APS TOGETHER
Day 13
Moby-Dick by Herman MelvilleChapters 54-55
March 30, 2022 by Yiyun Li
The Town-Ho chapter could be a stand-alone short story. Moby Dick as the executioner of Radney, the tyrannical coward, and the savior of the wronged Steelkilt: justice can be as fable-like, fantastical, and unreal as the white whale.
“No need to travel! The world’s one Lima.” That wise observation echoes Marco Polo in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities: “Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice."
“The great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last.” All that matters most in life must have a space on that list of unpainted and unpaintable subjects.
