Loomings.
Call me Ishmael.
Why it was chosen
A name opens like a door when ordinary life has become too narrow. Beyond it waits distance, danger, and the hope of finding oneself again.
Selected Passages
Moby Dick; Or, The Whale selected passages.
These sentences were chosen for Today's Passage: lines worth reading slowly, returning to, and turning into copywork.
From Today's Passage
Sentences selected with care.
40 of 40 passages
The Spouter-Inn.
Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
Why it was chosen
Goodness may be waiting where fear expected danger. A first impression is sometimes the least trustworthy thing about a person.
The Quarter-Deck.
All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks.
Why it was chosen
When everything becomes a mask, the world stops being a mystery and becomes a challenge. Obsession begins where wonder has hardened into pursuit.
The Chase.—Third Day.
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.
Why it was chosen
Obsession can give a life direction, but it can also burn away everything else. Hatred becomes most tragic when it starts to sound like purpose.
First Night-Watch.
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.
Why it was chosen
The future is easier to face when we refuse to meet it solemnly. Laughter can be a small lantern held up against uncertainty.
The Try-Works.
There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.
Why it was chosen
Knowledge can deepen a life, but it can also darken it. There is a point where seeing too much begins to feel like losing shelter.
A Bower in the Arsacides.
Life folded Death; Death trellised Life; the grim god wived with youthful Life, and begat him curly-headed glories.
Why it was chosen
Life and death are braided more closely than we like to imagine. What has ended may still give shape, shelter, or strange beauty to what continues.
Ahab and the Carpenter.
I would be free as air; and I’m down in the whole world’s books.
Why it was chosen
The wish to be free grows more painful when the heart is already bound. Some chains are invisible until we dream of weightlessness.
The Chapel.
Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death.
Why it was chosen
Life and death grow less simple the closer we stand to them. The old answers begin to feel too small beside the sea, the chapel, and the grave.
The Hyena.
I survived myself; my death and burial were locked up in my chest.
Why it was chosen
Some experiences make survival feel like a second life. After fear has come close enough, even joking can sound like a form of recovery.