#MELVILLE

[alientitty]

...therefore, to the death-longing eyes of such men, who still have left in them some interior compunctions against suicide, does the all-contributed and all-receptive ocean alluringly spread forth his whole plain of unimaginable, taking terrors, and wonderful, new-life adventures; and from the hearts of infinite Pacifics, the thousand mermaids sing to them—“Come hither, broken-hearted; here is another life without the guilt of intermediate death; here are wonders supernatural, without dying for them. Come hither! bury thyself in a life which, to your now equally abhorred and abhorring, landed world, is more oblivious than death. Come hither! put up thy gravestone, too, within the churchyard, and come hither, till we marry thee!”

-Herman Melville, Moby Dick

[itsnightblood]

art by: @my-melville hear my new synthwave track here

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

my brain may be on starhab lockdown but i have not forgotten my boys!

read my Moby Dick webcomic!

part of some sketchbook dumps that i’ve posted on Patreon over the last week or so 💖 felt like coloring this one so here they are! many more such gay shenanigans over there @ pocketsizedquasar

[ID: Traditionally (pencil) drawn, digitally colored sketches of Ishmael and Queequeg. In both sketches, they are drawn from the chest up, leaning close in conversation with Queequeg’s arm over Ismael’s shoulder. The first sketch has Ishmael featuring with his hands and an absent expression, while Queequeg looks at him fondly. A speech bubble from Ishmael says “*questionable whale facts*” and an arrow pointing at Queequeg says “enamored.”

In the second sketch, Queequeg is explaining something to Ishmael, who looks at them with rapt attention. The speech bubble from Queequeg says “*batshit insane story*” while Ishmael is now the one with an arrow labeled “enamored.”]

bonus doodle of flustered ishmael + just the lines without color under the cut

[ID: first, a zoomed out picture of the same sketchbook page as above, with an additional sketch at the bottom of Ishmael looking extremely flustered (labeled “+1 gey”) at a Queequeg rubbing something from his chin. Second, the same as the previous image but without the color, just the pencil sketches.]

[burningvelvet]

I finished Moby Dick. So, to continue my former post(s) documenting my thoughts, here we are (spoilers ahead):

captain ahab: i am once again asking hast thou seen the white whale

Narrator, for the 5 millionth time describing captain ahab: "MONOMANIACAL. MONOMANIAC. MONOMANIA."

I was thinking "the homosexual themes everyone talks about are really exaggerated apparently…" and then I got to the chapter about sperm squeezing

Stubb meeting with the French in chap 91 had the exact vibe of a filler episode on a comedy sitcom

there are a lot of moments that reminded me of The Office ngl like i could just imagine stubb in the little interview chair just talking. so much meme material. he's seriously just doing his own thing. the little random characters like the blacksmith and carpenter just talking shit and side-eyeing ahab in the background lmaoooo

Saint George didn't kill a dragon, it was a whale #THETRUTHREVEALED #WHALETRUTHERS

It would have been hilarious if the British people told Ahab that they already killed Moby Dick already before he could get to it. I was so hoping that would happen. Bonus points if it was the Rachel after he'd turned them away.

Ahab discusses the topic of madness a lot. It's almost like he's… mad...

I vote Ahab for the most Byronic hero to ever Byronic… Heathcliff and Rochester have nothing on him… The origin of the Byronic hero, Byron's titular character from the narrative poem Childe Harold, is literally mentioned by name in the novel and had to be a blatant inspiration - it could not be more obvious! (I have yet to encounter the famed Byronic heroes of Russian literature, most notably Eugene Onegin, a work where Byron is also blatantly name-dropped).

Everyone thinking Queequeg was dying and having a coffin made to his measurements and filled with grave goods at his direction and then him literally climbing into the coffin to test it out and then waiting silently to die…. then all of a sudden getting better and saying he chose to recover bc he remembered he had something on his to-do list….. iconic

Ishmael referring to Queequeg as "my Queequeg…" omg. Queerqueg

Queequeg drawing figures like the ones on his tattoos omg… au story where Queequeg is an artist/tattoo artist when???

I was literally saying "AWWWWW" out loud when Ahab and Pip were having their little moments

The irony of Ahab abandoning the Rachel then it coming back for Ishmael… the coffin lifeboat… etc… good stuff…

okay ahab is my man but yeah he was an asshole to the captain of rachel.

also feel bad for tashtego. he wanted that gold doubloon so bad and ahab was like SIKE, MOTHERFUCKER! umm tashtego did not get cut out of a whale by queequeg to deal with ur shit ahab!

Once again wanting a Black Sails/Moby Dick AU… I found this essay about the similarities between Flint/Ahab https://ijms.nmdl.org/article/view/22389/14361

They only have like 2-3 little moments together but like… Starbuck/Ahab kind of outdoing Ishmael/Queequeg there for a moment… chaps 132/134… oh my godddddddddddddd whyyyyyyy

Captain Ahab's moments in chapters 36/37 AAAAAHHHHH you will see me being normal about this

I noted some of my favorite Ahab moments/chapters and they are 36/37/41/70/99/108/109/113/115/116/119/125/129/132/134/135. Like I may seriously just re-read those chapters (no offense to Melville's whale facts, Stubb's jokes, & Pip's insanity)

the end is kind of similar to the great gatsby in the sense that you finally realize the entire novel was actually written for him to cope with his grief-related trauma & then suddenly it all makes sense. the lingering, the sentimentality regarding seemingly insignificant details or people, the meandering/digressing/procrastinating getting to the end, etc.

there are actually several moments -- i don't know if he actually referred to ahab or the others in past-tense specifically, but there were several moments where i felt like i kind of thought he was giving away the end before he did (it wasn't a shock to me bc i read about the end prior, but still)

[mossy-rainfrog]

[ID: A digital drawing of Ahab's boat crew on a whalehunt, headed by Fedallah, and oared by several other men. The perspective is right before the bow of the rowboat, in the splash of the water as Fedallah crouches, holding his harpoon, and looking ahead with a focused expression. Several men man the oars, one looking ahead just like Fedallah, and one looking back at Ahab in the back of the boat, who mans the steering and points ahead, crying out for a whale. Behind them, the Pequod can be seen at a distance over the blue ocean against a pink and purple sky.

Character designs: Fedallah is a lean, older Persian man dressed in Zoroastrian white with a wrap over his hair. He has a thin mustache and short beard. Ahab is a chubby middle-aged Persian man with short, curly hair, and wearing a maroon coat. There are three visible oarsmen: all three are younger Filipino men of varying hair lengths, facial hair styles, and skin tones. They are all wearing various shades of purple. End ID.]

CATEGORY TEN FEDALLAH MOMENT. I haven't posted nearly enough Fedallah art on here, so enjoy some boys on a whalehunt :) i love the colors of this one.

designs are, as always, borrowed from the lovely @pocketsizedquasar-3 :3

[priestess-draws]

its 3 am my hand hurts and like maybe 5 people know who this is

[tomato48]

CARS IN MOVIES

↳Le Samouraï (1967)

Réalisation : Jean-Pierre Melville

Directeur de la photographie : Henri Decaë

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

Chapters: 1/16

Words: 3,103

Fandom: Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Captain Ahab/Starbuck (Moby Dick), Starbuck/Mary Starbuck (Moby Dick), Captain Ahab & Starbuck (Moby Dick), Captain Ahab & Fedallah (Moby Dick), Starbuck & Fedallah (Moby Dick)

Characters: Captain Ahab (Moby Dick), Starbuck (Moby Dick), Mary Starbuck (Moby Dick), Fedallah (Moby Dick), Stubb (Moby Dick), Other Character Tags to Be Added

Additional Tags: Eventual Romance, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Genderqueer Character, Character Study, Trans Character, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Genderswap, Butch Captain Ahab, Butch Starbuck, Butch Characters

Summary: What would change about Moby-Dick if the major driving forces of the narrative were women?

How much does this single factor radically alter their choices, their relationships, and their eventual end? What would it take for the women of Starbuck and Ahab to stand in the same places as their male counterparts in the novel? Do they go undercover as men to attain power? How do they feel about that? Why is this the power they seek? Is that power enough to save them?

Or, Moby Dick, reimagined through the lens of Captain Ahab and First Mate Starbuck as butch women.

—

A prologue of sorts. Set some decade or so before the events of Moby-Dick, on Ahab and Starbuck’s second voyage together. Ahab is the Captain of the Pequod, and Starbuck the Second Mate.

[memoriesofthingspast]

🌊

[ki-rest]

aaaand i did it again.

[nando161mando]

Australian employment advert 🙃

[historyguide]

Alain Delon and the aesthetics of Jean-Pierre Melville.

Explore our visual guides and documentaries about art & history.

[heinrichheineee]

Nathaniel Hawthorne writing about Herman Melville. Journal entry date: November 12, 1856

“It is strange how he persists — and has persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before”

Source: Jay Leyda, The Melville Log, A Documentary Life of Herman Melville: 1819-1891, vol. II

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

happy dick day friday! long haired ahab can do whatever he wants to me <3 i mean sorry uh who said that. what.

anyway. webcomic update :)

[ID: a cropped screenshot of a webcomic page, featuring Ahab from Moby Dick clinging to the remains of a broken whaleboat in the ocean. He is also gripping a knife and looking to the side, enraged. There is a fresh cut bleeding on his lip.

The second image is the same as the first, but with text over it, reading: “update / moby dick ch 3 pg 3 / mobydick - thecomic .com”

End ID.]

[burningvelvet]

some of my favorite quotes from moby dick which are unintentionally metal (i can only include a few because if this list were exhaustive it would break the character limit)

"Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."

"I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer."

"'Oh, sir, it will break bones — beware, beware!' 'No fear; I like a good grip; I like to feel something in this slippery world that can hold, man.'"

"Go to the meatmarket of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds staring up at the long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not that sight take a tooth out of the cannibal's jaw? Cannibals? who is not a cannibal?"

"Here’s food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels; that’s tingling enough for mortal man! to think’s audacity."

"Hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple-dumpling."

"Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing and boxing, riding and rowing."

"There, then, he sat, holding up that imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty forlornness. There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair."

"In the tumultuous business of cutting-in and attending to a whale, there is much running backwards and forwards among the crew. Now hands are wanted here, and then again hands are wanted there. There is no staying in any one place; for at one and the same time everything has to be done everywhere. It is much the same with him who endeavors the description of the scene. We must now retrace our way a little."

"1ST NANTUCKET SAILOR. Oh, boys, don’t be sentimental; it’s bad for the digestion! Take a tonic, follow me! (Sings, and all follow.)"

[mossy-rainfrog]

[ID: A digital painting of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick standing in a storm and wielding a burning harpoon. He stands near the railing of the ship as a wave breaks over the bulwarks, and scowls fiercely towards the viewer, mouth open as if in mid-speech, akin to a snarl. He holds the harpoon in both hands, and waves the burning barb of it in front of him. The light reflects off of his eyes, his face, and the droplets of water on his skin. Behind him, huge waves surround the ship. The next three images are closeups of the drawing: on his hands, his face, and the harpoon itself.

Character design: Ahab is an older chubby and muscular Persian man with short curly greying dark hair, a pointed beard, a lightning scar across his face, and a scar across his nose and lip. He wears a high-collared red coat over a light colored undershirt. End ID.]

"All your oaths to hunt the White Whale are as binding as mine; and heart, soul, and body, lungs and life, old Ahab is bound. And that ye may know to what tune this heart beats; look ye here; thus I blow out the last fear!" - Moby Dick: Chapter 119 ,The Candles

FINALLY finished this tribute to my favorite Ahab moment in the whole entire book. HOT MEN PUT DOWN A MUTINY SINGLEHANDEDLY WITH A BURNING HARPOON!!!! GAH!!!!!!!! special thanks to unsplash for all my color references, to my computer for putting up with this file, and @pocketsizedquasar for the most gorgeous and grand Ahab design of all time. Go read their webcomic.