Startling in its originality, Whale! explores Melville's Moby Dick as a tale not of vengeance but of the search for connection and meaning, interpreting Ahab's near-pathological agitation as indicative of his refusal to accept the world as unknowable. Book jacket.
The aim of this thoroughly unconventional work is to demonstrate that Herman Melvilles Moby Dick and Ludwig Wittgensteins Philosophical Investigations are, in effect, one and the same book. Whale! not only successfully reveals the vital intersections between Melville and Wittgen…
Introduction: Melvillean mimesis -- The case against Melville -- Melville's reconstructed realism -- Gospel cetology -- The third realm -- God's servant -- Finale: The dust (and the spirit that moves it)
One Foot in the Finite inspires a radical shift in our view of Melville's project in Moby-Dick, for its guiding notion is that Melville uses his book to call into question the naturalism that distinguishes the early modern period in Europe. Naturalism is not only the idea that r…