“Read The Pipe.”
I don't remember what I was doing the
other day (not uncommon) but “Read The Pipe.” was my
response to it.
The Pipe is Chapter XXX from
Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It took me a few days to get
around to pulling out my copy of Moby Dick and re-reading that
section. But the need to do so was never out of my mind that entire
time.
I was surprised to find it located in
the first quarter of the book as I think of the last quarter as
holding all the best parts of the story. It is a short section of
about 275 words. I'll quote part of it here to help pad out my word
count.
“Some moments passed, during
which the thick vapor came from his mouth in quick and constant
puffs, which blew back again into his face. "How now," he
soliloquized at last, withdrawing the tube, "this smoking no
longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me if thy charm be
gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring- aye,
and ignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and
with such nervous whiffs, as if, like the dying whale, my final jets
were the strongest and fullest of trouble. What business have I with
this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild
white vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks
like mine. I'll smoke no more-"
He tossed the still lighted pipe
into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant the ship
shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab
lurchingly paced the planks.”
Ahab had sought and received solace
from his pipe for probably his entire life. Now he discovered it had
merely become a habit, not a movement of his own volition. Only
conscience Ahab decides what Ahab does. He does not admit to or
submit to any other orders.
I doubt that anything as powerful as
that was going through my mind when the need to re-read The Pipe
jumped into my head. If anything I was probably wishing I had
something to smoke. But I did find it interesting that the need
didn't go away until the deed was done.
George W. Parker
No comments:
Post a Comment