"Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure [ . . .] and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?" Damn, Melville. This passage always pinches something deep inside my soul. What can hurt us is often hidden under the most be

"Ignorance is the parent of fear." Ishmael needs a place to sleep before he looks for a whaling ship he can join as a crew member. At The Spouter-Inn, Ishmael is given two choices for lodging: On a bench by the window, where it is freezing cold and the wood plank has a sizeable knot in it, or in a shared bed with a cannibal who happens to be running around town trying to sell shrunken heads. Ishmael is afraid, but he picks the cannibal and thus begins the greatest love story