Wednesday, October 6, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 398

Title: It was but some few days after encountering the Frenchman, that a most significant event befell the most insignificant of the Pequod's crew; an event most lamentable; and which ended in providing the sometimes madly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying prophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own.

7.75 inches by 10.75 inches
ink and marker on found paper
October 3, 2010

2 comments:

  1. I love how mystical this image seems--even though it's stylistically so different, it evokes images of John the Baptist's severed, floating head (I think the image I'm thinking of is by Odilon Redon). It's an utterly transcendent image, and I love how it's one of the least humanized characters in the book that ends up in a pseudo-divine, slightly mad state.

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  2. That is an extremely interesting and very perceptive way of looking at this piece, and more importantly, at Pip. It is true, Pip is one of the least humanized, and least developed, characters in the book. I think that makes Pip even more fascinating in that the reader is free to a degree to project his or her own perceptions on to Pip. He becomes a kind of mystical, messiah-like cipher, and his connection to Ahab only strengthens that idea that Pip himself is part of the key that unlocks the entire mystery.

    Excellent reference to Odilon Redon as well. While I have never been able to even attempt to imitate his wonderful charcoal drawings, his influence is a deep and powerful one on me.

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