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From The Candles

The Daily Dick: Musings on the Greatest Novel Ever


"While this pallidness was burning aloft, few words were heard from the enchanted crew; who in one thick cluster stood on the forecastle, all their eyes gleaming in that pale phosphorescence, like a far away constellation of stars. Relieved against the ghostly light, the gigantic jet negro, Daggoo, loomed up to thrice his real stature, and seemed the black cloud from which the thunder had come. The parted mouth of Tashtego revealed his shark-white teeth, which strangely gleamed as if they too had been tipped by corpusants; while lit up by the preternatural light, Queequeg’s tattooing burned like Satanic blue flames on his body."

 

Musing: The harpooners, already having baptized their harpoon in their own blood, take on images of darkness in this chapter. The idea of turning to the dark side in search of Moby-Dick begins in earnest. What glorious language!

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