moby update

[phosfate]

So! You say you've got the head of a sperm whale hanging off the side of your ship? What are you going to do?!? What what?

Well, first you wanna get the oil out. 'Cause the sperm whale's oil (Ishmael tells us) is mostly in its head. How do you get the oil out? you ask. Why, you send Tashtego on to the whale head with a choppin' spade, and you have the rest of the crew hauling on a line with a bucket that gets the oil out of the hole Tastego's made like treacle out of a well. Yes, it's utterly appalling. But wait! It gets worse!

I've blocked much of this from my memory, as one would the sight of a cute baby squirrel being crushed by a Hummer, but, in essence: Whale head nearly emptied out. Tashtego trips or gets clocked by the bucket or something, and falls into the hole. In the whale head. But wait! It gets worse!

The lines holding the whale head to the Pequod faile. The whale head falls into the ocean, with Tash still inside. But wait! It gets worse!

Missing most of its bouyant, bouyant oil, the whale head sinks like a rock. With Tashtego inside. Suffocating.

Luckily for Tashtego (and once again convincing Ishmael that the sun shines out of his tattooed hind end), Queequeg dives to the rescue. He catches up to the sinking whale head, cuts a slit in it with a big ole knife, and pulls Tash out like a large, hairy, grog-chuggin' baby.

Really crappy day for Tashtego, but now he's got skin to die for.

Comments

[resmiranda.livejournal.com]

I was wondering when you'd get to that part. I read the "little classics" version of Moby Dick when I was a child, and I had nightmares about falling into whale heads. Aaaaah, scars memories.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

This chapter made me very glad that books rarely give me nightmares.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

Damn, girl, this book report of yours just gets funnier and funnier. I still have no desire to read Moby Dick (never had, never even considered it, the way one wouldn't really consider, oh, say, I dunno, becoming a welder or something), but your *posts* -- don't wanna miss those.

[strawberrythief.livejournal.com]

And now you know what Tashtego saves his sweat for!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Ew.

*cries*

[snacky]

Wow. That's about as traumatic as your typical John Irving novel.

[swussian.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd love to read the Ann-LJ version of that Jesus book. ^^

And it makes me feel good to know I'll never have to read Moby Dick, because I can trust you to pick out the most important moments in it.
Whale head. Yew.

[jenny-dreadful.livejournal.com]

::chortle:: ;D