Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements

A quick update about Detect or Die, a new TTRPG Ben wrote and Mark edited, that's going to be available on Ben's Itch Page HERE, and then the project page HERE starting August 25th! Also, if you are interested, August 25th is Itch.io Creator Day, so Ben would certainly appreciate first-day downloads! There's an example of play HERE, and in this audio update, Ben explains how SF studies influenced his design for a Disco Elysium inspired amnesiac detective tabletop role-playing game. Ben will also be posting on Twitter and Bluesky - both @silkandstone - with more information about the game and its design this Thursday and Friday. Thanks for listening! P.S. There's a quotation from Darko Suvin in Detect or Die, so it even connects directly to our upcoming Starboard Vineyard Tours episode - Ben

No appendix today, but we have something else for you. We've started a new podcast, called Starboard Vineyard Tours! It's the same two overthinking goofballs talking about literature, but this time we'll be reading academic works of science fiction studies, which is a field with a lot of depth and some surprising relevance to Moby Dick. Our first episode, on Samuel R. Delany's essay "About 5,750 Words", is up now. We hope you give the show a try!

This time around, we delve into one of the least rigorously defined musical genres, whalecore. From the classic of the genre, Mastodon's Leviathan, to a period-accurate sea shanty collection, your hosts Mark and Ben discuss a wide variety of Moby Dick inspired, nautical, or simply whale-flavored music. In all, we talk about: Leviathan (Mastodon), The Call of the Wretched Sea (AHAB), Of Sailors and Whales (W. Francis McBeth), Whaling and Sailing Songs From the Days of Moby Dick (Paul Clayton), Concertato “Moby Dick” (Peter Mennin), and Moby Dick (Bernard Herrmann). There's a lot of whale music out there.We don't have another Appendix lined up right now, but that doesn't mean you won't hear from us. Stay tuned!

This episode is a real roller coaster ride, and by that, we mean that in it we experience (virtually) a literal roller coaster! We're joined by Hannah Yoleau to discuss Hakugei, a Moby Dick-themed roller coaster at Nagashima Spa Land in Kuwana, Japan, and its history as White Cyclone. We live react to POV videos of the two roller coasters! It's a fun time, and we discuss what it means for a roller coaster to be an adaptation of a 19th century novel. You can find the videos we watched at these links.

Here it is: The last episode of our coverage of Dave Malloy's Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). Due to technical issues, we actually had to re-record this whole thing, which only adds to the list of Malloy's crimes against us specifically. That ‘us' once again includes our wonderful guests Clay (@ClayDanteT) and Danny (@BerserkerDanDan), who stuck it out until the bitter end of this musical.This section covers Part 4: The American Hearse. Analogies will be made achingly overt. The musical will have opinions about trauma. The musical will have opinions about America. We will struggle to handle it, and ourselves. In the end, though, we are still around, while this musical has been sent to the bottom of the cultural ocean, where it should forever remain.You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions!Next episode: The Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendices will return! Malloy could not defeat us! It will be a shorter episode though.

We're back for round three of our review of Dave Malloy's Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). This time, your hosts (including eminent guests and friends of the podcast Danny (@BerserkerDanDan) and Clay (@ClayDanteT) reach the point of no return, after cleaning up the end of Part II. Part III: The Ballad of Pip. It's where Malloy started, and it's almost where we finished, because it's a half-hour-long section about the ship's boy, Pip. A large portion of that is a spoken word piece. Friends, shipmates: It's dire. We were not prepared. And you can witness us attempt to make sense of it!You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions!

We may have bitten off more blubber than we can chew here, but the crew of Whale Statements forges on with our review, and extensive discussion, of Dave Malloy's Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). That crew also continues to include Danny (@BerserkerDanDan) and Clay (@ClayDanteT), our guests, who are as baffled as we are by the musical being perpetrated here.Having chewed through the introduction, the narrator, and most of the crew in the first section, we're now facing down what the musical itself calls “a sort of a cooking show vaudeville” as well as an entire stand-up act by Fedallah, one of the novel's strangest characters and one of the musical's most uncomfortable points of ambiguity between the character, the actor, and Dave Malloy. Hey, at least this part has some actual whaling, and also audience participation! And sperm. Audience participation and sperm, together at last.You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions!

We have returned from a long journey. Our skin is weathered by salt spray, our hair shaggy, our spirits subdued, but we bring an oily bounty to you, our listeners. We have drawn out Dave Malloy's 2019 musical version of Moby Dick with a fish-hook, taken it alongside for butchery, and now come to you with the first of four episodes rendered and stored for your consumption. The sea-beast was simply too large and full of sperm for less.Joining us in this titanic undertaking we have two redoubtable fellow whalers, Clay (@ClayDanteT) and Danny (@BerserkerDanDan), who had the greasy good luck of attending Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning at the American Repertory Theater in person. With them on board, we had context and expertise in musical theater, the specific production, and a generally wider horizon. So sit back, follow us through the first part of this musical, and consider: Is it possible to make a Moby Dick musical? And specifically, would it be possible to make one that isn't this, please?You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions!

90s-est things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs; this podcast episode is the stoneless grave of Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick.In this episode, we're joined by special guest Rick (@combattlerRickV) to attempt to make sense of the utterly singular Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick, a 26-episode anime that is in theory an adaptation of Moby Dick set in space, in the 47th century. In practice, it's a baffling saga full of androids and tonal whiplash, and we need all the help we can get. Hakugei has almost nothing in common with the original novel, but does have nearly every kind of anime guy from the 70s through the 90s, as well as some entirely unique ideas of its own, and a surprising enthusiasm for petrochemicals. There's nothing like it, and we don't recommend watching it, but we have a great time trying to wrap our heads around it for your entertainment.Next episode: We'll be taking a few weeks' hiatus over the holidays. But, when we come back, we're intent on a musical reckoning...

In this episode we cover Orson Welles' various efforts to produce, direct, and star in Moby Dick, covering a radio play (1946), a metafictional theater production, Moby Dick - Rehearsed (1955), and fragments of an incomplete film version (1971). Welles is clearly having a great time, and so are we, as he plays Ahab, Ahab, Father Mapple, and also Ahab. He also expresses, both in Moby Dick - Rehearsed and in his actions, an interest in the questions that run through Moby Dick, which gives our hosts a lot to chew on.Check out the Mercury Summer Theatre Moby Dick radio play here or here!Next episode: Moby Dick...as an anime... in space...in the 90s! In “Hakugei - Legend of the Moby Dick!”

In this episode, we take a break from the talkies, with the 1926 silent film The Sea Beast. This adaptation of Moby Dick, starring John Barrymore, takes it to strangely conventional new places with love-lorn hero Ahab Ceeley seeking the hand of his sweetheart in competition with his half-brother Derek. The ending may surprise you! So may a lot of things, including the occasional eruption of fidelity to the novel.Next episode: We had to put it off, but now we can put it back on: A look at Orson Welles' various and variably complete efforts to adapt Moby Dick.

This week, we watched The Whale God (1962), a gothic, black and white kaiju drama adaptation of a novel by the same name that adapted Moby Dick to the world of Japanese whaling in (we think) the later 19th century. It's an intense story of a village's reigning madness of revenge after generations of terror at the hands of a monstrous and unstoppable whale - the majority of the cast are Ahabs, which makes for a wild and sometimes harrowing ride. It's an adaptation that goes a lot further from Moby Dick than the 1956 movie, which means there's a lot to talk about!Next episode: We piece together a bunch of fragments from Orson Welles' long, frustrated effort to produce his own adaptation of Moby Dick.

And now, Moby Dick - in living color! We regret to inform you the whale is still white. For the first Whale Statements Appendix, we watched Moby Dick (1956), starring Gregory Peck, directed by John Huston, and with a screenplay by John Huston and Ray Bradbury. Yes, that Ray Bradbury, and you'll hear plenty more about him from Ben if you listen to this episode. Join us as we discuss the changes made to the movie, the decisions (some fun, some baffling) made in the adaptation, and the overall effect of our first film outing on the Pequod. There's some Orson Welles in there too!Next episode: We watch The Whale God (1962). Moby Dick tokusatsu? Don't mind if we do!

Cleaning up loose ends, we rank our favorite chapters with an infallible device, discuss the various characters, and talk a bit about the structure of the thing. Then, most importantly, we answer your questions! Including some thematic, some specific, and a few impish. Also, a bunch of theoretical rambling about science fiction, for some reason.Next episode: we watch Moby Dick (1956), in the first of the Appendices.

A dead whale or a stove boat.Next episode: We look back over the book, respond to listener questions, and generally clean up our loose ends. Please send your questions to whalestatements@gmail.com!

The chase enters the second day, and Ahab will not swerve.Next episode: Chapter 135, and the Epilogue. The whole act's immutably decreed.

Omens and misgiving abound, and even Ahab almost turns aside... but too late. The White Whale is sighted, the doubloon is earned, and the chase has begun.Next episode: Chapter 134, The Chase – Second Day.

Update your logbooks, everyone. This week, we have the last episode of relatively normal chapters before the chase begins. But ‘relatively' doesn't mean much: Ahab's intensity has reached fever pitch, and everyone on board has to deal with it. The carpenter shows up and Ben does hand gestures on a podcast again, Pip and Ahab have a series of moments, and we meet the saddest damn ship in the Pacific. Finally, Ahab receives an unsettling avian omen, but disregards augury.Next time: Chapters 131-133. The last chance to turn aside, and after that... there she blows– there she blows!

The Typhoon has arrived, and we now see Ahab in all his fatal pride. Next episode: We read chapters 125 through 130, through the intensity and omens of The Hat.

The Pequod has entered the Pacific, and Ishmael is delighted by the mild sea. Ahab's deep and tempestuous thoughts, however, take up most of these chapters. We meet the blacksmith, who would be singularly unhappy if Ahab wasn't right there, and witness the creation of a lance to slay God. From there, we dwell on the beauty of the ocean's surface, and Stubb swears oaths, before crossing wakes with the luckiest damn ship in the Pacific. Whales are slain, and that night, Fedallah and Ahab discuss uncertain dreams. Finally, Ahab destroys an expensive piece of equipment for intense symbolic reasons.Next episode: Chapters 119-124, from The Candles to The Needle. When the typhoon comes, the veil of nature is torn.

In this episode, the material world of the Pequod looms large, as does its materials. Instead of getting a new friend, Ahab gets a new leg, and we meet the carpenter. He gets a whole chapter to himself, describing him more or less schematically. After that, we try something a bit different: Since Chapter 108 is entirely a dialogue between Ahab and the carpenter, your hosts read the whole thing, after flipping a coin for the parts. (If you want to skip this, it's between 43:51 and 54:54.) Finally, we round out the episode with Starbuck not quite managing mutiny and Queequeg not quite managing to die.N.b.: Due to technical difficulties, the audio quality for the last section is a bit worse. Sorry about that.Next episode: We read chapters 111 through 118, and a weapon is forged. We are approaching the Season on the Line.

This week, we delve deep into the prehistory of whales, and from there, consider their most remote future. But first, an extended examination of Dutch and English whaleship supplies in a chapter Ben grades ‘passable.' There's 135 of them, they can't all be winners. But after that, the whale's skeleton beckons us through elaborate Gnostic imagery to the headwaters of infinity, as Ishmael more or less states that the whale predates the Book of Genesis, and that the species will continue throughout all ages, whale without end. It takes us a bit to unravel it all, with various elements of 19th century thought on prehistory and deep time being required to make sense of it.Next episode: We deal with carpentry, in chapters 106 through 110.

This week, we have some excellent Ahab content. First, in “The Doubloon,” we discuss the hermeneutics by which the crew of the Pequod interpret the markings on Ahab's golden prize, promised to whoever sights Moby Dick. Ishmael presents us with interpretations ranging from the conventional to the indecipherable, and we discover that this is a coin that actually existed, and is now called the ‘Moby Dick coin' because, well, take a wild guess. Also, we completely fail to understand a Manxman because we forgot what ♌ looks like. Strange revelations and odd opinions, as well as some astrology and Stubb being awful, coincide. Then, in “Arm and Leg,” Ahab makes a friend at last!Next time: We read chapters 101 through 105, which are mostly about whale skeletons, and try to answer the most important question in the book: “Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?”

Well, here it is, what Mark's called ‘the orgy chapter.' It's part of the elaborate processing of the whale for oil, which (in a somewhat chronologically weird way) we're finishing up this episode. Ishmael experiences a deep and squishy benevolence for all mankind; some weird parts of the whale are discussed; eventually, everything is cleared up and put away. However, before that can happen, we reach an intense and hellish height of metaphor and imagery as the great furnace roars to life, and Ahab's presence is felt. It's a hell of a time!Next time: Chapters 99 and 100. Thoughts on Ahab's vendetta, as well as meeting one Captain Boomer in a very singular gam.

After some development on the theme of ‘royal authority is kind of unjust, huh,' in connection with fast-fish and loose-fish, we move on to another meeting with another whale-ship (no gam). And, in the Pequod's meeting with the less than fragrant Rose-Bud, the love of grey gold leads men to do terrible things. Or at least Stubb commits some obnoxious, fraudulent, and self-interested acts in pursuit of ambergris, after which Ishmael explains the uses of that odd whale byproduct. And finally, in The Castaway, what was long foreshadowed comes to pass as one of the Pequod's crew comes face to face with the infinite, spiraling through strange extended metaphors and rapturous visions of the deep.Next time: We read chapters 94 through 98, as we discuss the processing and oleaginous results of sperm.

We forge ahead now with the Grand Armada - when Ben stops talking about semi-related matters, anyways. In this wild and piratical chapter, the Pequod pursues and is pursued, Starbuck's crew witness the secret hidden bowers of the whale, and we learn of the forbidden flavor. After all that, of course, Ishmael needs to take a break to talk entirely about conceptual matters, yet somehow gets even wilder: first, with the unmitigated gender of whale herds, and second as he considers the rights and laws of unclaimed whales.Next time: in chapters 90-93, we have a little more law and rights, some more incompetent foreign whalers, treasure of a rare kind, and then a young mind is destroyed by the presence of God. You know, normal whale things.

This week we're reading Chapters 85 and 86, The Tail and The Fountain - we are not reading 87, The Grand Armada, because there was just too much there to add on after we talked about two of the whale's most noble attributes (according to Ishmael, who doesn't seem to find much ignoble in the whale). There's some amazing sentences, some more whale anatomy, and some important injunctions about what a superior person or fish get up to. Also, we learn how a whale will kill you, specifically and ergonomically.Featuring the cats for the last time in a while (quietly).Next time: Chapters 87 through 89, which will take us through The Grand Armada, of course, as well as some explanation for the impressive events of that chapter in the next two.

As is not unusual, we had a hard time making these chapters into a coherent lump - once again, Ishmael is all over the place. However, that's to our listener's benefits, as Ishmael is petty about rival whalers, somewhat overstates the historical and mythological importance of whale-slaying, gets into questions of Biblical exegesis, and then mostly fails to explain how to pitchpole. Ben thinks he's figured it out, but Mark is understandably skeptical about our ability to communicate this better than Ishmael. If you think you know how to pitchpole after reading Moby-Dick and listening to this podcast, please film yourself demonstrating this and get at us on social media! (But be careful and don't use a sharp lance, just a practice one. Or, I don't know, a broom.)Next time: We'll be reading through at least chapters 85 and 86, and maybe 87 - it's just long enough to make us wonder whether we should cover it separately. Keep an eye out for next episode's description!

It's time to finally get inside a whale's head. It's a dangerous place, and we have some swashbuckling to save a crewmate from getting too deep into it. We'll also travel around one, compare some, and apply the caliper sciences to them. There's a surprising amount of geometry, some swordplay, and references to great moments in the history of science (primarily to be dismissed by Ishmael). Join us, not to enlarge your mind, but subtilize it. Next time: In chapters 81-84, the Pequod meets yet another ship, Ishmael talks yet again about whalemen historical and biblical, and we get yet more detail of whaling practices.

We'll have no gam this time, friends - this episode, we try to figure out what thread goes through the three chapters we read, which cover a pretty wide variety of topics and forms. First, we hear the story of the Jeroboam, a distinctly unlucky ship. Not only do they have an epidemic aboard, which is why there's no gam, they also have a prophet, who causes a lot of trouble. Then Ishmael remembers something he should have told us earlier about what he and Queequeg were doing during the cutting-in, and explains some particular whaling practices. Finally, we have actual narrative again as Stubb and Flask go hunt down a Right Whale and talk about the devil. Altogether, though, we're definitely moving right along, with a new ship and a new whale killed.Next time: Chapters 74-80, covering a variety of whale-head-related topics.

Time to dismantle a whale, dear listeners. Time to dismantle a whale. Be warned, it gets quite gory. In this episode, we first listen to Stubb harangue the cook (and, while reading it, we try to dodge quoting some extremely dodgy eye dialect) before Ishmael gets on his high horse about eating whale-meat. Then we have The Shark Massacre overnight as the sailors fight to keep the sharks away from the freshly-killed Leviathan, before getting stuck into the meat of the subject the next morning. Ishmael walks us through the process of stripping the blubber from the carcass, and then in The Funeral comments sarcastically on the further history of the discarded body. And, lastly, Ahab looks the whale's severed head in the eye and sees strange mysteries there, expounding on the terrors and riddles of the deep.Next Episode: We read chapters 71-73, meeting the ill-fated Jeroboam, and also finding out about the less ill-fated monkey rope.

This episode, Ishmael keeps it brief with a number of short chapters touching on a variety of topics. In Brit we see right whales eating, and this inspires him to rhapsodize about the horrors of the deep. Then, in Squid, the Pequod witnesses what sperm whales eat and science has yet to understand. The Line is inserted, to explain how the rope coils about the whale-boat, which Ishmael considers a good metaphor for death, and then Stubb Kills a Whale describes exactly that happening. Immediately getting away from the narrative to talking about equipment again, we have The Dart and an argument for harpooneer's rights, and then The Crotch to explain how harpoons are stored. All in all, this episode is mostly just rooting through a whaleboat's gear, staring over the side, and also an actual honest-to-goodness whale gets killed in a lowering, stuffed in among the equipment and whalefood like it got forgotten in a harpooneer's closet. Next episode: We read chapters 64 through 70, concerning the butchery and consumption of whales, since Stubb has fetched one up.

Ishmael has decided we need a primer on the various images available of whales, before we return to the ongoing narrative. First, he gives us his scorching takes Of The Monstrous Pictures of Whales, and explains how science doesn't know what it's looking at, whalewise. Then he grudgingly admits to some accuracy, giving the nod Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales etc., before getting to chapter 57 and the whales he really thinks stand out from the crowd. Mark has been at the work of a painstaking burrower and grubworm of a poor devil of a Sub-Sub, and found many of the images described in these chapters (you'll find them below), and then Ben got to see them for the first time live on air! Also, it's the one year anniversary of the first episode of HPWS going up, so we should all have a gam about it. Next time: We're planning to read from chapters 58 to 63, covering a number of important topics like the diets of whales and various harpooneers' instruments. Oh, and someone actually kills a whale.

Sit down with us, and hear Ishmael spin a yarn in later years with his friends in Lima, Peru: In Chapter 54, The Town-Ho's Story, Ishmael shares what he learned at a gam with the crew of the Town-Ho, off the Cape of Good Hope. For the duration, we're on a ship very unlike the Pequod, though she's also a whaler, and will eventually encounter the White Whale. With mutiny, Midwesterners, malice and mutilation, the Town-Ho's is a tale to tickle the ear, and excite the nautical spirit. Meet the brazen Steelkilt and the vicious Radney, and learn Ishmael's opinion on the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal, before our very first lowering of the book against the monstrous Moby Dick! Next time: Chapters 55-60, in which we learn about those whales which are not, exactly, whales.

Strange signs have begun to dog the Pequod, and we're just thrilled. In Chapter 51, the crew are enthralled by The Spirit-Spout as it floats eerily before them in the night. The language is beautiful and the sights strange as the Pequod rounds the Cape of Good Hope. In those cold seas we cross wakes with The Goney (which is why the chapter is called The Albatross, it's another name for it), who seem pretty exhausted and out of sorts. No gam occurs, but plenty of ominous things happen, and we argue over what counts as an omen a bit. And finally, behold ye who would be wise in the whaleman's ways: The mystery of The Gam. Only here will you find such secret knowledge of the rites and jovialities of whalemen. Ishmael tries to make it very clear that no other kind of sailor is as cool and friendly as whalemen, and also they're the most macho. It's very important that we all understand how great whalers are. Next episode: The Town-Ho's Story is extensive, and doesn't involve any of our usual characters, but we're told by Ishmael that it treats on the White Whale.

This episode, the crew of the Pequod launch the whaleboats! In The Mat-Maker we join Ishmael and Queequeg as they lie around on deck not doing much, until - THAR SHE BLOWS! - whales are sighted for the first time. Then we follow along through the frenzy as foreshadowing is fulfilled, new characters introduced, and the boats lowered in The First Lowering. This chapter carries us through storm, surf, and comparative rowing-crew management, as well as getting a sense of Ahab's own boat-crew. After Ishmael narrowly survives the first lowering, he decides in chapter 49, The Hyena, that you've just got to live, laugh, love, but specifically laugh. Finally, we discuss Ahab's schemes and purposes, as well as delve into some extremely standard Orientalism, in Ahab's Boat and Crew – Fedallah. Next episode: We read chapters 51 through 53, and get a lot of omens and some whaleboat customs, including the gam. What's a gam? Ishmael assures us you won't find it in your dictionary.

We're back, again! We start out with Hark!, an exercise in pure foreshadowing: is there an unknown person on the Pequod? The Chart introduces us to Ahab's enormously detailed efforts in tracking Moby Dick through the entirety of the world's oceans. We also learn about his metaphysically complicated night terrors. In The Affidavit, Ishmael makes the best argument he can that Ahab's quest, and therefore the narrative of the novel, really is plausible, with reference to a number of fascinating sea-stories. Please write in and tell us which infamous whale is your favorite. And finally, in Surmises, we investigate Ahab's mysterious reasoning and the methods by which he maintains his authority.Next week, in chapters 47-50: THAR SHE BLOWS!

Today it's all about the singular attribute of Moby Dick that, to Ishmael at least, most powerfully invests him with terror: the color white. Ishmael spends a whole lengthy chapter doing his best to explain what's so scary about whiteness and therefore about a white whale, and ultimately can't quite make the connection for us. We do our best to delve into Ishmael's layered revelations on the true meaning of whiteness, even as we debate hotly whether he's right that there is anything truly fundamentally evil in whiteness or in Moby Dick. In doing so we go over a catalog of white objects from history and geography and folklore, since that's how Ishmael decided to make his argument: primarily by listing things. Good old Ishmael. Never change, buddy. Next episode: we return to a handful of chapters, 43-47, covering a number of important events in the Pequod's early hunting of Moby Dick.

Taking a slight detour from Moby Dick and from whaling (mostly), for this episode we watched the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Ben and Mark are both captivated by the minutiae of the world of tall ships. We also both shake our heads a bit at how right Stephen Maturin gets to be about everything relating to science, and how much this movie believes in the concept of a Jonah. All round it's a very fun movie if, like us, you love it when people are on ships. Thanks for bearing with us in this hiatus from Moby Dick!

In this episode, we discuss Moby Dick. Finally. Ishmael does his best to sort fact from fantasy and give as full an accounting as he can of the white whale, and Ahab's obsession with it. This provides the basis for a free-wheeling, nearly three-hour discussion which I hope you enjoy but which I can't really summarize. Next episode we zero in on one particular quality of Moby Dick's, in chapter 42, The Whiteness of the Whale.Note: this episode, recorded a few weeks ago, uses the name Tili, but I'm now going by Mark and using he/they pronouns, so please be mindful of this! Thanks.

The narrative is back at full sail, as Ahab calls a meeting to discuss whaling and philosophy with the crew, and the Whale Statements team finds our new sign-off. He explains his purpose and the crew are on board, literally, except for First Mate Starbuck who thinks it’s stupid to try to get revenge on a whale. Ahab does not agree. We are extremely excited about how hard he does not agree. After that, we get soliloquies from Ahab, Starbuck, and Stubb, followed by a long scene of the crew partying and arguing. We round out the episode with a discussion of Modernist form, and why this whole sequence is written like a stage play. Next episode, we take a good long look at an important character in chapter 41, Moby Dick.

Today we have another grab-bag of a reading, getting us up to speed on a number of different topics relating to daily life on the Pequod. Ishmael introduces us to the role of the "specksynder", or chief harpooneer, and stakes out a clear Harpooners' Rights position. He characterizes Ahab as an ideal Kantian absolute monarch and also as The Divine Inert, whatever that is. A typical dinner (i.e. lunch) on the Pequod demonstrates the struggles of Flask's life as the third mate. At the top of the Pequod's mainmast, Ishmael daydreams of Platonic forms and risks sudden death. Next episode, in chapters 36-40, we learn the truth behind Ahab's journey of revenge and pledge ourselves with the rest of his crew to hunt the white whale.

This time, we talk about whales. Next episode, it's back to daily life on the Pequod in chapters 33-35.

This episode gets off to a leisurely start with some chitchat about video games and sailing, then we settle in for a nice long introduction to Ahab. The man who commands the Pequod makes his first appearance on deck and on the page, cutting an extremely dramatic figure. His ivory leg and mysterious mark fascinate us just as they do the crew of the Pequod. Poor Stubb meets with the wrath of this terrifying man and asserts his firm personal principle of "no thoughts, head empty". Ahab quits smoking in the most troubling way possible. We're treated to a very realistic recreation of someone telling you about a dream they had. At the end of the episode, we talk about the history of sexuality and the meaning of things unspoken.Next episode, we dive into the pure unfiltered stuff we are here for, the whale statements themselves: chapter 32, Cetology.

Ben's favorite chapter, in less than a page, exalts Bulkington unto divinity, prompts us to go deep on the sublime, and begins a section of uncertainly defined time on the Pequod that will continue for our next several episodes. Ishmael puts on his lawyer hat and presents a comprehensive defense of whaling as a cool and good thing to do with your time, including one and only one claim he will admit is a guess, leaving us forced to take everything else he says as historical fact (?). We meet the crew of the Pequod, starting with a whole chapter on Starbuck, continuing with the other two mates, the harpooneers, and finally ending with a general picture of the crew, thus fully running the gamut of characters in this book from a three-dimensional New Englander with virtues and flaws to a list of barely-sketched racist caricatures.Next episode, the man you've all been waiting for, the absolute ruler of this world, finally makes his appearance: it's all about Ahab in chapters 28-31.

Queequeg takes a fast day, to Ishmael's increasing consternation. We settle the "is Ishmael a universalist?" debate. Queequeg's job interview with the captains of the Pequod goes much better than Ishmael's. A mysterious stranger named Elijah gives vague warnings while Ishmael tries and fails to ditch him. We speculate on the dramatic exploits Ahab is suggested to have had. The crew of the Pequod outfit her for the voyage. Tili and Ishmael are both baffled by some dark figures, about whom Ben and Elijah will only foreshadow. Finally, everything is ready, and the Pequod begins her voyage.Next episode, chapters 23-27 offer a pleasant assortment of whaling content and character sketches with barely any plot events.

Ishmael and Queequeg, now united by the bonds of matrimony, set out for Nantucket and thence to sign on to the Pequod. On their way to Nantucket, Queequeg relates a couple of funny stories and pulls off some heroic feats of strength. Ishmael gives us a brief introduction to Nantucket. The two stay at an inn where they enjoy multiple delicious chowders. The next day, invested with Queequeg's faith both religious and personal, Ishmael chooses the Pequod as their ship; Ben and Tili debate what exactly Yojo was going for in supporting this plan. Two captains of the Pequod show up, but the third and most famous remains in the wings, his presence felt only via foreshadowing. We discuss Hell and what Ishmael's relationship to the concept seems to be. Next episode, we read chapters 17-22, which take us all the way to the Pequod's departure at Christmas.

It's time to hear the good word! The good word is, as it turns out, mostly about whales. Wikipedia informs us that the book of Jonah has a setting, characters, a plot, and themes. We debate the moral points and the effectiveness of Father Mapple's sermon. Ishmael admires the contours of Queequeg's skull and the two of them get married. During the honeymoon, Queequeg tells his life story and explains how he became disillusioned with the ways of the Christian world.Next episode, in chapters 13-16, Ishmael and Queequeg head to Nantucket and make the fateful choice to ship on the Pequod.

Sometimes it takes five whole chapters to cover one Sunday morning. Ishmael wakes up in bed with Queequeg and explains his feelings on this with possibly the worst analogy in the book. Queequeg uses his harpoon for everything he possibly can. We get a little tourism pitch for New Bedford, which of course segues right into a meditation on death. Ishmael arrives at a whaling-themed church, where he contemplates memorial stones and the concept of a church as a ship. Next episode, which will cover chapters 9-12, we'll hear the sermon and dive a little deeper into Ishmael and Queequeg's relationship.Note: Ben's audio is kinda rough on this episode. Sorry about that!

This episode, we're reading the jumbo-sized Chapter 3: The Spouter-Inn. Ishmael comes in from the cold and instantly zeroes in on a chance for some art appreciation. Ben's favorite character makes his first of two appearances. We meet Queequeg, the mysterious harpooneer whose bed Ishmael must share, and discuss his awkward role as both central sympathetic character and racist caricature. Things get a little personal as Tili reveals the origin of her fear of whales. Next time: chapters 4-8 take us through the next morning and introduce us a bit more to New Bedford.

Note: This episode and the next several were all prerecorded, so we don't make any mention of current events, but we felt it was important to make it clear that both of us strongly support the recent protests against white supremacist police violence. Black lives matter. We stand for the abolition of police and prisons. Please support your local bail funds, mutual aid funds, and other abolitionist projects.Welcome to Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements! With this, our first episode, we begin a journey into Moby Dick. Who is this Ishmael person? Well, put that thought on hold, first we have to read every quotation about whales Melville could find. This book starts strong with several pages of background material. Then we meet our main man, the oddball whose perspective we'll be inhabiting for the next 135 chapters, and wow, he is not doing great. We discuss his melancholy and his longing for the sea. In chapter 2, as the plot begins to move very slightly, we follow Ishmael right up to the doorstep of the Spouter-Inn. We hope you'll come with us as we chart a course through this dense, meandering epic. Episodes will come out every two weeks until we run out of backlog, at which point we'll release one episode a month. Next time: chapter 3, in which we enter the Spouter-Inn and meet Queequeg!