Man, I had a weird week.

I apologize for missing my post last weekend, call it a holiday off. I read the chapter, but couldn’t come up with anything, my head wasn’t in the right place for it. Then I had another dentist appointment on Tuesday, had some more fillings done. Unfortunately, those fillings were right next to the tooth that is still very sensitive and in need of a root canal, so it was… not very comfortable, shall we say. I was recovering from that the next couple days, and had a very stressful time at work. But, I’m feeling much better now, things have been resolved, just a bit.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

Summary

A few weeks after Ahab forged his new harpoon, the Pequod happens across another whaling ship, the Bachelor. This ship has met with phenomenal success, and the crew have filled every last vessel capable of containing liquid with oil. Every last barrel is filled, as well as the try-pots themselves, and numerous miscellaneous bottles and crocks that they could get their hands on.

The ship is garlanded with flags of all kinds in celebration, and lit up with numerous lamps and candles, the oil is so plentiful they care nothing for wasting it all day and night. The captain of the Bachelor attempts to call Ahab over for a gam. Ahab asks his one usual question regarding Moby Dick, and when it is answered in the negative, doesn’t even bother pulling over for a proper meeting.

As the full ship departs for home, Ahab watches and considers a vial of sand he keeps in his pocket, taken from off the shores of Nantucket.

Analysis

A quick gam this time! Or, rather, a lack of one. I suppose it’s no surprise after how the last one went, that Ahab would seek to avoid contact with other captains, who might shake his faith in his mission. Especially one as jolly and irreverent as the Bachelor, in full celebration, and determined to continue in that style for the entire voyage home, it would seem.

But what’s going on here? All of these gams have some deeper meaning, of course. There’s been a lot of writing about the ways that they mirror the Pequod or indicate something about its own journey. The particular order of these meetings, the names of the ships, the state that they’re in, and so on. You could write a whole book just examing the symbolism of that!

The Measure of Success

One thing that struck me here, as I am always on the lookout for hooks to which I can tie on some anticapitalist ideas, is this line, from Ahab:

Thou art a full ship and homeward bound, thou sayst; well, then, call me an empty ship, and outward-bound.

By any measure, the Bachelor has succeeded. They lost a couple people, nobody important, but are on their way home with an absolute shitload of sperm, stuffed into every possible container. Ahab grimly sends them on their way, saying that his own boat is empty.

Now, one might say, that is merely in comparison to the fantastic abundance aboard the other whaler. But no, he says his ship is empty. We know the Pequod has caught several whales, and indeed has been very busy since they reached the Japanese cruising ground. But they’re not here to catch whales and harvest their sweet blubber and sperm, no, they’re here to catch one whale in particular.

“Now Robin,” you may say, somewhat incredulous, “of course I know that, it’s only been emphasized for the last one hundred chapters of this book!” Hold your horses, friend. I’m getting to it.

The different standards of success show how different institutions can have the same results, but come to different conclusions about what they mean. If the Pequod‘s hold was filled to bursting with barrels of sperm, but none of them came from a certain individual whale, Ahab would be just as disappointed, and perhaps even more frustrated than he is now.

The shifting of goalposts plays havoc with the lives and livelihoods of those who operate below the power threshhold for decision-making. This is why the effort required to appear sane and normal is so important at the top, Ahab cannot afford a mutiny, which he may face if they were too successful.

Proft and More Profit

Let me take an example from an industry which I pay the most attention to: Sony Computer Entertainment, well-know for producing the Playstation line of video game consoles. A few weeks ago, they put out an annual report with dire warnings for the future of their business. Why, it might not even be worth continuing forward in a few years, if things continue the way they are. Some radical changes may be needed.

Now, what was the cause of these dire proclamations? What had these executives looking for a graceful way to exit an entire industry, in which they have been operating for over 30 years? Were they failing to make a profit? Was the business leaking like a sieve?

No. In fact, the latest Playstation is more profitable than any that have ever come before. But it’s not more profitable year over year in a way that indicates that it will continue to grow in perpetuity. Making money is not enough! You have to literally make more money, faster, every year, forever. Or else, why even bother?

The standard for success has become beyond what any reasonable person could expect, but it is couched in the language of business, to hide what they really mean. It is presented with numbers and graphs in a way that makes it seem like an objective assessment, this is what anyone would think. And it’s simply the result of natural forces moving all on their own, nobody is actually to blame.

It all comes down to: what do you care about? Or, rather, not you, certainly, but the people in charge of things? What do they care about?

Object and Subject

Swinging back around to the Pequod for a moment, this is an apt illustration of what I’m talking about. Ahab no longer cares for profit and loss. He’ll see his whole crew dead if it means he can bring the White Whale down with them. They are sympathetic, and would like to help their boss, but probably would not take things that far. If they had as phenomenal success as the Bachelor, Ahab would have a mutiny on his hands.

When bosses take home billions in profit and then turn around and lay off workers, citing poor increases in profit, they are engaging in the same sort of behavior. The individual workers doesn’t care about dominating the industry, much as they may thing it would be nice, in some vague sense, to be part of something grand and powerful. All they care about is their paycheck, at the end of the day.

The appeal to emotion is used as a weapon on the one hand, to goad the worker into betraying himself, and on the other hand an absolute lack of emotion is weaponized to harm them even further. Don’t worry, it’s just business. The numbers say you must be exploited. They say we have to push you harder, get what we can, then toss you out on the street. It’s not me, I swear, it’s the numbers! They just didn’t add up in your favor.

None of this is based on an objective science. The pursuit of infinite growth may as well be a white whale. Is it possible? Perhaps, if things keep landing just the right way. But is it likely? Is it worth dying for, if it cannot be achieved?

There is no law of nature that says it must be pursued. There are only individuals who think it would be best to do so. Yes, a whole horde of Ahabs waiting in the wings. They are trained in monomania at the world’s greatest universities! They are reassured that killing white whales is the best for everyone, in the end, by corrupt philosophers.

Wherefore Moby Dick?

Sometimes, one gets philosophical about the nature of literature.

What is the point of this book? This ancient tome, written over one hundred and fifty years ago, may as well come from another world.

Chapters like this bring things into focus a bit. It’s not just the little individual relatable passages, like how cozy it feels to be under warm blankets in a cold room, but rather that the larger themes still resonate to this day. We are all of us under an Ahab, of one sort or another. You cannot know the true mind and motives of anyone, ever, least of all someone who has power over you.

So what is the way to cope with that? Shall we mythologize, make them into some sort of legendary figure, battling forces beyond our ken? Freight it up with all of our own hopes and dreams and trauma, in an attempt to understand it?

It is human to empathize. To try to make sense of things. We all engage with acts of literary analysis in our own lives, at all times. This is merely the act of bringing it out into the open, laying it on the table and seeing what makes it tick.

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Hoo boy, that went some places. I uhh didn’t have a lot to say about the chapter this time, huh. Or did I? I suppose only you can make that call, heheheh.

Until next time, shipmates!