on whaling and cetology]] with a [[Framing Device]]. You choose.
 
Either way, the plot follows a man that, infatuated with the sea (apparently, it's a periodical thing), decides to go aboard a whaling ship to try out how whaling feels. He and his [[Noble Savage|newly-met best friend Queequeg]] go upon the ''Pequod'' under the command of the [[Determinator|monomaniac Captain Ahab]], and eventually get in the middle of his maniac hunt for Moby Dick, the eponymous "White Whale" that ate his leg. Tragedy ensues.
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This book is part of the Hollywoodian [[Small Reference Pools]]. Despite any real-life literary merits, it is convenient shorthand for "huge boring [[Doorstopper]] assigned for reading by high-school teachers" in any given kids series. Whether this also implicitly states that execs think that [[Viewers are Morons|Kids Are Morons]] is debatable.
 
''[[Moby Dick (Filmfilm)|Moby Dick]]'' has been adapted to screen several times, the most famous version being with [[Gregory Peck]] as Ahab. [[Patrick Stewart]] was inspired to play the role following an allegorical comparison to Ahab in [[Star Trek: First Contact|one of his movies]].
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=== ''Moby-Dick'' provides examples of: ===
 
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* [[Achey Scars]]: Captain Ahab's lost leg, arguably.
* [[An Arm and Aa Leg]]: The source of Ahab's angst.
* [[Animal Nemesis]]: It's practically the textbook for this trope.
** Or its subversion, in that Ahab's rage has since become stock metaphor for revenge-seeking rage that defies merely human attempts to control or stop it.
* [[Annoying Arrows]]: Moby Dick's hide is covered in leftover harpoons from failed attempts to bag him.
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]:
{{quote| ''"He's killed himself," she cried. "It's unfort'nate stiggs done over again - there goes another counterpane - god pity his poor mother! - it will be the ruin of my house. Has the poor lad a sister? Where's that girl? - there, Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign, with - "no suicides permitted here, and no smoking in the parlor;" - might as well kill both birds at once."''}}
* [[Author Filibuster]]: Melville looooooves whaling. They're the frontiersmen of the generation; the equivalent of cowboys and astronauts.
* [[Big Guy, Little Guy]]: Each Mate with each harpooner is this sort of pairing, Starbuck with Queequeg, Stubb with Tashtego, and Flask with Daggoo.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|Queequeg's coffin.}}
* [[Determinator]]: Captain Ahab
** '''The''' [[Trope Codifier]] of all self-destructive forms. Being accused of being Captain Ahab means that unless a character changes their chosen course, and ''quickly'', they ''are'' going to destroy themselves... and everyone under his command.
* [[Doorstopper]]
* [[Everything's Squishier Withwith Cephalopods]]: The crew of the ''Pequod'' once gets to spot a giant squid, and find it even scarier than Moby Dick himself.
* [[First-Person Peripheral Narrator]]: Ishmael tells the story, and at first appears to be the main character, but as the story goes on he becomes more and more peripheral to the story to the point that he almost disappears while Captain Ahab and the titular whale take center stage as the main characters.
* [[Food Porn]]: Chapter 15 is about eating... chowder.
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* [[Freudian Trio]]: Ahab as Ego; Starbuck as Superego; Stubb as Id.
* [[Funetik Aksent]]: Fleece's form of speech.
* [[Fun Withwith Foreign Languages]]: Stubb's conversation with the captain of the ''Rosebud''.
* [[Gentle Giant]]: Queequeg. He's a brawny cannibal prince from the South Sea islands who's covered in tribal tattoos, has his teeth filed to look like fangs, and is deadly accurate with his harpoon ([[Badass|which doubles as a razor for shaving]]). So what's his favorite pastime besides peddling shrunken heads in the street? Snuggling up with his best buddy Ishmael. [[Cuteness Overload|D'awwwwwwww.]]
* [[Giant Squid]]: They encountered one:
{{quote| ''Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-color, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have; no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct; but undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.'' <br />
''As with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again, Starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk, with a wild voice exclaimed -- "Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!"'' }}
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: A book about the hunt of a ''sperm'' whale name Moby ''Dick''. Also, "The Town-Ho's Story" has nothing to do with [[The Oldest Profession]].
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* [[Louis Cypher]]: Fedallah, possibly.
* [[Ludicrous Precision]]: The question of whether the whale's spout is water or vapour has lasted from the beginning of history down to "this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter minutes past one o'clock P.M. of this sixteenth day of December, A.D. 1851)"
* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]: Is Moby Dick a physical manifestation of nature's rage, or simply an overly-aggressive, larger-than-average sperm whale? For the most part, that's up to the reader's interpretation.
* [[Manly Men Can Hunt]]
* [[Medium Blending]]: Owing to the obvious Shakespearean influence on the novel, some of the chapters are written as a play script.
* [[The Mutiny]]: In Chapter 54, "The Town-Ho's Story".
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Ahab is named after the cruel king whose reign is detailed in Kings 16:29 through 22:40 of [[The Bible]]. Ishmael comments on how unfortunate a man is to be saddled with such a name.
* [[No Man of Woman Born]]: Courtesy of Fedallah.
* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: Nobody knows just why or how the eponymous whale was named Moby Dick.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: "That deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa."
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Starbuck.
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* [[School Study Media]]
* [[Science Marches On]]: While the author was very knowledgeable about cetology, some "facts" he used have since been proven to be inaccurate.
{{quote| "Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish."}}
** More of a case of ''definitions'' march on. "Fish" originally just meant "animal that lives exclusively in water". Melville recognises that whales are warm-blooded, breath air, and bear live young, but just doesn't think that a sufficient reason to redefine what "fish" means. As made clear by several other lines in the same chaptern, Melville is very much a [[Lumper vs. Splitter|Lumper, not a Spliter]].
** He also mentions phrenology and physiognomy, both now considered pseudosciences.
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** Remove the even-numbered chapters, and you've got an encyclopedia of whaling. Remove the odd-numbered chapters, and you've got an adventure story. And that story still has a bit of the encyclopedia.
* [[Sleep Cute]]: Queequeg and Ishmael. Damn, do they [http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=cuddlefish+moby+dick#/d3ded0l look cute together] or what?
* [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]]: The book is ''Moby-Dick''. The whale, in-story, is only ever referred to as Moby Dick.
* [[Suddenly Ethnicity]]: Toyed with. Ishmael is shocked to discover that "the harpooner" is a South Seas native, but accepts it just as easily.
* [[Taking You Withwith Me]]: The whale takes Ahab with him. Or is that the other way round?
* [[Talk Like a Pirate]]: "Avast!"
** [[Justified]]. "Avast" is an actual period nautical command, and it (and a few others) are used correctly in the story.
* [[The Man With No Name]]: Ishmael, if one interprets "Call me Ishmael" to imply that this is ''not'' his true name.
* [[Truth in Television]]: Believe it or not, this book was based very heavily on a true story. Although, the story of ''Moby-Dick'' is quite a "softened" version of the actual events -- the ''real'' tale is far more gruesome and chilling. [[wikipedia:Essex chr(28)whaleshipchr(29whaleship)|Read for yourself]]. Also, it should be noted the angry ship-sinking cetacean was actually a sperm whale.
** Chapter XLV of the novel itself cites the real-life story as evidence that a sperm whale can indeed sink a ship.
* [[Super-Persistent Predator]]: Captain Ahab. A human version.
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{{reflist}}
{{The Big Read}}
[[Category:Nineteenth Century Literature]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Literature of the 19th century]]
[[Category:Print Long Runners]]
[[Category:School Study Media]]
[[Category:MobyThe DickGreat American Read]]
[[Category:Literature]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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