#fedallahab

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

oh, fedallah

(various fedallah-centric doodles. IDs in alt text)

[mossy-rainfrog]

[Several drawings of Ahab, Starbuck, and Fedallah from Moby Dick reimagined as women. More detailed ID in ALT.]

hi everyone today i bring you. more women :)

a continuation of this last post, Ahab openly presents as a woman aboard her ship because she has enough job security at this point to do whatever she wants and her gender identity is essentially "call me sir, but beyond that who cares". Starbuck is still bigender as usual, so she initially went "undercover" as a man to get into the industry and then stuck with the disguise long term because she likes the way it feels to be Nathaniel. Meanwhile Fedallah is free balling tbh, she's under Ahab's protection on the Pequod and everyone's an asshole to her anyways so she truly could not give less of a fuck. All three use she/her, except for when Starbuck is undercover.

also *said through tears* ahab and fedallah are FRIENDS btw. they LOVE each other and she's FINE. melville when i GET you

also, side note because I don't think I ever mentioned it, but Starbuck is ID'd as "middle aged" in my art because (s)he is based on @pocketsizedquasar 's adaptation, where Starbuck's age has been interpreted to be around 40. <3 aging :)

anyways GIRLS! I've heard of them 👀

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

man. thinking about the 'Kill The Whale' album again and genuinely obsessed with the writing choice of fedallah and ahab having this deeply nuanced tense tragic power struggle of exotification and putting an end to being used and throwing the words of a forced prophecy back at the woman who made you speak them, condemning her to death and laughing as the shroud falls, and the whole time in the background starbuck is doing literally nothing but being gay horny out of her goddamn mind. no thoughts head empty. beautiful.

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

Have been too busy to post this friday and yesterday but IT’S FEDALLAH TIME!!!!!!! THIS WEEK’S PAGE WAS FEDALLAH TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

copying over today’s blog post from the comic site, because i think it’s important! under a cut because u know how i ramble when it comes to these guys 💖:

God I have so so many thoughts about Fedallah. Before everything else, it’s VERY important that you know that he is my Favorite Fucking Guy and I Love him So Fucking Much and he Means SO fucking much to me. But anyway! I’m going to copy a lot of my thoughts here over from the notes of a fic chapter of mine where I talk about Fedallah: There are, of course, many, many issues with the way Melville portrays Fedallah in the book. He is a horrifically racist and Orientalist stereotype. Just one of these issues is the fact that Fedallah is given a number of conflicting, racist, and caricaturized racial/cultural markers. The descriptor he most often gets is “Parsee,” so we at least know that much about him. Throughout the book, he’s also described as having "swart" (dark) skin and being an "eboness" (another racist way to describe dark/Black skin), but he is also lumped into descriptors of his "tiger-yellow crew," wears a "rumpled Chinese jacket," wears a "glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head," is accompanied by a crew of Filipino oarsmen, and has an Arabic name. The only thing we know for certain about him is the only consistent descriptor he gets: Parsee.

“Parsee” loosely means Persian, and is largely associated particularly with Zoroastrians. Today, the word "Parsi" specifically describes the group of Zoroastrians in India who are descended from Zoroastrians who fled Persia starting a couple centuries after Muslim rule in Persia (there are other nuances and names used to describe different groups of Indian Zoroastrians, who migrated throughout the centuries since then, but this is just a large summary). Persians in India (and elsewhere) had long been referred to as "Parsees" before this, and so this group picked up that moniker over history. In the early modern period (aka starting the 16th century), though, there are also several examples of European travellers and writers in general using "Parsee" to refer to Zoroastrians still in Iran as well -- the term was used to denote Zoroastrians generally, whether referring to the group in Iran or in India. In the Western consciousness of the time, as far as I can tell, "Parsee" just means "Zoroastrian."

So all that in mind, Fedallah could plausibly be either a Zoroastrian from Persia, or from India. I personally have chosen to make him Persian for a few reasons, a) because i'm persian <3 b) because I am far more familiar with Persian history broadly, and am extensively researched in Persian Zoroastrian history (…i did get really autistically special interested in this. like. more than 1200+ pages of research i’ve read glsdfdklsfja) c) i think there can be Some argument made that Melville thinks of "Parsee" as "Persian" specifically. He refers to "Persian fire worshippers" in Ch 42 and 86 (which, Zoroastrians are not 'fire worshippers;’ this is a common Orientalist stereotype and misconception both within and outside of Iran/India which Zoroastrians today are STILL fighting — but it IS what Melville would have thought/read/been told they were). Melville has Ahab say the following in Ch 199 The Candles: “Oh! thou clear spirit of clear fire, whom on these seas I as Persian once did worship, till in the sacramental act so burned by thee...", which ties into some of the WEIRD stuff Melville seems to have going on with Fedallah and Ahab and the implication that Fedallah is Corrupting Ahab or pulling Ahab into Fedallah's sinful/devilish desires…etc etc. (Which, also, sidebar, Ahab calls himself Persian here! “I as Persian”!!! really weird and interesting!! no I don’t think Melville necessarily is actually writing Ahab as a Persian Person (that’s what I’m doing); I think he’s being weird and racist and Orientalist about Ahab being figuratively ~~persian~~ aka mystical and strange and demonic and whatever else, but still really interesting!!) There is a very particular and horrible kind of Orientalism going on here that I don't Reaaaaally have the desire to get into right now. 

But point being, I think you could make the textual argument that Melville sees "Parsee" Fedallah as specifically one of the Persian "Fire-worshippers" (Zoroastrians) that he continually references. Melville was a well-read individual, and there was by the time of Moby Dick an already long history of Western (particularly European) scholars being ~fascinated~ by the mysterious “fire worshippers” of ancient Persia; there is a LOT of contemporaneous writing about the Zoroastrians (both Indian and Persian), in the way that much of the “Orient” and its religions were ~fascinating~ to Europeans. (again, I must stress, 'fire-worshipper' is considered a wildly offensive and derogatory way to refer to Zoroastrians, and it has been used as a pejorative towards them by their oppressors in Persia and in the West alike for centuries. it is inaccurate and offensive.) 

But! All that being said, I do think it would also be very fair for someone to choose to make Fedallah an Indian Zoroastrian if they wished! Both would make sense. But my Fedallah is Persian.

I am NOT myself religiously Zoroastrian (I am not at all religious), though I am Persian, and so much of the religion’s practices have still featured in my life. & I consider myself largely aligned with many of Zarathustra's/Zartosht's ideas (something I am still exploring for myself in my personal life). Any errors or missteps in portraying him respectfully are my own.  Separately from all this, I am working on writing out a story centered on Fedallah's backstory in general -- his upbringing, how he came to receive an Arabic/Muslim name, how he came to leave Persia, how he met Ahab, etc.

Regardless, Fedallah is (as I have yelled about.. SO MUCH…) deeply, deeply important to me. It is important to me that he gets treated with love and kindness and care, and the respect he deserves. He matters to me and the story I’ve made for him makes me ache. I love him so so very much. This is by no means an exhaustive discussion of all of the complicated factors involved here; if I have glossed over some things it's because I'm trying to prevent this from being longer than it already is. This is just a VERY brief overview of some of the things that have been important to me to consider with respect to Fedallah. I love and adore him so much. 

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

fedallahhhh.... 1 :3

1: Liar — The Arcadian Wild

[ID: A digital drawing of Ahab and Fedallah from Moby Dick. Ahab is standing behind Fedallah, leaning forward and covering Fedallah’s eyes with his hands while looking at him with a regretful expression. Fedallah has one hand on one of Ahab’s wrists, and a tear stills out from underneath Ahab’s hands over his eyes. Handwritten text reads: “Please understand, I’m ashamed,/And I beg of you, please find your grace” and then “I need you to see through my act,/To tell me I’m wrong, to take off the mask,/Or else I’ll be left in the lie,/And I’ll deceive my way straight to demise.”]

i saiiiid i’d get to the spotify requests eventually i saaaaid i would!! anyway this song is SUCHHH an ahab song in my head (it’s about the i need you to see through my act!!! it’s about the i know i’m ruining myself and you and all of this and i need you to call me out on it but i also know you won’t!!!) so i cheated a bit and made this a fedallah/ahab thing but jfhdhfhdnfnntngnf. hfnfnfng. you understand me. you see the vision. aaaaa.

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

THE CHASE, UNRAVELED Chapter 12: عزیزم Chapters: 12/13 Relationships: Captain Ahab/Starbuck (Moby Dick), Captain Ahab & Pip (Moby Dick), Captain Ahab & Fedallah (Moby Dick), Captain Ahab/Fedallah (Moby Dick), Characters: Captain Ahab (Moby Dick), Starbuck (Moby Dick), Pip (Moby Dick), Fedallah (Moby Dick), Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, except not really - one person dies…

Summary: Tomorrow morning, the sun will dawn upon the White Whale’s inexorable spout, his hump like a snow-hill, and for the next three days Ahab will chase that haunted whale across the horizon till one of them spouts black blood, and all will collapse, and the great shroud of the sea will roll on as it rolled five thousand years ago. This is how it goes. But perhaps not this time. Perhaps…

Or: Ahab, choosing to live.

--------

GAY BROWN PEOPLE. GAY BROWN PEOPLE. THAT'S ALL.

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

needing to sleep in under an hour while having several loadbearing unfinished chores and also a full trich relapse is extremely evil btw

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

hey did you know there's an album loosely adapting moby-dick that has wlw starhab specifically starbuck being ahab's secret admirer while ahab and fedallah (who is also a woman) are lovers apparently. yeah just thought i should let you know you'd seem interested (the album makes a LOT of weird choices and is not a Good adapation at all... but the music does slap and also we get canon doomed lesbian starhab hello). just to let you know

HEY WHAT THE FUCK. ANON PLEASE SAY MORE RIGHT NOW I AM PRESSING MY FACE TO THE GLASS???? CANON FEDALLAHAB AND STARHAB???? PLEASE TELL ME THE NAME OF THIS I AM BEGGING 👁💙👁

[mossy-rainfrog]

i’m so sorry for having to send this non-art ask through your art blog but since asks are off in your main i just thought i should let you know. maybe check daniel emond’s instagram story right now 😃 you might see a familiar blog there….

I WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS IS THE SCARIEST ASK I'VE EVER RECEIVED GOOD MORNING WHAT THE FUCK

[ID: A screenshot of Daniel Emond's instagram story, which shows a photo of his computer screen, and likewise an ask received on my main blog, reading: "hey did you know theres an album loosely adapting moby dick that has wlw starhab specifically starbuck being ahabs secret admirer while ahab and fedallah (who is also a woman) are lovers apparently. yeah just thought i should let you know you'd seem interested (the album makes a LOT of weird choices and is not a Good adaptation at all... but the music does slap and also we get canon doomed lesbian starhab hello). just to let you know"

and my response (in all caps:) hey what the fuck. anon i am pressing my face to the glass???? canon fedallahab and starhab???? please tell me the name of this i am begging 👁💙👁"

daniel has left comments on the photo, reading: "another day, another googling of kill the whale to see what the lovelies are saying!" "Actual review of Moby-Dick from the 1800s, probably: "This book makes a LOT of weird choices and is not a good book at all... But the language does slappeth."" End ID.]

there is no conceivable way i am on this mans radar for the fucking third time. when do u think hes gonna realize this elusive "moss" is the same asshole he was fighting with on reddit months ago. fuck me. what the fuck