Ahhh, it’s amazing what a shift in the weather can do.

And also just getting out of the apartment, I suppose. We had some awful hot, muggy weather the last few days, but today is nice and cool again. Went for a walk around the city, got some teriyaki for lunch. I feel like I’ve spent too much time since I moved cooped up in here, between being sick and the weather. I’m no longer in inhospitable Auburn, but a proper city! There are so many places to go and things to see.

Summary

Tashtego sits in the rigging, singing a song as he works.

Analysis

This is the chapter I was thinking of, the one that’s even shorter than the six-inch epitaph for one Bulkington. Technically two paragraphs, and two sentences. One bit of stage direction, and some words from Tashtego, which do not seem to carry much meaning. But I have wrung more blood from more paltry stones than this. Let’s get to it.

Business As Usual

So, we’ve got three things happening here, as far as I can tell:

• Tashtego is lashing a sail, doing exactly what Ahab told him
• The storm is raging around him
• He’s singing a silly improvised song as he works

From this, we can say that Tashtego is loyal to Ahab, and focused on his work, not at all concerned about the demonstration of (perhaps) demonic powers that just happened. He’s got orders, and he’s gonna do ’em, no use philosophizing or what-have-you.

Ah, but perhaps by analyzing his lyrical stylings, we may find some insight into his state of mind! What, exactly, is ol’ Tash singing about?

Um, um, um. Stop that thunder! Plenty too much thunder up here. What’s the use of thunder? Um, um, um. We don’t want thunder; we want rum; give us a glass of rum. Um, um, um!

Hmm, what can we see here… the one Native American character singing about rum? No, that would make sense from the mouth of any sailor, and this doesn’t even really have any broken english, there’s no racial angle on this one, I don’t think. Or at least, only a very slight one. Perhaps that “plenty too much thunder” could be construed that way, but it’s not very extreme, in any case.

My initial read is that this is simply showing that the harpooneers, as represented by Tashtego, are not really involved in the current brewing conflict among the crew. They’re just here to do their thing, so they will obediently follow orders. You could read that as the pagans heedlessly assisting the diabolical machinations of Ahab, but it’s really not that sinister. I mean, he’s singing a song as he works.

The Case of Rum v. Thunder

Our old friend Tashtego is engaging in that most cherished tradition of all workers throughout human history: complaining about your job, on the job. He would rather not be up here, among the thunder and lightning, but rather would prefer to be down in the nice safe, warm forecastle, drinking some rum.

But also… if you were some sort of paranoid captain or literary scholar of latter days, you may interpret these lyrics in another way. Tashtego doesn’t want thunder, aka Old Thunder, Ahab himself, but rather wants rum, aka the sweet rewards of the fishery. Whether that be the sperm itself, or the succor that one may find back in port, not continuing the mad quest of vengeance.

In this, we can see a similar slight unbalancing of the scales, the careful equilibrium which Ahab has maintained on the ship up to this point. Much like Stubb losing his tarp, it is a subtle indication of a change in the wind, so to speak.

The way that people are talking about their work, and their leadership, can be a big indicator of the general mood of any workplace. Also: there’s probably a reason that this chapter exists, as a quick check-in with the harpooneers as a group. As we go ’round the horn of the Pequod, seeing how people are reacting, they are all important in their own ways.

Just because our representative of the harpooneers is not a talkative man does not mean that his opinion is less important. If anything, that makes it moreso.

---

Well, that’s all I got for ya. Didn’t quite get into gematria or deep metrical analyses, but I gave it the ol’ college try nonetheless.

Until next time, shipmates!