Hey all,
This is a kind of reaction to both C. L. R. James' book, as well as to some issues raised in the novel itself. For a lack of a better term, it is a reaction to the notion of a kind of wisdom being bestowed to those not through the experience of everyday life, but through exceptional (violent?) events. Finally, maybe a comment about a connection between this reaction to certain events and the danger James sees in it.
A few obvious examples of this type of knowledge are Ahab and Ishmael, who both seem to be transformed in some way by unique experiences. For Ahab, this may prove to be his initial encounter with Moby-Dick; for Ishmael, the writing of the narrative itself - or the telling of it - seems a wisdom inspired by the events described in it, namely an exceptional whaling trip on board Ahab's vessel.
However, what seems (until now) to be the best description of this transformation taking place is the description given of Stubb's reaction to his confrontation with Ahab (a brush with danger?): "
'It's very queer. Stop, Stubb; somehow, now, I don't well know whether to go back and strike him, or - what's that? - down here on my knees and pray for him? Yes, that was the thought coming up in me; but it would be the first time I ever did pray. It's queer; very queer; and he's queer too….What the devil's the matter with me? I don't stand right on my legs. Coming afoul of that old man has sort of turned me wrong side out." (111-112).
This reaction later spirals into a dream, which Stubb relates to Flask, and which Stubb claims to have granted him wisdom. When Flask calls his dream foolish, Stubb says:
"May be; may be. But it's made a wise man of me" (114).
In James' article, there seems to be the claim that Ahab senses the weight of this knowledge - knowledge which James relates to an understanding of the futility of capitalist industry - equating it to "Adam, staggering beneath the piled centuries since Paradise."
Later, James equates this burden with Ahab's dangerous manipulation of the system he served for decades and later, once disillusioned, tries to dangerously alter to his advantage. His case in point is capitalist Ahab using a tool which had served his capitalist means all these years (the whaling industry) for his own means (hunting Moby-Dick).
While a reading of Ahab as capitalist reactionary is illuminating and interesting, it also brings together the notion of a "special" knowledge, what Stubb would call "wisdom," with the possibility of a dangerous social deviation, one which James parallel's with the horrors of Nazism and Communism.
As a side note, it may be interesting to note the possible connection between Ahab's understanding of himself of an Adam burdened by human history and to the place where Adam is depicted as being burdened by Human history - books 11 and 12 of Paradise Lost, where archangel Michael describes human history to Adam so the latter may fully understand the consequences of his defiance of God.
Adam, in awe of what he has been shown, says in Book 12:
[T]hat suffering for Truths sake
Is fortitude to highest victorie, [ 570 ]
And to the faithful Death the Gate of Life;
Taught this by his example whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest.
To which Michael provides an answer which seems close to Ahab's sense of a better understanding, or wisdom, following life's experience (perhaps following his encounter with Moby-Dick):
To whom thus also th' Angel last repli'd:
This having learnt, thou hast attained the summe [ 575 ]
Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the Starrs
Thou knewst by name, and all th' ethereal Powers,
All secrets of the deep, all Natures works,
Or works of God in Heav'n, Aire, Earth, or Sea,
And all the riches of this World enjoydst, [ 580 ]
And all the rule, one Empire; onely add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add Faith,
Add vertue, Patience, Temperance, add Love,
By name to come call'd Charitie, the soul
Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath [ 585 ]
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A Paradise within thee, happier farr.
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