Category: Philosophy

Chapter 115: The Pequod Meets The Bachelor

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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.

Continue reading “Chapter 115: The Pequod Meets The Bachelor” →

Chapter 89: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish

Robin VanGilder1 Comment

Alright, enough about space whales, let’s get back to good ol’ fashioned domestic Earth whales.

Diver freeing a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) trapped in a fishing net.

We’ve got a real barn burner of a chapter today. One of those ones that feels like it was written specifically for me, or at least the 21st century audience. This is just a beautiful bit of philosophical writing that really gets across an idea in a very neat and tidy way. Sure, there are a few rough edges to it, I won’t ignore those, but we’ve certainly gotten used to them by this point, haven’t we?

Continue reading “Chapter 89: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish” →

Avatar: The Way of Water – Covering up the Charnel House

Robin VanGilder1 Comment

Y’know, I really went into this movie ready to be swept away.

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I’ve heard all the stories about the original Avatar, how people found themselves aching for this alternate world that it conjured. Of course, I saw it at the time, and enjoyed it but… wasn’t so impressed. Nonetheless, in the intervening years I’ve become a fan of spectacle, and often just let myself enjoy some big dumb action when the spirit so moves me. It did not move when I went to see Jimmy Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to his record-breaking blockbuster about alien cat people.

Continue reading “Avatar: The Way of Water – Covering up the Charnel House” →

Chapter 85: The Fountain

Robin VanGilder2 Comments
A still from the 2006 film The Fountain, unrelated to this post

Alright, back into the weeds we go.

A still from the 2006 film The Fountain, unrelated to this post
Not that The Fountain

This week’s chapter is, as they say, a doozy. Not that it is especially long, but it is dense, and comes to a surprising conclusion at the end. We’re back to pure non-narrative stuff, pontification on the nature of whales, in this case a specific part of their biology: the breath. This one requires a bit of cutting through the underbrush of 19th century vocabulary, but if you can manage that, it’s quite fun. Continue reading “Chapter 85: The Fountain” →

Chapter 84: Pitchpoling

Robin VanGilder2 Comments

Ah, after a couple of chapters of non-narrative philosophizing, we get back to a bit of whale hunting.

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This one is kind of tricky, I’m not sure if I’m really going to be able to wring a lot of philosophical meaning out of it, but there is a mystery to be solved. Namely: what the heck is pitchpoling, actually? Let’s get into it. Continue reading “Chapter 84: Pitchpoling” →

Reflections in Reflections of Crystal: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers and the Nature of Fiction

Robin VanGilderLeave a comment

Most metafiction is bad, I find.

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Almost always, when authors start getting into the weeds on the nature of reality, twisting things around and trying to play with the idea of characters within a story knowing that they’re fictional, I find it incredibly boring. It serves as a kind of excuse for not doing the hard work of writing actual characters or events with meaning. You simply point at the fourth wall and say “look at it! I’m doing something interesting here!” Continue reading “Reflections in Reflections of Crystal: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers and the Nature of Fiction” →

Chapter 75: The Right Whale’s head—Contrasted View

Robin VanGilder2 Comments

I bet you never could’ve guessed this chapter title. Not in a million years.

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In this chapter, we learn a bit more about the other whale, the one the southern whalers usually spurn, at least these days. And by “these days” I of course mean the 1840s, when this book was written. Nowadays, nobody is out hunting whales, except the Makah of the Washington coast, and the Japanese, probably. Continue reading “Chapter 75: The Right Whale’s head—Contrasted View” →

Chapter 73: Stubb & Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk over Him

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Man, what a chapter title.

right2

After so many chapters titled “The [noun]”, we get an old fashioned summary, like this is a danged penny dreadful or dime novel. Also, apparently hunting a whale is now a single-chapter affair, or half a chapter, as we’ll soon see. The real focus is on the eponymous Talk. Continue reading “Chapter 73: Stubb & Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk over Him” →

Chapter 68: The Blanket

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I hope you are all weathering these quarantine times well, shipmates.

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As for me, things have been busy, and slow at the same times. I’ve been pulled in a million different directions, and yet feel little to no motivation to actually get things done. Thus, my attention has returned to this blog, thinking perhaps the old fashioned folksy ways of Ishmael may ignite some interest in me. And, indeed, this is a pretty fun chapter. Enough preamble, let’s get into it. Continue reading “Chapter 68: The Blanket” →

Dungeons & Dragons & Colonialism

Robin VanGilder2 Comments

So, there’s been a bit of Discourse going on lately in certain circles of the internet, which I happen to find myself in, regarding good ol’ Dungeons & Dragons.

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Particularly, a description of orcs from the 5th edition rulebook has caught a lot of flak for being, um, pretty damn racist. There have also been people coming out and just saying that D&D has always been a racist and colonialist game anyway, so this is nothing surprising. Continue reading “Dungeons & Dragons & Colonialism” →