Happy Birthday to Moby Dick!
I can't offer you the zombie version of it for this anniversary, but maybe next!
posted by KPaffenroth at
1:06 PM
Saturday, November 14, 2009
About Me
- Name: KPaffenroth
- Location: Cornwall on Hudson, New York, United States
I am a professor of religious studies, and the author of several books on the Bible and theology. I grew up in New York, Virginia, and New Mexico. I attended St. John's College, Annapolis, MD (BA, 1988), Harvard Divinity School (MTS, 1990), and the University of Notre Dame (PhD, 1995). I live in upstate New York with my wife and two wonderful kids. Starting in 2006, I had one of those strange midlife things, and turned my analysis towards horror films and literature. I have written Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth (Baylor, 2006) - WINNER, 2006 Bram Stoker Award; Dying to Live: A Novel of Life among the Undead (Permuted Press, 2007); Orpheus and the Pearl(Magus Press, 2008); and Dying to Live: Life Sentence(Permuted Press, 2008).
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2 Comments:
I just stumbled into your site--have been teaching Moby Dick to my English classes for 26 years now. Given your training in the study of religions, I'm interested in your take on the role of the Bible in the novel. I'm a fan of Joseph Campbell and am familiar with the "belly of the whale" archetype, but are there other religious motifs/themes you can point to that would help me with me students? This is one area where I'm a little (okay a lot) shaky!
Thanks! I highly recommend "Melville's Bibles" by Ilana Pardes -
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11045.php
Incredible scholarly work, but I think you'll find a lot of useful and accessible ideas there. One chapter in my book "In Praise of Wisdom" was on Moby, and I'd stand by my analysis that there is something strangely hopeful (and Biblical) in the ending. Melville alludes to Ecclesiastes, and I think that gets at what he's talking about : the book (and universe) are ultimately about wonder and awe, as much as they're about fright and consternation. Along the way, Queequeg as Christ figure (and Ahab as diseased White man), and even Moby as Christ figure (all those spears stuck in him/her!) also make a lot of sense. It is a wicked book!
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