Expect to see volumes 6-8 in the next couple of months, and then a re-release of volumes 1-4, with improved track spacing and better equalization of song-to-song volume levels. Those of you who have already purchased volumes 1, 2, 3, or 4 can write me if you want a free upgrade to the new versions when they are available.

I have two posts left! Be sure to stop over for the next two weeks.

Providing some comic relief in the dark moments leading up to the story’s ultimate dark moment, the Pequod crosses paths with a Nantucket whaler called the Bachelor, which is homeward bound after a stroke of exceptional luck. Not only had the Bachelor’s crew managed to fill the hold to its bulging limit, they had to give away food provisions to make room for more oil. If that weren’t enough, the crew had conspicuously lashed additional barrels of oil to the mast, to the deck, and to every last possible nook or cranny of the ship that could accommodate.

Thus decked out, the Bachelor decides to make its last rounds of the cruising ground with banners and flags streaming, with the crew banging on drum skins stretched over the try pots while singing and dancing on the deck with their newly wedded Polynesian wives. The whole scene is over the top to the opposite degree of Ahab and the Pequod. As the ships cross paths, we realize just how ridiculous Ahab’s moodiness (to which we’ve become accustomed) really is. The moment does not pass without some poignancy, though. Looking after the Bachelor as it passes, Ahab ponderously pulls a vial of Nantucket sand from his pocket, possibly thinking of the mirth of home, or of being homeward bound. We the readers get a small glimpse and reminder of Ahab the sentimentalist.

Chapter 115: The Pequod meets the Bachelor

Hooray!

Well, we’re on our way;
Homeward! Cheer us on our victory day.

We’re on our way;
Set the honest work aside for honest play.

Hooray!

Every cask is full, and then some –
The hold is overflowing!

Hard times for you?
We’re sorry, we spoke not even knowing!

Hooray!

Thou art too damned jolly.
Head thee home if home is calling.
Get thee on your way –
That’s all I really have to say.
Get thee on your way,
Hey, hey, hey.

Hooray!

When we’re flush, we’re flush –
Hop aboard, we’ll treat you to a party.

White whale what?
Lighten up, you think you’re such a smarty.

Well, we’re on our way;
Homeward! Cheer us on our victory day.
(Thou art too damned jolly.)

Well, we’re on our way;
Homeward! Cheer us on our victory day.
(Get thee home if home is calling.)

Hooray!

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea August 18, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea July 23, 2011

In a routine pumping of the hold, Starbuck discovers a good amount of oil mixed in with the pumped sea water, implying a significant leak in the casks. Unfortunately, Ahab is nearing the fishing grounds around Japan, and so nearing his fated encounter with Moby Dick, which leads him to refuse a pause in the voyage to repair the casks and save the oil.

Starbuck, of course, objects, and in the ensuing argument we see yet another recognition by Ahab of his own failing mental health. After Starbuck takes his leave of the cabin, Ahab paces awhile, then changes his mind in the matter, ascending to the deck to give orders for the crew to tend the leaky casks. Ahab’s motives remain a mystery as the chapter ends, but Ishmael offers two possibilities. For one, simply, “It may have been a flash of honesty in him.” Perhaps more likely, though, Ahab doesn’t want to seem crazy or otherwise unfit for duty, because that might lead to a justified mutiny, and so end his quest. In other words, Ahab is sane enough to foster his insanity in secrecy.

Chapter 109: Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin

Leaky casks
In the Autumn of my voyage,
Never checked.
Leaky casks
In the hold of leaky vessel,
On and on.

Leaky casks
Lose in double-time what’s gathered
Tooth and nail,
And the ordinary thoughts we carry sink
In the sea.

When the sea fills the vacuum left behind,
Then the mind begins to weigh
And the spirit loses buoyancy.

Leaky casks,
Never thought I’d stop to fix them,
By and by,
But convincing me, my enemies are kind
Yet to me.

When the sea fills the vacuum left behind,
Then the mind begins to weigh
And the spirit loses buoyancy.

Leaky casks
In the Autumn of my voyage,
Never checked.
And the ordinary thoughts we carry sink
In the sea.

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea August 17, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea July 21, 2011

Ishmael’s characterization of the shark as completely inhuman seems strange, as it almost immediately follows a chapter comparing Stubb’s racist acts towards the cook to the behavior of sharks. Does Ishmael perhaps feel that some men in this world have given up their humanity for power (power of rank, power of the mob)? Or does Ishmael lead us to imagine that in every human soul lies an ongoing battle between the whale and the shark, which untended will leave us stripped of our humanity at the hands of our own neglect?

Chapter 66: The Shark Massacre

‘Round and ’round neither up nor down,
The teeth of sharks till a fertile ground.
An empty eye, a cold machine
Bites in reflexivity.

A giant whale, a mass deceived,
After sharks visit for a meal,
And strip each bone, and leave no meat,
Quite a thorough industry.

And even cut, a shark will eat
The entrails out of its own defeat,
And once consumed, the entrails leak
Back out of its misery.

Beware, young man, for death misleads,
A soulless shark still pursues its greed.
It snaps its jaws when thus subdued,
Pain fulfills it more than food.

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea August 10, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea May 29, 2011

In the ’70s and ’80s, a company called Calgon ran some very distinctive ads for a bubble bath product. A woman (always) was having a marginally (though exaggerated) stressful day at work, or at home with the kids, or stuck in traffic, or some combination thereof. She would freak out and scream “Calgon, take me away!” and subsequently find herself in a Greek temple taking a bubble bath.

Ishmael, who inarguably has things much worse on the Pequod, also needs Calgon to take him away. He finds his solace through a less expected agent — spermaceti. Apparently, as the sperm cools, it congeals into globs that need to be broken apart before the sperm can be tried out in the pots. Ishmael, and some of his fellow crew, find themselves sitting elbows-deep at a tub of silky, sweet-smelling spermaceti. Ishmael subsequently finds himself in the equivalent of a Greek temple taking a bubble bath.

Along the way, the chapter gets famously tactile and sexual (and so kind of gross) — for example, “at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally . . . let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.” I’m sorry to say that I don’t know how this chapter may have been read at the time of its publishing — was it intended to be so sexual, or is our modern sensibility and slang imposing an unintentional meaning?

Are Calgon commercials supposed to be cheesy, or honestly appealing? Are ’80s rock songs supposed to be gross, or honestly sexual? Either way, I aimed this chapter’s song somewhere between a Calgon commercial and an ’80s rock song. The rest should take care of itself.

Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand

When a week of typhoons goes to your head
And brings you down,
When a reckless blood-quest wakes you in bed
And brings you down,
Never fear,
We got a tub of the right stuff!
Never fear,
Squeeze all the lumps from the white stuff!
Never fear,
It’s silky-smooth and the smell
Will take your mind away!

Squeeze the sperm!
And lose the reason!
Squeeze the sperm!
And feel the feeling!
Squeeze the sperm!
And let your worries slip away!

When your cabin-boy goes soft in the head
And brings you down,
When your best friend almost dies in his bed
And brings you down,
Never fear,
We got a tub of the right stuff!
Never fear,
Squeeze all the lumps from the white stuff!
Never fear,
It’s silky-smooth and the smell
Will take your mind away!

Squeeze the sperm!
And lose the reason!
Squeeze the sperm!
And feel the feeling!
Squeeze the sperm!
And let your worries slip away!

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea July 30, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea February 24, 2011

Marx himself could have written “The Dart,” for all its labor critiques. In the chapter, Ishmael discusses a common practice among whalers. During the chase, harpooneers row at the bow of a whaleboat, the most strenuous and exhausting post, and on top of that, they are responsible for loud shouting to rally the men. The problem with this arrangement is that the harpooner has the most crucial and difficult job on the boat — if he can’t harpoon a whale, then the headsman can’t kill it, and the voyage doesn’t make any money. So why exhaust the man you most depend on, before you most depend on him? You do it out of tradition, more or less, and because the officer is headsman, and officers don’t row.

But this is “foolish and unnecessary,” in Ishmael’s words. And as he generalizes out to the words that begin this post, he makes a larger point about about labor. Workers are the most important part of any industry — nothing can be produced without their labor. Exhaust your workers, and your industry suffers. Give them rest and ownership of their labor, and your industry thrives.

Chapter 62: The Dart

It’s the harpooneer that makes the voyage strong;
It’s the harpooneer that makes the voyage strong;
He needs to dart that iron hard and often long.

You give that kid the job of superman;
You row him ’til his feet can barely stand,
Then expect a dart with strong and steady hand.

And we sing it:

All along we’re wishin’
For the worthy manumission
Of the working slave that leads our long parade!

Give an idle song to the man in the corner,
Give an idle song, ’cause his corner does lead,
And his work will come when we create the need.
But the dart will miss if you work him like a steed.

And we sing it:

All along we’re wishin’
For the worthy manumission
Of the working slave that lead our long parade!

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea July 25, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea January 29, 2011

Ishmael is a little iffy on this whole white whale business. He can’t understand why Ahab would add more danger to the already dangerous pursuit of whaling. Come to think of it, he can’t understand why anyone would intentionally do anything that might lead to injury or death. But his thoughts shift somewhat after his first lowering for a whale, in which Starbuck leads the boat on after a whale in the middle of a squall. The boat gets lost for the night, and only by chance does the Pequod rescue them the next morning.

Starbuck has a reputation as the most prudent of whalers, yet his choice in the first chase seems an awfully reckless one. Worst of all, no one on board seems the least critical of the choice — so this is the world of whaling. With that, Ishmael knows what he’s gotten himself into. All these dangers, coupled with a realization that “at the superlatively critical instant of going on to the whale I must resign my life into the hands of him who steered the boat” — Starbuck in one sense, Ahab in another — snaps in Ishmael, and it all becomes a great cosmic joke. After all, Ishmael is no longer in control. He signed on to the crew, and now all he can do is revisit his last will and testament, and ride it out.

Chapter 49: The Hyena

In the worst of times,
When every angle aligns
To create the last ordeal,

Take the joke,
A great, affectionate poke
From the cosmos to a great contender.

Oh, you row, row, row,
To speed your slow,
Sufficient death.

Now a sailor’s will
And testament do appear
As a way to while to time,

But the prudent sot
Finds humor yet in his lot,
And by sot I mean the great enchanted
Masses of mankind who manage,

Oh!, to row, row, row,
And ho, ho, ho;
To laugh and jest.

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea July 24, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea January 22, 2011

In “The Log and Line,” Ahab finds his reason in a state of disrepair, to say the least. Not having been used for some time, the line has laid idly exposed to the elements, and decayed significantly underneath an initial appearance of functionality. Ahab tries to use the log and line anyway, but the line snaps soon after the log hits the water. Ahab sullenly orders a repair of the line, and a new log, but the Manxman thinks the line is beyond repair, and needs to be replaced entirely.

Use it or lose it, Ahab!

Chapter 125: The Log and Line

Log and line
Hanging from the outside railing,
Idly warped by elemental ability,
Exposure, stability.
And sometime heaved into the open open,
Held by rotten line
And towed behind the rush of ceaseless time.

Life-line, life-line!
Keep your grip on me
Until my captain reels me in
To be mended.

Life-line, life line!
How could you succeed?
Nothing left so torn could hope
To be mended.

High and low,
Daft with strength and daft with weakness,
Coupled yet by sweetness,
And never rent –
No such strength is heaven-sent! –
It lives beyond our briefness.

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea July 18, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea December 29, 2010

In “The Carpenter,” Ishmael examines the duality of mankind as consumers. On one hand, humans think of themselves as individuals with thoughts and actions as varying as snowflakes. On the other hand, humans are identical in that they are largely driven by the fulfillment of needs and wants. As a result, men become defined by their consumption — both as individuals (what they want), and as a species (merely the fact that they want).

Ishmael finds a telling byproduct of this aspect of mankind in the ship’s carpenter, a jack of all trades who exists solely to fill those individualistic wants all other men seek to satisfy — from the practical bird cage to the absurd and frivolous decoration of oars. In the man who exists solely to give men what they lack, we end up seeing what men truly lack — an indifference to the material world, and a transcendence of desire.

The carpenter is a man apart. He has seen in volume the essence of man, and he has seen what a shallow essence it truly is. And in so seeing, the carpenter has freed himself to become his own person.

Chapter 107: The Carpenter

You take a man alone
And he’s an island of soul,
You take them all at once
And what’s the difference?

Well, every man alive
Thinks he’s an island of soul,
But every man alive
Is just a duplicate:

One wants an ear drilled,
One wants a bird cage,
Stubb wants stars on every oar!

But this equation of man
Comes out to negative one,
And it’s The Carpenter’s soul
That makes the difference:

Come for an ear drilled,
Come for a bird cage,
He’ll paint stars on every oar!

He’s the difference,
Difference;
He’s the difference.

Well he’s a man at odds,
He’s every interest,
And as he fills the needs
He stands indifferent.

There’s not a man alive
Who stands indifferent,
But he’s a man we prize
To be indifferent.

Come for an ear drilled,
Come for a bird cage,
He’ll paint stars on every oar!

He’s indifferent,
Different;
He’s indifferent.

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea July 15, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea December 11, 2010

Ishmael begins “The Tail” with a statement of dedication worthy of an epic poem. He sings of a tail, and as we see in the pages that follow, that tail is worthy of song.

Much of Ishmael’s fascination with the whale’s tail lies in his belief that the tail represents the greater form of a whale, inner and outer, in much the same way that a human face represents the greater human. Therefore, what he sees in this tail — indomitability, power, grace, playfulness, and a delicate sensitivity — all serve to illuminate the hidden and mysterious aspect of the whale.

However, always sensitive to narrative bias, Ishmael recognizes that his interpretation of the whale’s form and movement illuminate more about himself than the whale, and even then only in a static moment of time: “But gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels.” Even the destruction of boats, the death of men, the broken ribs, the bloody and desperate fight between hunter and hunted — all these terrible things Ishmael describes with wonder and poesy rather than horror and stark description.

Ishmael’s bias makes sense, given what we know of him. Many, perhaps most, people would carry a good deal of trauma from being the lone survivor of a ship demolished by a fierce, white whale. But although some chapters in Moby-Dick tend to darkness (to say the very least), Ishmael comes out of this awfully harrowing experience telling the ultimate story of whales with beauty and strength and power and above all a delicate sensitivity to both sorrow and joy.

Chapter 86: The Tail

Fishes and worms, wriggle at my feet;
Never the whale, oh no!,
His body won’t allow a gesture meek –
And wriggling means you’re weak!
Wriggling means you’re weak!

Think of the greatest forms of beauty that we seek;
Marbles of demigods –
Hercules, shaped to the last oblique!
Strength and beauty meet!
Strength and beauty meet!

And, hey, what’s the difference?
With no lost significance
You turn the implications meant
Into the world’s disease,
And its betterment?:
Your social ease.

God in the Sistene seems a Minotaur of Crete
Next the the Christ, his son,
Always painted just a tad effete –
The beauty’s in His speech!
The beauty’s in His speech!

So take a cue, my child, watching from your seat,
Letting the world sink in
Before you stand to act or stand to preach –
Wriggling means you’re weak!
Wriggling means you’re weak!

(c) and (p) 2010 Patrick Shea
Words and music written by Patrick Shea July 9, 2010
All parts performed, arranged, and recorded by Patrick Shea December 4, 2010