Although it鈥檚 impossible to teleport yourself into the pages of a great novel like Moby-Dick, you can get pretty close, students in Major American Novelists: Moby-Dick and Friends learned during a two-day excursion to New England on Oct. 17 and 18.
On a mission to shed light on Herman Melville鈥檚 inexhaustible novel, Associate Professor of English Ben Child orchestrated a 冈本视频-funded trip to visit sites related to the course鈥檚 principal text. Among them was the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Conn., the largest maritime museum in the U.S. and home to the Charles W. Morgan, the last whaling ship still floating today.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a casual density of detail that Melville has in Moby-Dick,鈥 Child said. 鈥淭he novel is full of the vocabulary of shipcraft and descriptions that can be tough to visualize. It鈥檚 up to you to construct that image, mentally, but that鈥檚 a hard thing to do when dealing with an obsolete technology. We had this rare chance to see something that鈥檚 as close to the Pequod as you鈥檙e ever going to get, and also to see where Melville鈥檚 account of things departs from material reality. It brings his world to light. That鈥檚 just not possible without being there.鈥
The class pairs Moby-Dick with Melville鈥檚 Typee and Billy Budd, as well as works by a range of other authors including Cormac McCarthy and Marilynne Robinson.
鈥淢y hope is that we鈥檝e had deep enough encounters with it that we鈥檒l be able to carry those insights beyond the class and continue to read the novel 鈥 even if we鈥檙e not reading the novel 鈥 in the world around us,鈥 Child said.
The group stopped first in Pittsfield, Mass., to see Arrowhead, the farmhouse where Melville lived from 1850 to 1863. There he wrote Moby-Dick and spent time with Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of his idols. Writer-in-residence Jana Laiz guided the class on a tour. Then, in Melville鈥檚 study, students took in the same view that inspired Melville while he wrote Moby-Dick: the whale-shaped ridge of Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts.
The conversation with Laiz sparked an impromptu visit to the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield鈥檚 public library, with its own Herman Melville Memorial Room. Here, students saw the breadbox where Melville鈥檚 wife had stored his manuscript of Billy Budd, discovered by their granddaughter decades later. The publishing of this manuscript launched a nationwide revival and newfound appreciation for Melville鈥檚 literary achievements.
Afterward, the class made its way to Mystic Seaport. Students roamed above and below the deck of the Charles W. Morgan, envisioning the events of Moby-Dick unfolding around them. The group spent hours wandering the historic seaport village and exploring the museum鈥檚 extensive exhibits of whalecraft, from harpoons to blubber forks.
The next day, the group made its final stop at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Mass., the same harbor where Melville set sail on the Acushnet at age 21 for his first whaling expedition. From there, the group walked around the corner to Seamen鈥檚 Bethel, the church that Melville visited just before he shipped out. Melville immortalized the church in Moby-Dick as the Whaleman鈥檚 Chapel, where Father Mapple delivers his famous sermon on Jonah and the whale.
Back in Hamilton, N.Y., Child hosted a dinner at his home for the students, joined by 冈本视频 President Brian Casey, a devoted fan of Moby-Dick. He also moderated a Living Writers session on campus with authors Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel.