‘Jung considers Moby-Dick "to be the greatest American novel" Why is the novel so great? I would say that it is great because Melville so radically deconstructs the hero myth. Captain Ahab does not kill the fish. The fish kills Captain Ahab – and all the sailors except Ishmael, who survives..... In an attempt to commit imagicide, or kill the image, Captain Ahab, in effect, commits suicide and homicide'. (Adams, Imaginaology 2006)
'Recognition of the shadow can bring about very marked effects on the conscious personality…..It takes nerve not to flinch from or be crushed by the sight of one’s shadow….’ (Whitmont, 1978: 163)
On my most recent visit to the 'cave by the sea' the tide was the highest I had ever seen it there and I could not get to the entrance. I felt unsafe at the thought of being inside it with the sea so close. I retreated. At times like this one has to trust one’s instincts to stay alive, there is absolutely no point in destroying oneself because one must live to take the journey. Suicide, either accidental or deliberate, can result if one doesn't listen to the warnings of the soul. The threat was not physical, but psychical yet one still has to honour this as real.
There is a documentary called Deep Water about the events that preceded the death of Donald Crowhurst, the round the world sailor who, after 6 months alone, disappeared off his yacht in calm seas. The diaries he left behind reveal a man in spiritual and psychological crisis who, had he lived, may have returned to the world with some incredible insights. (Golden Globe Race, 1968)
Bernard Moitessier was competing in the same race and he too abandoned it to sail off on another circumnavigation instead of completing the race. BUT, unlike Crowhurst, he survived, because he understood the fragile balance. In the documentary he talks about how you have to know when to stop, when to pull back, how you must go to the edge but not go too far. I live with that delicate balance. It intrigues me, living on the cusp - it is dangerous but it contains everything, all knowledge. Moitessier had a good chance of winning but abandoned his wife and kids to sail off to Polynesia. His wife commented that he had discovered who he was. He understood, he honoured and he survived to tell the tale.
the fish
