Tying each type of whale to bigger themes

His comment on twitter about no longer playing Melville is a part of an announcement he made regarding the casting for the show. When they recently performed a concert of excerpts from the musical, very major issues surfaced regarding portrayal of race, most notably race-bending of canonical POC. At A.R.T., Dave announced that they'd be cutting the role of Melville (adapting his content into other characters), but also that all the POC would now be cast accurately. 

It’s a big relief to see that these issues are being worked through, and that the show is still openly being considered a work-in-process. Witnessing some of process has been incredibly frustrating, and it's relieving to see the creative team is open to admitting where they've fallen short, and wanting to improve the integrity of their musical. Naturally, the show has still been formed through a pretty shaky, often significantly misinformed process, and nothing becomes perfect overnight - but it definitely makes my outlook on its future more positive than it has been recently. I’m hoping the end result feels informed by a learning process, and I’m keen to see how it goes. 

The book chapters: these are two consecutive chapters that introduce most of the main players in the crew of the Pequod. (The mates as knights and their harpooners as squires). The first is dedicated entirely to the first mate, Starbuck, and focused around his relationship to courage. The second then goes through the second mate, Stubb; the third mate, Flask; the three harpooners belonging to each mate’s boat, Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo; and an acknowledgment of the general make-up of the rest of the crew with a little shout-out to the cabin boy, Pip. 

This’ll be where that tiny clip from The Public Theater workshop of the cast all singing “Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo” comes from.

In the musical, this song occurs directly after Loomings, i.e. unlike the book, which dwells onland for a while first, we’re onboard very quickly! This makes me think that the musical either explicitly takes place entirely at sea, or (probably more likely) is loosely rooted to exactly where it is happening. 

A few songs in the musical are written in the tracklist as having multiple sections, K&S being the first song where this happens. I’m unsure if these sections are more likely to flow-on directly, or act more like seperated songs? But, in the case of Knights & Squires, the three sections are Knights & Squires I, Knights & Squires II, and Isolatoes. “Isolatoes” is a term which in the chapter is applied to the general crew of the boat, so I have to assume the first section is dedicated to Starbuck, the second to the other mates and harpooners, and the third to the rest of the crew:

They were nearly all Islanders in the Pequod, Isolatoes too, I call such, not acknowledging the common continent of men, but each Isolato living on a separate continent of his own. Yet now, federated along one keel, what a set these Isolatoes were! An Anacharsis Clootz deputation from all the isles of the sea, and all the ends of the earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod to lay the world's grievances before that bar from which not very many of them ever come back. 

This term and quote also feel quite at home in what we know of Dave’s musical. Especially being “federated along one keel” and striving to  “lay the world's grievances before that bar...” 

Along similar lines but a bit more of stretch, I could maybe see “As for the residue of the Pequod's company, be it said, that at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men before the mast employed in the American whale fishery, are Americans born, though pretty nearly all the officers are” being shaped into lyrics in a way to refer to refugees and/or migrants in modern, capitalist America??

Queequeg is skipped over in this chapter because we already know who he is, but in the musical this is the first time we see him, so he does need an introduction. I feel like the obvious thing to do would be to just pull from Ch 12 Biographical?

Starbuck’s “Outward portents and inward presentiments were his” is a line I just really like. Also “What doom was his own father's? Where, in the bottomless deeps, could he find the torn limbs of his brother?” 

Also, literally just like how the phrases “momentous men” and “kingly commons” sound together. 

This song is an important moment in the show in regards to how you need the audience to pick up who all the "featured actors" are and get a first impression of their characters, one after another, in a short space of time. While you're not dealing with quite the amount of characters right from the get-go as Comet (literally) tells you to, there's obviously Some Degree of similar function making me think of Prologue. Which. On one hand, is a joking comparison because the way Prologue introduces the cast of characters is very silly, and the descriptions are intentionally both simplified and ironic. K&S has a lot more it needs to accomplish. On the other hand, Prologue has the structure it does because it's a great way to make people remember who characters are very quickly. Basically, more structured rhymes, repetition etc could definitely have a place in this song because it’d assist its function. Also, I could say you even see a little bit of that in the Public Workshop clip, with the cast all singing the harpooners names.

Can or could this be a more upbeat song? (Or part of it, w the three sections issue). At this point of the show we're three songs in, none of those songs nor the one directly after K&S really lend themselves to being upbeat at all, and it'd be the first time we hear from most of the characters so it's a spike in activity - a reasonable time to hit you with something more fast-paced, I feel. Also, in the workshop of Act I, this spot in the tracklist directly after Loomings is where the song The Ship was, which was pretty upbeat ("the Pequooood, she's a cannibal craft…" snippet one), but that song isn't in the tracklist anymore, so you're cutting that "please get pumped we're getting Into It now" moment, which maybe means K&S will have to make up for it in some way? Idk.

Coming into reading Moby Dick because I knew Dave was writing his musical, and reading the opening paragraph of Loomings where Ishmael introduces himself by launching headfirst into the details his depression, I naturally went straight to “so this is an introductory solo for a character played by Dave”. It’s not only something that leapt out at me straight off the bat, but one of the more ludicrously famous sections of Moby Dick, so I have to imagine it’s likely to make an appearance. 

The further thing I wanted to point out while I’m on this section, is that despite how famous this little piece of Moby Dick which clearly describes Ishmael’s depression and suicidal ideation is, the majority of Moby Dick adaptions have little to no other reference to his depression. Or they just have none at all if they’re really eschewing the narration. I’m not saying that it’s a deal-breaker for an adaption or anything of that kind, but mental illness definitely has a presence and impact in Moby Dick (I’ll just, leave it at that for now) that doesn’t especially get a lot of attention. On the other hand, it’s something that I, personally, will notice and think about. Anyone who’s familiar with Dave, however, knows that his shows almost consistently revolve around mentally ill characters (and what’s probably the most famous solo he’s written is about depression/suicidal ideation), and portray them in ways mentally ill fans relate to and appreciate. If an adaptor was to make a specific effort to earnestly portray Ishmael’s depression, and how that relates to his role in this story, it’d be Dave. (I could potentially even argue that The Pacific and Cetology already suggest ways in which he’s doing this but. Mm.)

But, anyway. I said Loomings is a good fit for that song that can be found in almost any Dave Malloy musical, where everything is just starting out, and someone (who is often played by Dave) sits down to pour out all their frantic thoughts and unstable feelings and draw you into their story - so, how I imagine the song is strongly based off the pre-existing examples of that type of song. Namely, I drift to Pierre and The Astronomer. 

Both songs have aspects I like for an imaginary Loomings. They’re both ruminative, emotive introductions to a character and their brain’s inner workings. They’re both at least somewhat depressed and ranty. I like Pierre for its emotional tumult, its inquisitiveness and desire for something more, its explicit descriptions of the effects of his depression on his behaviour, its moment of curiosity about mankind, and its drama. I feel like Pierre barging his way into his introductory solo, the first time we ever hear him sing about himself, with “It’s dawned to me suddenly, and for no obvious reason, that I can’t go on living as I am...” is not worlds away from how Ishmael can come across. I also like how it’s piano-driven (because I unimaginatively imagine Ishmael as a pianist in the show), unlike The Astronomer, but on the other hand, I prefer the less dense instrumentation of The Astronomer (maybe not quite that sparse though. Intermediate). I also like The Astronomer for its slow-paced style ranting, its dreaminess, its dwelling on Big Ideas, and the way it is more an explanation of who this character is through exploring his beliefs. Which is relevant as Loomings goes on. 

Both songs, particularly Pierre, channel more anger and resignation than is really relevant to Loomings, however. A part of this is that they’re both dwelling inside the emotions of an unhappy/unsatisfying present, describing that to us as who they are, now. Ishmael is outside of his present self because he’s a narrator. Throughout Loomings he is... recounting his past, but also describing the future of and influences on his past self, moreso than his past self’s present or who he was at that particular time. And, from that more distant position, opening these influences up to us, and the rest of the world. Uh. How relevant or sensible this is to point out I don’t know, but it seems like a very different emotional experience to convey. 

The second section of Loomings, where Ishmael discusses water, moves the furthest from talking directly about himself and his story, I suppose, but is a big bit of theme/motif/setting foundation, and is also just very beautiful writing. I love it a lot, and I’d love to hear some of it put to music... A few little quotes from it because I like them:

What do you see?—Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries.

///

They come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues,—north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?

///

There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries—stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water

///

Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.

///

But though the picture lies thus tranced, and though this pine-tree shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherd's head, yet all were vain, unless the shepherd's eye were fixed upon the magic stream before him.

I also like the abundance of rhetorical questions in this section, and how that invites the reader in as if you were in a conversation. Those could fit well into a theatre song, where you have Ishmael sort asking himself, sort of asking the audience (also a bit Pierre, tbh). This, combined with how much switching up of sentence length there is in this section, give it this lovely gentle-paced, meandering, breathing rhythm that makes me think of it being sung. There’s probably a better, more technical way of describing that, but I don’t know that smartness, so essentially - I can almost hear it simply because of the way it’s already written. 

The conclusion of this section is where Ishmael draws together his claim that the reason we all find water so magnetic is because to us it represents the things that’re unfathomable and unreachable in life:

Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

It’d definitely be a way to get us onboard this ship, swept up in this journey, while we’re inside a theatre: “Come along with me, into this huge, intrinsic thing, come, and try to obsessively chase down whatever inscrutable thing is still maddening you in the craziness of the world today!” Mmm. 

A little thing I find interesting, however, is how this little piece, and how it’d be presented in the context of the show, relates to some pre-existing lyrics from Cetology: “And the ocean is too deep for me to fathom/ And life is just to big for me to bear/ But who am I to compare my despair to the shaking of the sea?” These lyrics have no root in the chapter Cetology itself, and I can only assume they’re actually rooted in this section here. The weirdness of that is how Ishmael makes the comparison he lays out in Loomings, but then immediately questions his right to make it. He paints his own personal experiences as insignificant in the scheme of it all, even if he does harbour those feelings about the ocean which are due to feelings about the unknown. Which is intriguing and opens up a lot of shit. There’s a lot going on in Cetology which can explain why he says that in the context of That Song, but it makes me wonder if this claim will appear in Loomings and then reappear later with the catch on the end, or if it’s sole appearance is in Cetology. It shall be seen. And I’ll probably discuss those Cetology lyrics more when I’ve... actually heard Loomings! Or, oh, you know, the full show for legit context. 

The next thing Ishmael does in this chapter is discuss why he makes the choice to go as just a "simple sailor" every time he goes to sea, in doing so telling us a bit more about himself and his opinions. I won’t expand on these hugely, but I do think it’s a fair enough point to say that Ishmael makes statements in this section which could act as starting points for themes that Dave has specified he’s discussing through this show - namely capitalism, democracy and race/systems of power, in this situation. 

One of Ishmael’s reasons is money. He doesn’t have the money to pay to go to sea as a passenger, he needs/wants to be paid for it as a sailor. The actual pay for which, by the way, is really, really not that much considering how dangerous a job he’s signing on for. But we have to survive somehow, we suppose...? And, his opinion on the money-making in general?

The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. 

Another of his reasons is that he prefers not to go to sea in any higher rank because he doesn’t care for the honour attached to these positions, and doesn’t want the level of responsibility involved. He goes on to explain that while it can be unpleasant to be ordered around by one’s superiors, he accepts it, and there’s no sense in striving for superiority when he is in essence no lesser than them, since, he states, everyone is inevitably under the command of someone else. 

With very intentionally provocative wording in the context of a book published in America in 1851.

Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain't a slave? Tell me that. 

He finally says that it’s the ordinary sailors rather than their superiors who get the first, freshest breath of that revitalising ocean air. He then leans deeper into the thought: 

He thinks he breathes it first; but not so. In much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many other things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it.

Having laid out his justification for this choice, Ishmael moves onto why a whaling voyage specifically. He essentially accounts it to the mysteries of fate - though his desire to experience new, remote things could trick him into exaggerating the role of his free will. 

There’s a part towards the end of the chapter that I specifically wanted to point out, where Ishmael actually uses a piece of theatre as a metaphor for his voyage. It’s not as famous/iconic as some other parts from this chapter but it’s very entertaining in the context of an actual musical, and I’d love if it were referenced:

“And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

"Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States "Whaling Voyage by one Ishmael

"BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN." Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces—though I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgement.”

This little piece fits well with the metatheatricality Dave has said he’s interested in exploring in the show. In terms of this concept, he’s mentioned both Ishmael vs Meville antics, but also broadening the idea of character vs writer with the added layer of him as the composer playing Ishmael. This quote specifically refers to theatre, and referencing one’s own role in a performance, which obviously becomes increasingly funny when you’re a narrator in and composer of a musical based on the book. Pondering over your “shabby part”, and why it was given to you, while you’re existing in theatre you composed yourself… strikes me as in line with Dave’s humour. In the song Cetology, Ishmael already actually laments that “this could be an amazing song...”, in doing so pretty heavily suggesting that he’s self-aware of being in a musical he wrote. So I don’t think Dave using this quote for metatheatre’s sake would be that surprising. 

Firstly, rather than one extract or quote, it has eighty, pulled from a wide variety of texts. As in, from the bible to children’s schoolbooks. Epigraphs function to provide you with a starting point heading into the book, a comparison to draw on or a lens to perceive it through… the decision to give you so many extracts is an immediate declaration of just how much scope the book will seek to encompass and the thoroughness it’ll put into doing it. It’s also a strong suggestion for you to consider the book not as out to tell you one definitive message, but as more ambiguous, and dependant on what lens(es) you adopt to interpret it.

There would definitely be value in creating a song built on the extent of the extracts, with the aim of said song being to express this idea of range and openness to the musical’s audience. “This weird show will be just fine, it is big and it is meaningful to you, but we’re allowed to use this book like this, and there’s room here for you to consider your own opinions, don’t be intimidated…” etc. (does this sound a lot like I’m thinking about a different song?) are good things to establish specifically for this adaption, when it is rooted in a love for Melville’s text, but has been described as using the text to channel very current issues. It also seems reasonable following The Sermon’s immediate announcement to the audience that they too, are actively and intellectually involved in what takes place here. We’re getting settled in in this Prologue section. 

Secondly, although I said Extracts is before any of the book’s ongoing characters, a character is created just to fill the role of compiling the extracts. They’re a “sub-sub-librarian” who gets a pretty scalding introduction preceding the actual extracts:

“It will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and grubworm of a poor devil of a Sub-Sub appears to have gone through the long Vaticans and street-stalls of the earth, picking up whatever random allusions to whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever, sacred or profane. Therefore you must not, in every case at least, take the higgledy-piggledy whale statements, however authentic, in these extracts, for veritable gospel cetology. Far from it. […]  

So fare thee well, poor devil of a Sub-Sub, whose commentator I am. Thou belongest to that hopeless, sallow tribe which no wine of this world will ever warm; and for whom even Pale Sherry would be too rosy-strong; but with whom one sometimes loves to sit, and feel poor-devilish, too; and grow convivial upon tears; and say to them bluntly, with full eyes and empty glasses, and in not altogether unpleasant sadness—Give it up, Sub-Subs! For by how much the more pains ye take to please the world, by so much the more shall ye for ever go thankless!”

And so on for a bit.

The Sub-sub is interesting in regards to Moby Dick’s consistent ambiguity in differentiating between the roles and abilities of an author, narrator, and character/eyewitness. Before we even get to the body of the book, we’re being prepared for the way that authorship and narration and eyewitness accountability all work a bit… unusually in this book. The narrator Ishmael isn’t straight-up autobiographical but refers to the author’s relatives as his relatives. Often we hear inner or private thoughts of other characters despite it apparently being an eyewitness account, about which the narrator isn’t lying. There is a whole lot of fact-providing but a lot of the facts aren’t correct. The narrator/eyewitness jumps about between during and after the main sequence of events. And is kind of a terrible choice of an eyewitness, based on his personality. So, have this funkiness in the epigraph so you can get used to the standards we’re setting asap!

I have definitely referred to this (the general state of things, not the Sub-sub) in a post before, in the context of the musical, so I won’t go into the whole mess of that too unreasonably deeply here. But essentially. The unusual way Melville uses narration is pretty intrinsic to the experience of reading Moby Dick, but the process of adaption tends to dismiss or diminish it. Either because it’s difficult to portray well in their media without it Being Too Weird, or because they’re simply not as interested in it as other aspects of the book up for offer. Dave, though, has specifically mentioned his interest in how Moby Dick treats its narrator, as well as generally being drawn to characters who tend to act as stand-ins for an author’s experiences/opinions, and in the metatheatricality involved in both composing and playing Ishmael. That is relevant to what to expect from him overall and from his Ishmael, but it does also make me think he could be interested in including the Sub-sub and/or some part of this section, as some way of getting into this concept early on in the show. 

Also, honestly, the deprecating tone used to talk about the Sub-sub isn’t out of line with some of what Dave writes. (If you compare the exert above to how Pierre is referred to, for one). 

I think both of these lines of thought could have the potential to appear in the song, in some shape or form. I don’t know if trying to involve the two would be too much, but I think that depends quite a lot on how long the song is, and how it’s structured. 

The thing with this musical is Dave has definitely implied that it’s full of The Long And Unwieldy, but he also can write very short songs, so there’s a lot of range there that would make a big difference. Would we get a full-length eighty-extract-long song, two songs into a four-ish hour long show? I’m unsure.