August 4, 2014

Monday Melvilles

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Herman Melville (born August 1, 1809) was a pretty good customs inspector. He was also the author of Bartleby the Scrivener, Benito Cereno, and some book about a whale.

Herman Melville (born August 1, 1809) was a pretty good customs inspector. He was also the author of Bartleby the Scrivener, Benito Cereno, and some book about a whale.

This August, as we prepare to unleash a truly remarkable fall catalog, MobyLives will be taking a bit of a breather. We’ll still post the occasional news item or feature, but for most of this month we’ll be posting a roundup like this every morning. We will, of course, remain active on Twitter and Facebook. We hope you have a great August, and that you’ll keep checking in with us!

Today’s passage from Moby-Dick

Like a savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her own cubs, so the sea dashes even the mightiest whales against the rocks, and leaves them there side by side with the split wrecks of ships. No mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe. Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began. Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.–Chapter 58

Today’s Melville House book: The Sea Inside by Philip Hoare

A song for Monday: “The Ocean” (demo) by The Velvet Underground

 

Alex Shephard is the director of digital media for Melville House, and a former bookseller.

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