Moby-Dick | dual personalities

August 1, 2013

A new month and a few things to keep in mind

by chuckofish

A new month, a new calendar page and the end of summer in sight. For those of us in this flyover state it has not been a bad summer weather-wise. Indeed, we have had lovely long stretches of Michigan-esque weather. By this time, usually, we are counting the days ’til fall, but not this year. I am in no hurry for school to be back in session full throttle. I plan to enjoy the dog days that are left of summer 2013.

The August TCM star of the month is old Humphrey Bogart, film idol and Episcopalian.

As I’ve mentioned before, my mother had a preference for Warner Brothers stars, such as Bogart and Errol Flynn, because she went to see all those movies at the Lewis J. Warner ’28 Memorial Theater at Worcester Academy (which I blogged about here). Like my mother, I feel that same thrill when the Warner Brothers logo appears and their rousing theme is played at the beginning of all their movies. TCM is not showing anything that I haven’t seen a million times and my favorite Bogart film, The Petrified Forest, is not on the line-up, but oh well. They are all still better than anything you’ll see on network television–reruns and commercials!

Tonight, however, they are showing my second-favorite Bogart film Key Largo, which is also one of my all-time favorite movies. I just saw it again recently and it really is fabulous. John Huston and Bogart were a good team and the star is at his best, ably supported by Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Lauren Bacall. So be sure to tune in or (at the very least) set your DVR.

August 1 is also the birthday of Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891), American writer and author, of course, of Moby-Dick.

This would be a great month to read the great book! You know you’ve been meaning to. Here’s a little something to get you in the mood.

“There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause:– through infancy’s unconscious spell, boyhood’s thoughtless faith, adolescence’s doubt (the common doom), then scepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood’s pondering repose of If. But once gone through, we trace the round again; and are infants, boys, and men, and Ifs eternally. Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? In what rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will never weary? Where is the foundling’s father hidden? Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.”

August 1 is the birthday as well of Jerome Moross (August 1, 1913 – July 25, 1983) who composed works for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, soloists, musical theatre, and movies. He also orchestrated motion picture scores for other composers. His best known film score is that for the 1958 movie The Big Country, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score.

The winner that year in that category was The Old Man and the Sea, scored by Dimitri Tiomkin. Hold the phone! Are you kidding me? Jerome Moross was robbed! But why am I never surprised? Anyway, you might want to watch that movie–it’s a good one. It misses being a great western because of the annoying plot and the super annoying character played by Carol Baker. Nevertheless, it has some great people in it: Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, and Burl Ives (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). And the score is probably the best ever.

So here’s to a good August filled with great movies and great books! Let’s all have a good one.

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April 12, 2013

Happy birthday, Susiebelle*!

by chuckofish

Sunday is daughter #2’s 23rd birthday. So today we wish her a Hipy Papy Bthuthdy!

“Can you read, Pooh?” Owl asked a little anxiously, and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
Pooh looked on admiringly.
“I’m just saying `A Happy Birthday’,” said Owl carelessly.
“It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed.
“Well, actually, of course, I’m saying `A Very Happy Birthday with Love from Pooh’. Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that.”

(In Which Eeyore has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents)

I’m just saying.

This is my favorite picture of daughter #2 from back in the days when her role model was Stephanie Judith Tanner and she was writing a novel called “A Man from Melville”. Probably because she had two active and outspoken older siblings and had endured years of endless teasing, the Belle was always good at entertaining herself. She was so adept at shrugging it all off and going to her room where she could spend hours working on craft projects and reading Christian romance novels. She’s come a long way since then, but thankfully she is still the same old girl with the sunny, forgiving, glass-is-half-full personality.

I have mentioned before that, although as parents we look back nostalgically at our children’s childhoods and we miss “those days” (and our youth), it is truly wonderful when they turn out to be great adults. We appreciate and love them on a whole new level. And it is true that people who have a sunny, forgiving and generally positive attitude toward life are frequently not appreciated for their depth. In daughter #2’s case, this is a big mistake.

Who else but the Belle could have persuaded me to read Moby-Dick?

“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!”

― Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Happy birthday and God keep thee!

*A birthday shout out to our girl Sarah Michelle Gellar as well!

Sarah was born on April 14, 1977. As our loyal readers know, her alter-ego, Buffy Summers, shares a birthday with our mother. We consider her kin.

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October 26, 2012

Friday movie pick: a matter of cosmic history

by chuckofish

The other day the boy happened to mention to me that the Star Trek movies are now available on Netflix to watch instantly. He had watched Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982), one of our favorites.

Later that evening when challenged with the persistent “What to watch” question, I thought, “Wrath of Khan!” (Have I mentioned how much I love Watch Instantly?)

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed this outing of the Starship Enterprise. In reality it is the best of a very mediocre series, but we always make allowances for the campy/cheesy Star Trek franchise, because why not admit it, we love James T. Kirk as portrayed by the one and only William Shatner. It reminds me of my childhood, watching the original show with my older brother. I think even as a fourth grader I knew it was cheesy–the cardboard sets, the plaster of Paris planets, the ridiculous hair and makeup on all the busty women on the show, the pajama-like uniforms. But there were characters, real characters. They were not cardboard.

The Wrath of Khan includes all our favorite characters, played by the original (albeit aging and not very attractive) actors. It also boasts Ricardo Montalban in his best role, the Melville-quoting and Ahab-channeling Khan. The film also introduces a trim Kirstie Alley as a Vulcan. The plot is engaging: “It is the twenty-third century. Admiral James T. Kirk is feeling old; the prospect of accompanying his old ship, the Enterprise–now a Starfleet Academy training ship–on a two-week cadet cruise is not making him feel any younger. But the training cruise becomes a deadly serious mission when Khan Noonien Singh appears after years of exile–and holding the power of creation itself.” (IMDB.com)

Following up on an episode from the original series which dealt with Khan (also played by Matalban in a wig)–a product of late-20th century genetic engineering. Fifteen years later, Khan, now sporting a graying fright wig and prosthetic chest, is bent on revenge.

This is a perfect set-up for all the Star Trek bells and whistles. But unlike more current movies, it is not totally focused on computer-generated battles (although there is some of that), but rather on the thought processes of our dueling brainiacs. This is good stuff. Plus there is good dialogue, including the usual repartee between McCoy and Spock:

McCoy: Dear Lord. You think we’re intelligent enough to… suppose… what if this thing were used where life already exists?
Spock: It would destroy such life in favor of its new matrix.
McCoy: Its “new matrix”? Do you have any idea what you’re saying?
Spock: I was not attempting to evaluate its moral implications, Doctor. As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than to create.
McCoy: Not anymore; now we can do both at the same time! According to myth, the Earth was created in six days. Now, watch out! Here comes Genesis! We’ll do it for you in six minutes!
Spock: Really, Dr. McCoy. You must learn to govern your passions; they will be your undoing. Logic suggests…
McCoy: Logic? My God, the man’s talking about logic; we’re talking about universal Armageddon! You green-blooded, inhuman…

And there is, of course, Khan quoting Melville:

To the last, I will grapple with thee… from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!

There is also the underlying theme of Kirk’s feeling old. Dr. McCoy chides him about it: “Damn it Jim, what the hell is the matter with you? Other people have birthdays, why are we treating yours like a funeral?” Perhaps watching this movie now with the perspective of a fifty-something-year-old, I can relate more now than ever with our hero. He is struggling and kind of sad and this makes him, I think, all the more appealing.

Anyway, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan is my pick for a Friday funfest. I will admit that I also watched Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) this week, which is pretty darn bad–but also enjoyable on a certain level. And, you know, sometimes, you are just in the mood for Star Trek and not Citizen Kane. Am I not right?

And as if I could do a blog post about this movie without including THIS:

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July 31, 2012

Why I love Raymond Chandler

by chuckofish

“So you got yourself in another jam.”

“Oh, you heard about it.”

“Brother I sit here all day on my fanny and I don’t look as if I had a brain in my head. But you’d be surprised what I hear…”

(The Big Sleep)

BTW, I heard from a couple of people at the wedding festivities that they were reading Moby Dick after reading our blog. Also someone told me she had gone out and bought Matterhorn and read it after reading about it on the blog. This warms my heart. Keep up the good work, readers! And let us know what you are reading.

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June 7, 2012

The white whale tasks me

by chuckofish

Ray Bradbury, widely considered one of the greatest writers of science fiction and fantasy, died a few days ago. He was 91 years old. Last weekend I watched the John Huston 1956 version of Moby-Dick. The screenplay was written by Ray Bradbury!

In an interview in the Paris Review Bradbury talked about writing this screenplay:

I had fallen in love with John Huston’s work when I was in my twenties. I saw The Maltese Falcon fifteen times, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre scores of times. When I was twenty-nine I attended a film screening and John Huston was sitting right behind me. I wanted to turn, grab his hand, and say, I love you and I want to work with you. But I held off and waited until I had three books published, so I’d have proof of my love. I called my agent and said, Now I want to meet John Huston. We met on St. Valentine’s night, 1951, which is a great way to start a love affair. I said, Here are my books. If you like them, someday we must work together. A couple of years later, out of the blue, he called me up and said, Do you have some time to come to Europe and write Moby-Dick for the screen? I said, I don’t know, I’ve never been able to read the damn thing. So here I was confronted with a dilemma: Here’s a man that I love and whose work I admire. He’s offering me a job. Now, a lot of people would say, Grab it! Jesus, you like him, don’t ya? I said, Tell you what, I’ll go home tonight and I’ll read as much as I can, and I’ll come back for lunch tomorrow. By that time I will know how I feel about Melville. Because I’ve had copies of Moby-Dick around the house for years. So I went home and I read Moby-Dick. Strangely enough, a month earlier I’d been wandering around the house one night and picked up Moby-Dick and said to my wife, I wonder when I’m going to read this thing? So here I am sitting down to read it.

I dove into the middle of it instead of starting at the beginning. I came across a lot of beautiful poetry about the whiteness of the whale and the colors of nightmares and the great spirit’s spout. And I came upon a section toward the end where Ahab stands at the rail and says: “It is a mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky; and the air smells now, as if it blew from a far-away meadow; they have been making hay somewhere under the slopes of the Andes, Starbuck, and the mowers are sleeping among the new-mown hay.” I turned back to the start: “Call me Ishmael.” I was in love! You fall in love with poetry. You fall in love with Shakespeare. I’d been in love with Shakespeare since I was fourteen. I was able to do the job not because I was in love with Melville, but because I was in love with Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote Moby-Dick, using Melville as a Ouija board.

The day I went to see Huston I asked, Should I read up on the Freudians and Jungians and their interpretations of the white whale? He said, Hell no, I’m hiring Bradbury! Whatever is right or wrong about the screenplay will be yours, so we can at least say the skin around it is your skin.

So after I’d read the book multitudinous times, I wrote the beginning on the way to Europe on the boat, and that stayed. But everything else was so difficult. I had to borrow bits and pieces from late in the book and push them up front, because the novel is not constructed like a screenplay. It’s all over the place, a giant cannonade of impressions. And it’s a play too. Shakespearean asides, stage directions, everything.

I got out of the bed one morning in London, walked over to the mirror and said, I am Herman Melville. The ghost of Melville spoke to me and on that day I rewrote the last thirty pages of the screenplay. It all came out in one passionate explosion. I ran across London and took it to Huston. He said, My God, this is it.

Ray Bradbury never went to college. He was a self-taught, much-read writer. In that same Paris Review interview he explained, “I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library. Before I fell in love with libraries, I was just a six-year-old boy. The library fueled all of my curiosities, from dinosaurs to ancient Egypt. When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to the library three nights a week. I did this every week for almost ten years and finally, in 1947, around the time I got married, I figured I was done. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-seven. I discovered that the library is the real school.”

Rest in peace, Ray, and may light perpetual shine upon you. “O Father, mortal or immortal, here I die. I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world’s. Yet this is nothing. I leave eternity to Thee. For what is man, that he should live out the lifetime of his God?”

(If you would like to read the Paris Review interview in its entirety, it is here. It’s worth the effort.)

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May 31, 2012

“Ahab! You Godless sonofabitch!”

by chuckofish

For the Moby-Dick fans among us…

Still from the movie “Warrior”

Aside from the occasional martial arts movie involving either Tony Jaa or beautiful Chinese actors, I am not a fight movie fan. I especially don’t like boxing movies. You can imagine my trepidation last night when I (together with son #2) watched the 2011 MMA (mixed martial arts) movie, “Warrior”, starring Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as the sons of Nick Nolte. It was surprisingly watchable, even good. Though the premise seems tired — two brothers overcome major challenges and personal problems including their history with their alcoholic father, to make it to the finals of a big MMA championship only to fight each other — it managed to avoid most of the usual cliches.

For example, the married brother (Joel Edgerton) actually has a good relationship with his wife, but the script-writer didn’t fall prey to the usual ‘good sex = good marriage equation’ to establish the fact, or as an excuse to include gratuitous sex. The other brother (Tom Hardy) is an Iraq War vet, yet PTSD isn’t mentioned even once. Refreshingly, the viewer is allowed to draw his own conclusions. The script and performances are subtle and restrained — no histrionics involved — although there are some good lines and even some humor.

Potential viewers be warned, though. MMA is perhaps the most violent of all combat sports and this movie is sure to make you wince and cringe. Brutal as the action is, however, this is no self-indulgent exploration of flying sweat and crunching bones; no violence for the sake of violence. On the contrary, the director obviously understands the sport and appreciates the skill of the fighters. “Warrior” is definitely worth watching.

And if you’re wondering what Moby-Dick has to do with this post, you’ll just have to watch the movie! Hint: the title of this post is a quote from the movie.

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May 25, 2012

Knights and squires

by chuckofish

The boy (right) and the boyfriend (left) helped daughter #2 move her big stuff out of her college apartment yesterday.

“Bear me out in it, thou great democratic God! who didst not refuse to the swart convict, Bunyan, the pale, poetic pearl; Thou who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves of finest gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old Cervantes, Thou who didst pick up Andrew Jackson from the pebbles; who didst hurl him upon a war-horse; who didst thunder him higher than a throne! Thou who, in all Thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions from the kingly commoners; bear me out in it, O God!” (Moby-Dick, of course)

Thanks, guys! (For a more detailed post on the day see the boy’s blog.)

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May 23, 2012

Odds and ends and St. Elmo’s Fire

by chuckofish

It was a big weekend. Daughter #2, as you know, graduated.

I bought this vintage 1970s needlepoint pillow at an estate sale.

And I finished Moby-Dick.

“One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject, though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard capitals. Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand! Friends, hold my arms! For in the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their outreaching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs. Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.” (The Fossil Whale, chapter 104)

A mighty book indeed! You’ll hear more about this book in the days to come. If you are looking for something to read, I can make no stronger a recommendation–read this book!

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May 15, 2012

Reading Moby-Dick

by chuckofish

“Yes, there is death in this business of whaling–a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.”

Ishmael, “The Chapel”

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