Moby Dick
Lisa Draper
48” x 72”
Mixed Media Assembly
Available, email lisa@draperfineart.com for price
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
“for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.” ~Moby Dick, Herman Melville
History
Moby Dick was initially published in 1851, and was not received well. In fact, it was out of print by the time Herman Melville died in 1891, by which time only 3,715 copies of the book had sold. It wasn’t until the 1900s that the book began to be known as a “Great American Novel”.
Much of the inspiration for Moby Dick came from Melville’s own experiences aboard the whaling ship Acushnet. Many of the characters are patterned directly after his seamates from that time. His 18 months on this ship led him to encounter the son of Owen Chase, who lent him a copy of his father’s book “Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex” written in 1821. The book recounted Owen’s own experience as a survivor of a shipwreck caused by a sperm whale attack.
Melville wrote: “I questioned him concerning his father's adventure; ... he went to his chest & handed me a complete copy ... of the Narrative [of the Essex catastrophe]. This was the first printed account of it I had ever seen. The reading of this wondrous story on the landless sea, and so close to the latitude of the shipwreck, had a surprising effect upon me”
Artist Statement
One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in the last few years is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation.
Forgiveness = healing up the wound in myself, so that there is no more anger towards the other individual, or energy draining from me due to something they did.
Reconciliation = re-building the bridge between myself and the other individual
Obviously, the ideal is reconciliation
But what about abuse? Or when the other has become dangerous in another way?
This is when we need to learn to forgive without reconciliation. To heal our wounds as best we can, and walk away, giving no more power to the abuser.
How much different could Captain Ahab’s life have been, had he simply walked his beautifully ornate peg leg around town, and told the children about how he once had part of him eaten by a monster whale?
How full his life would have been, even missing that lower leg!
But alas, he allowed the rage to consume him, and revenge overtake, to the bitter, horrific end.