Deconstructing an Obsession
Along with thousands of other readers, I admit to sharing an obsession with Melville’s masterpiece, “Moby Dick”. So much so, that I’m currently writing yet another book alluding to it — trying to capture some of its essence. My first attempt abandoned, my current endeavor is a children’s chapter book — the final installment in my “Island Rule” series (which is, in fact, an extension of my “Mice of the Herring Bone” series). Written from 1992–1999 and 2019 to present, the books’ themes and settings have launched ever further into the deep. This one just might sink me.
A lot happened in that twenty year gap between the series — including my personal passage through both legalism and Calvinist theology. It’s been a difficult voyage — but with no regrets regarding where I’ve arrived. There are particular similarities to the theological times which Melville navigated — and he exposed many perils along the way — though it seemed he arrived at a very different place. But ironically, not too different from where many Christians (or former Christians) find themselves today.
Melville was “deconstructing”. Like his dear friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville was a critic of his religious era. An excerpt from the folowing letter hints at this, as he was reviewing “Moby Dick”:
“A sense of unspeakable security is in me this moment, on account of your having understood the book. I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. . . Whence come you, Hawthorne? . . . you understood the pervading thought that impelled the book — and that you praised. . . Lord, when shall we be done growing? As long as we have anything more to do, we have done nothing. So, now, let us add Moby Dick to our blessing, and step from that. Leviathan is not the biggest fish; — I have heard of Krakens.” Melville to Hawthorne, 1851
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The letter is as full of allusions as the book, but two things are notable. Melville first claims to have written “a wicked book, and [feels] spotless as the lamb.” He knows it challenges God (as He was then understood) — yet feels no guilt in doing so — sinless as Jesus himself (the clear allusion). Secondly, the author knows he still has bigger fish to fry. The book’s allegories may have escaped many readers. Yet Melville has greater charges to launch against this fatalistic force he masks as monsters of the deep.
So, what paltry attempt have I made to tap into Melville’s cosmic allusions? My work in progress, “The Deep Frees” breaks down the fourth wall between one character and me. Captain Crag, the merciless pirate seadog, has discovered the source of his lifetime of failure. It’s me! It’s all my fault. The author who crafted him — created his narrative — has made him a villain. So enlightened, he’ll claim his own narrative, instead. He will ever remain a pirate villain, but no longer will he fail. Now Captain Crag will win his battles! For he has won the first — the war against me, the Author.
In other words, I am Captain Crag’s White Whale — his obsession. And this will be the final battle.
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
