Reflections: The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea

Whales endlessly fascinate me. They have a strange allure on me, causing a curious mix of fear, wonder, and an eagerness to know more. I have heard several personal stories from colleagues and friends from the Pacific coast on how pods of humpback whales have swum inches by their little rafts, making sure that not a drop of water splashed on them while they gracefully rose and dove at just the right intervals to avoid the rafts. Such consideration and compassion is so moving! I regard whales as truly gentle beasts of the sea with so much enigma around them. So, this acclaimed book was an apt gift from my husband who is fascinated with me being fascinated with whale watching.

Anyway, I was quite excited to read the book. I expected it to be a glorious book on whales - expounding on their behaviors, biology, habitat, and a little history rendered through a literary style of writing. However, this turned out to be mostly history - specifically the history of whaling and the misconceptions and metaphors surrounding whales before science clarified and debunked almost all of them. Being a fan of Moby Dick, the author frames most of the book using Moby Dick as his muse. I definitely enjoyed most of the book, but those parts of Moby Dick that were not captivating to me, specifically about the history of whaling, were present in this book too. So, I generously skimmed those pages/chapters.

But what I really loved about this book was my connection with the author's palpable enthusiasm, excitement, and wide-eyed fascination with whales! It was a wonderful resonance! If I had heard him talk in person, I think all my hair would have stood on end with excitement! All those elusive words that I have grappled with to articulate why I am so moved by whales are present bountifully in this book. And what beautiful words and apt sentences are spilled through this book! The writing is truly beautiful and literary. So, my heart raced, my head was nodding and my lips were breaking into a smile as I read through passages glorifying this magnificent beast. I particularly enjoyed reading about all the myths surrounding whales - the beasts of the sea that no one could see before the advent of aquariums and documentaries.

One aspect that clawed at me was my guilt at understanding how whales are (or used to be) transported to aquariums for public viewing. I don't think I will ever see beluga whales at an aquarium with the same mirth.  Side note: aren't beluga whales awesome? Such cheery, calming creatures. The author briefly discusses the costs and benefits (if at all) of bringing these animals to captive habitats - even if the habitat is set up with good intentions.

If there's one thing I would wish about this book, it would be to cut short on the historical aspects and concentrate more on the behavior and biology of whales. I guess, that means I should just walk into a library and pick a biology book. But if only biology books were as well written as this one!

The historical aspects of whaling do have a lot of social and environmental relevance today, so I appreciate that. However, more on the whales themselves would have been fantastic.

To wrap up, this is a wonderful, well written book that idealizes and empathizes with whales. The book engulfs whales with so much romanticism and glory. History buffs with interest in marine creatures or fishing will appreciate this book all the more.

Reflections: Moby-Dick

On the surface, Moby Dick has all the elements that appeal to me - a whale as the primary character, an adventure in the sea, a literary classic, an allegory of good and evil, and the uncontrollable forces of Nature. No wonder I’d wanted to read this book for so long. I chose to ignore reviews that groaned it was a tedious read, and set out to conquer the book with the same ferocity as the sailors who hunted Moby Dick. But I have to resign and admit that this book was surely one of my most challenging reads. I nearly gave up on it on multiple occasions, but I guess it was the same ambition of wanting to conquer that which is beyond our reach, which drove me to labour through it.

Ishmael, the narrator is part of the crew aboard the Pequod, a whaling ship headed by the tyrannical captain Ahab. Ahab is obsessed with avenging the gargantuan white sperm-whale, Moby-Dick, which on a certain vicious encounter had bitten off Ahab’s leg. Armed with his ivory leg, and steely will, Ahab runs a tight ship in search of the elusive Moby-Dick. Ishmael narrates the slow and seductive spell the whale and its pursuit casts on the crew. Their ambition and greed lustfully increases till it takes over their mind and possesses them to the point where they are ready to abandon everything - at that point, the whale and the purpose itself is lost, but it’s the enticing sense of pursuing the unconquerable, and the thrill of wanting to control and vanquish something larger than life itself, which fuels the men. This is likened to our pursuit of all that is elusive and mystical in our lives. Our ambitions are always aimed at what cannot be controlled. It may seem like we are after bigger houses, luxurious cars and exotic vacations - but underneath all the materialism and greed, there is a constant quest towards grasping the unreachable, to better understand Life itself. The mundane aspects of life then dissolve. Perhaps that's the reason why we are running after the toughest chase - to escape the mundane and nagging issues of life.

The whale is transfigured as a demonic creature, and man’s battle with it is seen as a fight of good against evil. But the notions of good and evil, and who is on which side, quickly disappear as the fight thickens. Environmentalists today can easily argue that man is on the evil side. But the book doesn’t allow you to make that conclusion that easily.

The hunt for a monstrous, magnificent, immortal creature that seems to rule the seas was almost an impossible feat to accomplish in the late 19th century. Therefore, the whale itself was glorified and celebrated because of the mysteries it held to these men. The bulk of the book is a detailed repository of the biology of whales, the different religious and spiritual metaphors of whales in different cultures, their behavior and psychology, and the history of whaling, its beauty and mechanics. The book includes a wonderful encyclopedia of whales and whaling, all of which are wrapped in extremely lyrical and beautiful prose. But the prose is so beautiful, the lines are loaded with so many levels of metaphors, that it takes time (and effort) to parse through the paragraphs and swipe all the literary merit. The lack of a structured plot and the many hundreds of pages of whaling facts were what made this book a tiresome read. If the 600 odd pages were shrunk to about 300, this would have been my instant favorite.

I’m sure I didn’t glean all the information and the scores of subtle philosophical asides spattered through the book. There are so many levels of meaning stacked within each paragraph, that I gave up on unfurling it all. But a shallow reading doesn’t do justice to the book. I wold recommend reading this book with a friend or along a book-club to spark discussions and to truly appreciate the literary symbolism.

In my humble opinion, this book is just the literary giant of  Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea. Hemingway explores the same (or similar) discussions on man’s maniacal obsession and determination to test his limits and reach for the toughest rope. But I liked it better because of how he ended his discussion - highlighting the spirit of the adventure/ambition to be greater than the material conquest.

Moby-Dick is indeed a whale of a read, and definitely stands apart from all the books I’ve read so far!