Chapters 74-81

This section is for discussion re: Chapters 74-81

I forgot my notes on these chapters at home, so I may need to revist this set of chapters.

I thought that SparkNotes analysis of these chapters was a bit bizarre and far reaching. There were some good points about language, but some of the metaphores, etc. were hard for me to see.

I found the killing of this whale extremely disturbing. It was written with such a different tone. I felt sympathy for the whale, and only anger to the vengeful and murderous crew. I also felt it was a small victory for the whale that even in death he couldn't be conquered!!

These chapters tell us about the differences of the right whale and the sperm whale and their brains vs. features. Daggoo falls over into the casing and Queeqeg saves him.

As in any other chapter the descriptions go on and on, but these seemed interesting to me. When they meet another ship they are on a race to the finish.

I’m finding the topics are interesting, but they do drone on.

More descriptions of the whale in great detail. I spoke to Kelley on the phone about how imense the authors knowledge was of these things. he had been on a whaler himself for 18 months and must have absorbed everthing like a sponge. He watched the tapping of the whale and wa able to describe it yers later in minute detail!
I felt sorry for the whale, too. the despcriptions of the sharks, in their mulitudes and close proximity was unbelievable. I kept thinking of how fearless the whalers must have been and how pragmatic the sailors had to be since accidents must have happened fairly oftne and medical care would have been limited.

As stated later in the book, these men knew how dangerous the whaling business was.