Day 11
Herman Melville: Moby Dick
A book that needs no introduction.
When I first started to read it, I felt a certain reluctance. Usually, I never have issues stepping into the protagonist's shoes. With Ismael, I struggled at first, because of his profession (not his original one: teacher), but
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the one, he exercised during the course of the novel: a whaler
This was shortly before the International Whaling Moratorium of 1982 came into force, and I had very strong (negative) feelings about people hunting whales.
It took me some time to put these feelings aside and immerse myself into the novel.
Still: Greenpeace's fight against the whalers
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was something that influenced me a lot, and made me aware, at a young age, of how commercial interests ruthlessly stood against the interests of life on our planet.
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Sorry for digressing from the fabulous novel, but did you know that the near extinction of the great whales has also an impact on the climate catastrophe?
The oceans are the main sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, more than forests and vegetation on land.
This CO₂ floats in the oceans, mostly in the form of plankton. When still millions of great whales
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roamed the oceans, they would "clean it up", eat megatons of plankton, hence CO₂ and send it into the deep sea.
There is no chance, the big whales will come back in numbers: there are too few of them left.
So, just another example of how the "smartest being on Earth" killed one of its best allies in an existential fight for greed and money.
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"Here’s food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels"
"That mortal man should feed upon the creature that feeds his lamp"
"The universe is finished; the copestone is on, and the chips were carted off a million years ago."
This novel is definitely worth reading again and again.
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@mina @mina #20Books20Days - The challenge is to choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #books #BookWyrm
Tag 11
Alice #Schwarzer "Der kleine Unterschied und seine großen Folgen" ein klarer und schonungsloser Gesellschaftsspiegel, lange vor Alices kritischer, persönlicher Wandlung
@mina @HistoPol @mattotcha @energiepirat @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @GreenFire @evelynefoerster @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @2ndStar @MAJ1 @scb are you following the Moby Dick Bot on here?
Melville addresses the issue of extinction in the book, but prefers to think that the whales are just swimming somewhere else.
You could say that the fossil fuel industry saved the whales. The introduction of crude oil and its derivatives eliminated the need for whale oil.
Of course, there's still one country hunting them for *food* -- or rather as a delicacy.
Are you familiar with the Big Read project? It's an audio project where each chapter is read by a different person, including celebrities like Stephen Fry and Benedictine CucumberPatch.