What was Moby Dick a symbol for?

>>7314322
>What was Moby Dick a symbol for?
What did he mean by this?

The concept of Whiteness. Melville was saying we need to hunt down and destroy the "white whale," enormous, omnipresent, operating "beneath the surface."

sperm

shattered masculinity

>>7314322
ur mum lol

>>7314338
>>7314354
So what does that make Ahab?

>>7314362
a kek

The destructiveness of revenge. Also, whale poop is valuable.

Teachers and literary critics are retarded. Melville wasn't thinking about jack shit when he wrote this, just like all other un-*tips fedora* authors.

He was just trying to write an entertaining story and you pretentious fuckers read too much into it. *tips fedora*, you classy gents.

>>7314380
Autism: the post

>>7314380
No
o

>>7314380
2/10

>>7314322
The inescapable boundaries of reality. Its all in the sermon at the beginning.

He's obviously kidding.

>>7314380
This. He was basically like Neil Stephenson, trying to write an interesting story while showing off all of his technical knowledge about whaling.

>>7314322
Not doing your homework until the day before

>>7314414

>curse the beast that bit my appendage

its actually a giant bris shaggy dog joke/antisemetic /pol/ meme magic

>>7314322
Its a dragon

>>7314322
Your delusional obsession with symbols.

>>7314322
Capitalism

>>7314322
i hope you're not implying any possible philosophical significance

>>/his/

>>7314322

Moby Dick was just a fucking whale.

It's a story of obsession so you can substitute any retarded ass thing you are obsessed with and you will totally get what he was really trying to say.

>>7314634
Even in the simple narrative reality Moby Dick was more than just a whale. Hes THE motherfucking white whale. Albino, abnormally large, and notorious for having take multiple sailors lives and limbs.

So, no.

>>7314380
>>7314408
intentional fallacy...
the purpose of criticism isn't to figure out the intent of the creator but create meaning from the text at hand in context to your/its period and systems of thought

Great discussion chaps. Let's pack it up and hope that the next one is actually worth reading.

>>7314322
Nature.

>>7315021
Or, more widely, the chaotic nature of reality. How one (man) can't overcome it, will never tame it.

>>7315009
What a fucking cop out.

>>7315062
Not op but an authors intentions for a piece of work are to be completely separate from actual criticism and interpretation. It should not come into play at all when analysing meaning.

Of course most authors, if they are trying to make a point, will make their intentions clear in the novel.