>It seemed the great Black Parliament sitting in Tophet. A

I don't remember this. What chapter?

>>9471895

Chapter two moby dick, pic unrelated

>>9471565
Maybe Maylbel didnt like negroes (understandably so)

>>9471565
has anyone read his book about 'being a novelist'?

>>9471565
Why did you post a quote from Moby Dick with the cover of Grendel?

>>9471971
I want to know what he meant to imply. You should stop saying racist things.

>>9472023
I wasn't paying attention

>>9471565
I think he's just commenting on the irony of a black church's preacher identifying hell with blackness. I think "The Trap" bit is just commentary on religion in general, although it might be especially acute for a black church given their social situation and the real-world measures needed to improve it that the church sucks effort and attention away from.

At the very least, there's some sort of ironic juxtaposition going on here. Compare it with "The Whiteness of the Whale."

all of the commentary I can find on this passage is just critical race theory eisegesis

>>9472097
Yeah but there has to be something there. Ishmael seeking shelter walks deeper and deeper into a dark neighbourhood where he finds a black church and is unwelcome in there due to his whiteness.

How does this relate to the books relationship with christianity and "pegan" tribes and religions. There is a commentary right?

>>9471565
sort of a racist joke, also a rhythmic reflection on a scene, and then also a play on Ishmael's immediate sensory experience - these things establish his voice and predilections as a narrator. "Tophet" and "pulpit" slantly rhyme, black is repeated multiple times, this leads one towards reading the whole of the phrase with a "beaten-out" rhythm (which reflects the scene literally, as the "Angel of Doom" is "beating a book"); the "negro church" wherein the book is being beat reflects the image of the "preacher's text" concerning "the blackness of darkness," and "the weeping and wailing and teethgnashing there" applies directly to the darkness described in the preacher's text, and as well to the negroes' collective darkness. The scene of black rabble rambling on darkness Ishmael then leaves, and comments on the the sort of dramatic irony (evident to him) in the sign of "'The Trap'" sitting above this scene, which is seemingly ironic to him because of the idea that these people are figuratively trapped by their community, or ideology, or blackness, or what have you. There's potential for the reader to see some dramatic irony in the scene as well, since in gleaning some sort of meaning out of the words and scenes before him, and by describing the scene with a lot of Christian imagery, we can evince that Ishmael too is possessed by his own experience and ideology. So, for him, as well as us, there's "Wretched entertainment [that dramatic irony] at the sign of 'The Trap!'"

Also, nigs be kooky yo

>>9471565
Had a black coworker try to steal that book from me for her 10yo son. Just casually flipping through it, setting it down on her desk away from me, and saying she's taking it. Bitch was craaaaaaazy. And she got promoted.

>>9472408

How'd you know her motivation?

>>9472411
She said he would enjoy it, that it's perfect for him.

>>9472446
dark
or, uh
obscure

>>9472473
She was a brainlet. The cover had OP's cute howling monster-boy on it, and I doubt she knew the relation to Beowulf. She acted really cute before sulking when I took it back.

>>9471565
Why did you put a picture of Grendel with a section from Moby Dick without saying "pic unrelated"? It's kind of hilariously misleading.

There's no racist joke, it's just a church for black people and Melville is half-comically playing on associations of darkness with evil/suffering. It's not like he's saying he hates black people, it's just that the fact that the church is filled with black people and they're talking about the black darkness of hell mirrors Ishmael's own black feelings

IMO, you're really fucking dumb and/or a liberal for assigning a particularly deep meaning the second black people are mentioned. Have you tried not being a slave to modern society and political correctness? fucking dumbass, there's so many more interesting passages in the book and you need to focus on the fact that he mentions black people in a black church in a single throwaway sentence

>>9472079
He meant to imply that darkies are daemons and the gateway to hell

>>9472603

How so

>>9472532

No man, Melville had been setting up that "joke" for the last few paragraphs. It was pretty interesting imagery, but I thought he was making allusions I didn't understand. He spends an entire chapter on the whiteness of the whale and makes a biblical reference a minute. The climax of the second chapter of his book is not "a throwaway sentence"

It's a shame we can't discuss anything mildly race related without someone reacting like you.