Moby-Dick Ch. 79: The Prairie

Summary

Ishmael says no one has ever tried to read a sperm whale's face or feel the bumps on its head. It would be almost as silly as studying the wrinkles on a giant rock or climbing a dome to measure bumps. Still, old experts studied the faces of horses, birds, snakes, and fish. Ishmael says he will try the same ideas on the whale even though he is not an expert. He tries all things and does what he can.

Looking at the whale's face, the sperm whale is very strange. It has no real nose. On a human or a statue, losing the nose would look awful. But on a whale so huge, missing the nose becomes a kind of majesty. No one can insult the whale by pulling a nose that does not exist.

From the front, the whale's head may be the most striking view of all. You do not see eyes, ears, or mouth. You see one wide forehead folded like riddles. It seems to lower doom on boats, ships, and men. Ishmael compares it to a prairie, not a portrait.

From the side, the forehead shows what old face readers called the mark of genius. But the whale never wrote a book or gave a speech. Its genius shows in doing nothing special to prove itself, and in its deep silence. Its tongue is so small it cannot stick out. In old times people might have worshiped such a silent creature like the Nile crocodile.

Even Champollion could read old stone writing, but no one can fully read every face. Sir William Jones knew thirty languages but could not read a simple farmer's deeper meanings. Ishmael admits he cannot read the whale's awful forehead writing either. He only puts that brow in front of you and says: read it if you can.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Witnessing Unreadable Power

Not every threat arrives as a legible face. Ishmael tries physiognomy on the sperm whale, finds a noseless sublime brow pleated with doom, and ends by putting Chaldee wrinkles before you without decoding them.

Before you chart bumps on a silent giant, admit when your job is to witness, not pretend you read Gibraltar.

Coming Up in Chapter 80

Next Ishmael studies the whale brain hidden inside the skull. The sperm whale's real brain is tiny and sits twenty feet behind the forehead, like a secret room inside a huge fort. Some sailors think the oil tank is the only brain.

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Original text

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Chapter 79

The Prairie

The Prairie. To scan the lines of his face, or feel the bumps on the head of this Leviathan; this is a thing which no Physiognomist or Phrenologist has as yet undertaken. Such an enterprise would seem almost as hopeful as for Lavater to have scrutinized the wrinkles on the Rock of Gibraltar, or for Gall to have mounted a ladder and manipulated the Dome of the Pantheon. Still, in that famous work of his, Lavater not only treats of the various faces of men, but also attentively studies the faces of horses, birds, serpents, and fish; and dwells in…

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Critical Thinking Exercise

10 minutes

Sit With the Brow

What power in your life is noseless, silent, and unreadable? What would fake decoding cost?

Consider:

•Full front?
•Profile mark?
•Silence?

Journaling Prompt

Write about a time you needed witness not analysis.

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Summary