Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a 1851 novel by Herman Melville considered an outstanding work of Romanticism and the American Renaissance. A sailor called Ishmael narrates the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on the white whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed his ship and severed his leg at the knee. The novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. During the 20th century its reputation as a Great American Novel grew. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". "Call me Ishmael." is one of world literature's most famous opening sentences.

The product of a year and a half of writing, the book draws on Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies, and asides.

Moby Dick (1998 miniseries)

Moby Dick was a television miniseries based on Herman Melville's 1851 novel of the same name, filmed in Australia in 1997 and first released in the United States in 1998. The miniseries consisted of three 60-minute episodes.

Cast and crew

Cast

Patrick Stewart took the lead role shortly after making a striking reference to the book, and quoting from it, in Star Trek: First Contact.

Gregory Peck appeared as Father Mapple, almost forty years after he played Ahab in the 1956 film adaptation directed by John Huston.

Awards

Gregory Peck won a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor. The series also won awards for its music, and was nominated for several Emmy Awards.

See also

References

External links

Moby Dick (restaurant)

Moby Dick: House of Kabob is a Persian kabob restaurant chain in the Washington metropolitan area. Named after a Tehran restaurant, the first restaurant opened in Bethesda, Maryland in 1989.

History

Founder Mike Daryoush emigrated to the United States from Iran in 1975. He opened a small sandwich shop in 1987 in Bethesda, Maryland, serving a few Middle Eastern dishes. He changed to a Persian menu and added a clay oven in 1989. The name references one of the biggest kebab joints in Tehran, which was right near the American Embassy during the Shah's time. It was called Moby Dick, apparently because the owner really liked the book. The newest location opened in Tysons Corner, VA in 2014.

2000 shooting

On June 7, 2000, two jewelry salesmen were shot by a robber that had followed them into the Georgetown restaurant location. The shooting victims survived and the perpetrator, Zachary J. Wages Sr., was arrested and convicted of assault and robbery.

References

External links

Ahab

Ahab (Hebrew: אַחְאָב, Modern Aẖ'av, Tiberian ʼAḥʼāḇ ; "Brother of the father"; Greek: Αχααβ; Latin: Achab) was the seventh king of Israel since Jeroboam I, the son and successor of Omri, and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible.

The existence of Ahab is historically supported also outside of the biblical stories. Shalmaneser III documented 853 BC that he defeated an alliance of a dozen kings in the Battle of Qarqar; one of these was Ahab.

Ahab became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned for twenty-two years.William F. Albright dated his reign to 869–850 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 874–853 BC.Michael D. Coogan dates his reign to 871–852 BC.

Ahab's life and reign

Omri (Ahab's father and founder of the short-lived Omri Dynasty) seems to have been a successful military leader; he is reported in the text of the Moabite Mesha Stele to have "oppressed Moab for many days". During Ahab's reign, Moab, which had been conquered by his father, remained tributary; while Judah, with whose king, Jehoshaphat, he was allied by marriage. Only with Aram Damascus is he believed to have had strained relations.

Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick)

Captain Ahab is a fictional character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), the monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship Pequod. On a previous voyage, the white whale Moby Dick bit off Ahab's leg, leaving him with a prosthesis made out of whalebone. Instead of leading the Pequod on a whaling voyage for profit, Ahab seeks revenge on the whale and casts his spell over the crew-members to enlist them in his fanatical mission. When Moby Dick is finally sighted and hunted down, Ahab's hate robs him of all caution and denies him revenge. Moby Dick drags Ahab to the bottom of the sea.

Melville biographer Andrew Delbanco calls Ahab "a brilliant personification of the very essence of fanaticism".F. O. Matthiessen calls attention to the fact that Ahab is called an "ungodly god-like man". Ahab's "tragedy is that of an unregenerate will" whose "burning mind is barred out from the exuberance of love" and argues that he "remains damned".D. H. Lawrence felt little sympathy for Ahab and found that the whale should have "torn off both his legs, and a bit more besides".

Ahab (band)

Ahab is a German funeral doom metal band founded in 2004 by Midnattsol guitarists Christian Hector and Daniel Droste and former Endzeit guitarist Stephan Adolph. The band is named after Captain Ahab, a character in the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Along with its name, the band also draws thematic and lyrical inspiration from Moby Dick – some songs even feature direct quotations from the book.

Background

Near the end of 2004, with one song already written, Christian Hector and Daniel Droste decided to form a band. Bassist Stephan Adolph soon joined the line-up, and shortly thereafter, with the help of Cornelius Althammer as a session drummer, the band recorded their first single, The Stream. On 15 April 2005, after several months of rehearsing, the band's first demo, The Oath, was released. The demo was limited to 30 hand-numbered copies and contained the band's first song, "The Stream", as well as two new songs and an outro track. Nearly a year and a half later, The Call of the Wretched Sea, the group's first full-length album was released on Napalm Records.

Moby (album)

Moby is the debut studio album by American electronica musician Moby, released in July 1992 by record label Instinct.

Content

The song "Go" samples "Laura Palmer's Theme" from Twin Peaks, as well as the titular vocal from the song "Go!" by Tones on Tail.

The album's song "Thousand" also holds the Guinness World Record for having the fastest beats-per-minute (BPM) tempo, clocking in at approximately 1,000 BPM, hence its name.

Release

Moby was released by the New York-based independent label Instinct Records on July 27, 1992. The album was issued without Moby's cooperation, with Moby stating that "all the songs are at least a year old. It's not entirely reflective of where I'm coming from right now" and that "the label had the legal right to put it out, the best thing for me to do is view it as more a retrospective and get on with life".

The album was released in 1993 in UK as The Story So Far, with a different track lineup and slightly different cover art, which incorporates the different title.