Knowledge
Rapunzel
Steam
Whale-Whole
Common Law
Imperial
Frank Lloyd Wright: Pulgarcito-Tom Thumb-David and Goliath
Thicker than water
Col.2:14
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;"
Refuge at the tower. Fantasy.
Rapunzel
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - The Wave (1896)
Falling Water - Kaufman House, by Frank Lloyd wright
Chess: "Knowledge" "Rapunzel" "Steam" "Whale" "Whole" "Common Law" "Imperial" "Frank Lloyd Wright: Pulgarcito-Tom Thumb-David and Goliath" "Thicker than water"
Tally, Robert T., Texas State
University-San Marcos, Dept of English
Moby-Dick is perhaps the best known novel in American
literature, yet it is generally considered a daunting read, even for English
majors in advanced courses. However, I believe that Moby-Dick is a text well
suited for introductory courses, not merely in literature but in general
education courses. The real subject of Moby-Dick is knowledge itself, and the
novel can help introduce students to the educational mission of colleges and
universities. Moby-Dick also emphasizes the lasting power of literature in
one’s life-long education
Introduction
On the first page of Herman Melville’s whaling
masterpiece, before anyone has asked to be called “Ishmael” and before any hint
of the mad Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the White Whale has been introduced,
Moby-Dick
opens with a chapter called
“Etymology” and includes an odd quotation: “When you take
it in hand to school others, and to teach them by what name a whale-fish is to
be called in our tongue, leaving out, through ignorance, the letter H, which
almost alone maketh up the signification of the word, you deliver that which is
not true” (7).
Attributed to Richard Hakluyt, this caveat is less about
the etymology of the word whale than it is about problems of education, of
knowledge, of language, of what Melville elsewhere calls “the great Art of
Telling the Truth” (“Hawthorne and his Mosses,” 224). Indeed, with this
starting point,
Moby-Dick can be viewed as a novel that specifically
invites thinking about the role of knowledge and education in our lives. The
mission of the novel thus affirms that of college or university education as a
whole: to expand knowledge, to acquire and hone critical skills, and to better
understand the world and our roles in it. Far from being a daunting old tome
relegated to senior-level seminars and graduate courses, this novel provides an
apt point of departure for entry-level college students by exploring the power
of literature in making sense of the world.
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