#CHAPTER 102. A Bower in the Arsacides

[roseunspindle]

Hitherto, in descriptively treating of the Sperm Whale, I have chiefly dwelt upon the marvels of his outer aspect; or separately and in detail upon some few interior structural features. But to a large and thorough sweeping comprehension of him, it behooves me now to unbutton him still further, and untagging the points of his hose, unbuckling his garters, and casting loose the hooks and the eyes of the joints of his innermost bones, set him before you in his ultimatum; that is to say, in his unconditional skeleton. - Ishmael - who can just keep talking about whales...and undressing whales...

[gardenofshadcws]

Whale Weekly Day 69 (nice)

Chapter 102. A Bower in the Arsacides

Please stop describing the whales

And please stop describing undressing the whales what even is that

YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE SUBTERANNEAN PARTS OF THE WHALE YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE NOT-SUBTERRANNEAN PARTS OF THE WHALE

Okay there is no way this Tranquo story is true 

Ish we all know you’re an unreliable narrator what in the hell are you talking about

Why would you tattoo a whale’s measurements on your arm what is this man

And your poem bro buy a notebook like the rest of us

Chapter 103. Measurement of the Whale’s Skeleton

No stop we really need to go back to the tattoo thing

Haven’t we established like seven hundred times that whales are really big

[coquelicoq]

just finished moby-dick for the first time and ended up reading the last few chapters aloud, the language is so fluid. honestly i think you could get a lot of good monologues out of this. here are some of my favorites for this purpose:

ahab's ending dialogue in chapter 132, The Symphony

chapter 102, A Bower in the Arsacides, paragraph beginning "It was a wondrous sight"

the carpenter's speech at the end of chapter 126, The Life-Buoy

chapter 1, Loomings, perhaps the paragraph beginning "Again, I always go to sea as a sailor"

ahab's speech in chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, from "All visible objects" to "I'd strike the sun if it insulted me."

ahab's speech about the wind at the beginning of chapter 135, The Chase - Third Day

starbuck's speech in chapter 123, The Musket

stubb's speech at the end of chapter 29, Enter Ahab; To Him, Stubb

chapter 37, Sunset, until "good night!"

chapter 96, The Try-Works, from "Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man!" to the end

chapter 99, The Doubloon, either ahab's speech or the portion of stubb's speech from "Look you, Doubloon" to "Adieu, Doubloon!"

[youvegotishmael]

“The skeleton dimensions I shall now proceed to set down are copied verbatim from my right arm, where I had them tattooed; as in my wild wanderings at that period, there was no other secure way of preserving such valuable statistics. But as I was crowded for space, and wished the other parts of my body to remain a blank page for a poem I was then composing – at least, what untattooed parts might remain – I did not trouble myself with the odd inches; nor, indeed, should inches at all enter into a congenial admeasurement of the whale.”

WHAT

[mobydickeveryday]

Life folded Death; Death trellised Life; the grim god wived with youthful Life, and begat him curly-headed glories.

Chapter 102, A Bower in the Arsacides Leave it to Melville to make a description of a whale skeleton covered in weeds sound like a tragic love story.