Domino Quartz's Delightfully Quaint Random Banter Thread #248

[Rater202]

Yeah, Homer's read is a bit basic but perfectly valid. And given the Simpsons, especially in that particular season, take on a very "shut up Lisa" take on pretty much every stance, one could even argue we're supposed to read it that way- that Homer's desire to fight this bear led to him learning the problem and thus fixing it- which is actually healthy behavior, finding out why a bad thing happened and working to stop the cause of it, not simply lashing out at someone who is suffering as much as you are.

... but on the other hand, Lisa's take is just as basic. It's not "it's wrong to take revenge on an animal" it's "desire for revenge will drive you ****ing insane and kill everyone around you". Ahab had a pretty damn good life slaughtering creatures, but he let obsession over an animal overwhelm him to the point that he killed so, so so so many people. The presentation of The Whale in the book is less animal and more Living Storm, and indulging in your screaming at it will bring your house down around you.

Ummhmm. Whales weren't particularly understood at the time—this was written well before we knew they were intelligent creatures and, honestly, before whaling even became much a problem. Harpoon guns hadn't been invented yet so actually killing the whales was hard and dangerous as all **** putting a natural limit on how many could be killed.

At best, the whale is a particularly large and dangerous animal, uncognizant of and thus uncaring of Ahab's quest for vengeance and doing as it will. At worst, it's an allegory for the ineffable whims of nature, or even an uncaring and indifferent God that acts only when offended... I've also seen a literary argument in favor the whale being a metaphor for Satan but that's a stretch.

Of course, by a modern reading things come across pretty differently: The reason the whale is "white" is because it's a very old sperm whale, which grow paler as they age... And because it's covered in scars from all the times whalers have tried and failed to bring this particular one in.

Given that the white whale of the novel was based on several real cases of older sperm whales attacking whaling vessels, with what we know now of whale intelligence a plausible reading becomes that the whale itself was just as vengeful as Ahab, it was simply more justified and more successful.