Extiction

Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more?
Herman Melville - Moby-Dick
Illustratuion: Extinction by Terry Fan

The Last Whale

Oh, horrible vultureism of earth! from which not the mightiest whale is free.
Herman Melville - Moby-Dick
illustration: The Last Whale by Terry Fan

Far from Nantucket

In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly pleasant—the mast-head;
nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful. There you stand, a hundred feet
above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts,
while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters
of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus
at old Rhodes.
Herman Melville - Moby-Dick
illustration: Far from Nantucket by Terry Fan

Revenge of the Whale

Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale's there? It is the same he
died with, only some of the longer wrinkles in the forehead seem now faded
away. I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity, born of a
speculative indifference as to death. But mark the other head's expression.
See that amazing lower lip, pressed by accident against the vessel's side, as
firmly to embrace the jaw. Does not this whole head seem to speak of an
enormous practical resolution in facing death? This Right Whale I take to
have been a Stoic; the Sperm Whale, a Platonian, who might have taken
up Spinoza in his latter years.

Herman Melville - Moby-Dick

illustration: Revenge of the Whale by Terry Fan

Night Journey

There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves.
The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you
into languor. For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests
you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces
never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions;
bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are never troubled with the thought of what you shall
have for dinner - for all your meals for three years and more are snugly stowed in casks,
and your bill of fare is immutable.
Herman Melville - Moby-Dick
illustration: Night Journey  by Terry Fan

Moby Dick

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. Consider also the devilish brilliance
and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty
embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more,
the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon
each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.
Herman Melville - Moby-Dick

illustrations by Terry Fan