Welcome to By the Books, a newsletter dedicated to capturing and distributing wisdom from works of classic literature.
Each post will take less than 5 minutes to read, and will feature one great book, including:
A brief summary
A distillation of relevant themes
One actionable insight
Live by the best books, one day at a time.
“Moby Dick” by Herman Melville
Ah, yes, the Great American Novel (TM) that nobody has read. We all know the basic story, but if you’ll give me a moment, I’d like to offer a refresher.
Written in 1851, the story of Captain Ahab’s obsession with finding and killing the great white whale is narrated by Ishmael, a member of the Pequod’s doomed crew. Rooted in a previous encounter with the whale that left him maimed, Ahab’s monomaniacal fixation on vengeance eventually leads to the destruction of his ship and the death of everyone except Ishmael.
Alright. So it’s a cautionary tale against obsession, revenge, and kicking against the overwhelming power of nature.
But it’s also an illustration of what can happen to a person who constructs a definition of self atop a foundation of trauma.
Captain Ahab’s demise is not only personal, it is communal. Who are his crew? His friends and his family. While it is harrowing to admit, we know that one person’s hellish commitment to some dark god puts everyone around them at terrible risk. The terrible truth of this story is that Ahab’s crew was chained to the fate to which he had consigned himself.
“All that most maddens and torments;
all that stirs up the lees of things;
all truth with malice in it;
all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain;
all the subtle demonisms of life and thought;
all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified,
and made practically assailable
in Moby Dick.
Actionable Insight*
Abrahamic religions offer stern and constant warnings against idolatry, which is the belief that something other than God can save you. But I think the inverse of this is equally dire: believing that there is only one thing (a past event, a toxic ideology, a shitty person or tribe) that stands in the way of salvation.
By casting Moby Dick as the embodiment of all that torments and opposes him, Ahab believes that conquering the whale will allow him to vanquish the evils that haunt him.
But we know it isn’t true for him, so why do we believe it is true for us?
If you catch yourself blaming more and more of your problems on one giant monster, consider the fate of Ahab and his crew.
What is the first step you can take to tear down your dark idol?
*As a lover of literature, I must emphasize that the best way to truly absorb the wisdom of any work of literature is to actually read it, from start to finish, the way the author intended. I hope By the Books will occasionally inspire you to do just that.
“But it’s also an illustration of what can happen to a person who constructs a definition of self atop a foundation of trauma.”
Whoooooooa. Feast for thought
Makes me want to go back and finish the book. Not necessary, as I know the basic elements of the novel well enough that your post rings a chilling, noteworthy clang in my heart. But still--perhaps this novel is worth returning to.