Schweik Moves

Bulson’s chapter “Melville’s Zig-Zag World-Circle” raises the question of finding Moby Dick. To us, as readers, Moby Dick pops up almost spontaneously, after some serious wanderings. So they are related by Ishmael, but he also reports constantly about Ahab’s dealings with maps and his interrogations of other captains regarding the White Whale. Bulson follows Ahab’s meticulous work as what brings the ship, almost unwavering, to pinpoint one whale, in the middle of the vast oceans of the planet.

Ishamel’s lack of perception of the actual system by which Ahab does this, positions him as a foot solider in a campaign larger than he can comprehend.  The question of comprehension on Ishmael’s side reminded me of a brilliant research I was once told of, which was conducted around a decade ago. This research took the quite sarcastic “Brave Solider Schweik” and analyzed it as a counter-intelligence document. This allowed the researcher, an Intelligence man, to see through Jaroslaw Hasek’s satire, and build the actual movements of Schweik’s regiment during the opening stages of the first World War. They, of course, made a lot of sense, which was incomprehensive to the over-the-top ignorant Schweik. It’s quite obvious though, that Hasek had no intention of using his main character’s ignorance as a means of disguising a hidden level, and the army movements where used as background for situations.

On the other end, there’s always to me Arthur Penn’s masterpiece “Night Moves” (1975). The movie tells of a private detective going deeper and deeper into a case he doesn’t have the intelligence to understand. This movie ends very close to Moby Dick’s ending (trying not to spoil, but someone ends being stuck in the middle of the ocean), and had viewers arguing over varying solutions for over 30 years, trying to figure what the main character missed out on. This complete opposite of Schweik shows the narrator as ignorant while the story insists on there being more logic than he can comprehend.

When drawing a “Night Moves”-“Schweik” axis, Bulson would like Moby Dick to be on the “Night Moves” side, with Ahab logically working what others perceive as magic and fortune, as they cannot grasp his actions. Although he’s making this idea appealing, I would still prefer the “Schweik” side, as the inevitability of the meeting of ship and whale doesn’t have need for logic, the older story-teller Ishmael provides much knowledge regarding other topics, and Bulson himself notes that in the end “mythical narrative coincidence” takes over.