Whale

An entirely fresh approach to Moby Dick, by way of Ludwig Wittgenstein The aim of this thoroughly unconventional work is to demonstrate that Herman Melvilles Moby Dick and Ludwig Wittgensteins Philosophical Investigations share the same projects and are, in effect, one and the same book. Confounding and improbable as such an enterprise might seem, Whale! not only successfully reveals the vital intersections between Melville and Wittgenstein but also, more important, makes a compelling argument for why such intersections are essential to understanding common political projects in literature and philosophy. Written with grace, passion, and wit, Whale! manages to produce a startling and remarkably original reading of one of the most written-about and interpreted books in the American canon. K. L. Evans explores Melvilles vast work as a tale not of vengeance but of affection, and Ahabs near-pathological agitation as indicative of his refusal to accept the world as unknowable. Between Ahab and the whale, Evans traces a longing for connection and meaning and finds a forceful response to the skeptical view that language is bankrupt and knowledge is uncertain. In Ahabs hunt for Moby Dick, Whale! discovers a way to reconnect matter with meaning, object with knowledge.