Introduction to Whaling: Melville

When it was time to pick classes for my senior year, I wanted to make a change from the traditional (hey, I wanted to challenge convention). I remember thinking, right around the time when registration was beginning for end-of-junior-year-me, This is my last-hurrah and I want to fill it with something personally meaningful. After some brainstorming, I decided that I wanted to make my own class on Herman Melville; or, my life’s obsession. So I approached Professor Neuman about helping me write a syllabus for a directed reading class that was Melville-intensive. I was met with great support immediately and I soon found myself enrolled in my own class. With the naming-suggestion by fellow English-major Jeremy Levine, I created “Introduction to Whaling: Melville.” I remember the happy-dance I did when the registrar told me “We have approved your directed study, to be named Introduction to Whaling.”

Herman Melville, Nick's Obsession

Now that I have been enrolled in this class for about half a semester, I have finally figured out what it is and what it is not. It is not a course where I will write long essays. Rather, Introduction to Whaling is a reading, discussion, and enrichment class. I am reading all of Melville’s short fiction and three of his more obscure novels by the end of the fall (Israel Potter, Pierre, and Redburn). Other than reading, the only other class requirement is the enrichment portion: field trips.

You might already be aware that Massachusetts is the perfect place for this Intro to Whaling class and for someone like me who has an unhealthy obsession with Melville. For one, my entire Capstone class (conveniently reading Moby-Dick…yes!!!) is taking a field trip in mid-October to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. I even went to the Nantucket Whaling Museum back in May to open up my Massachusetts Melville adventures. But one of the best trips ever was one Jeremy (remember him?), David Bertoldi (honorary English major for the day), and I took to David’s hometown of Pittsfield, MA back in late August to visit Arrowhead, Herman Melville’s home from 1850-1863.

Arrowhead, Melville's Home from 1850-1863

The day consisted of the three of us taking our first Saturday of the semester and driving one-hundred miles to Pittsfield, all the while filling the car with Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. We came across the mustard-yellow Arrowhead and were soon enthralled in learning the history of the property. We learned about Herman Melville’s life, including some of his lesser-known but hilariously awesome anecdotes, like his escape from a Tahitian prison, his work in a bowling alley, and his AWOL travels in the South Pacific. We also saw the view of Mount Greylock which apparently inspired Moby-Dick because of its whale-like shape.

Mount Greylock, Lookin' Like a Whale

     
We  saw Melville’s writing desk, his family’s chamber pot (not sure how to feel about that one), and Mark Twain’s sheet music holder, which to our disappointment was not given to Melville by Twain but instead was part of the Berkshire Historical Society estate. We followed up Arrowhead with a trip to the Melville room at the Pittsfield Library, which had a first-edition copy of Moby-Dick under inches of protective glass. The extensive Melville collection was enviable. I wanted to live there. Arrowhead was an amazing trip, and I know that there will be more adventures to come. Introduction to Whaling is proving to be an invaluable experience and I am grateful to the English Department for supporting (enabling) my obsessions (passions).

Jeremy also wrote on this for his Admissions blog, so check out his perspective: http://admissions.clarku.edu/clark-diaries/2014/09/10/senior-years-some-subtle-differences/