Moby Dick

Course Description

Moby Dick is Herman Melville’s epic white whale tale that relates the story of Ishmael, an isolato. He discovers on board the Pequod his own identity and his membership in the world community. But the whales themselves are also the prime movers in this saga, which evokes in us readers the fragile nature of our earthly world and the need not to exhaust it but to nurture it. And, at the heart of the story is one white whale that weaves and binds the story into a cohesive whole.

Herman Melville’s epic fiction reveals to all of us what a mythless life can look and feel like. How it can leave one feeling hollow, empty, and yes, even suicidal.

Pursuing the contours of one’s personal myth is a task that all of us should undertake to enjoy a life of meaning and purpose.

Each of us needs a myth to live by. It includes both personal and collective values, assumptions, opinions and beliefs. Myths are organizing principles that offer our lives coherence, purpose and meaning. Without a living, organic myth, which is always subject to editing and renewal, our lives would contain little or no meaning.

In this psychological book club, Dennis Patrick Slattery explores the human spirit in search of meaning. In addition he will help us recognize the contours and particulars of our own myth and the meaning it affords our life.

Required reading
Dennis Patrick Slattery, Our Daily Breach: Exploring Your Personal Myth Through Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (Fisher King Press, 2015).

Reading the entire epic is not required. Although if you would like to, the Norton Third Edition of Moby-Dick is a good one to choose.

This course is ideal if

• You are interested in exploring a rich, nuanced epic of the human spirit in search of a life of extended meaning and coherence.
• You yearn for a communal setting of like-minded others and are open to sharing your own life experiences and learning from those experiences of others in a safe and nurturing setting.
• You are questing after your own destiny and are interested in the mythopoetic imagination to guide you and other participants.
• You yearn to see more and to see more deeply of what your soul desires.

Course Overview

The format, as mentioned, will concentrate on certain passages from the epic, chosen from Dennis Patrick Slattery’s book Our Daily Breach. 

• Class 1: I. Preparation for the Hunt: Chapters 1-23. 
• Class 2: I. Continued: Chapters 1-23. 
• Class 3: II. Presentation of the Lore of the Whaling Industry. Chapters 24-47.
• Class 4: II. Continued: Chapters 24-47.
• Class 5: III. The Pursuit of the Whale: Chapters 48-76. 
• Class 6: III. Continued: Chapters 48-76.  
• Class 7: IV. Capturing the Whale: Chapters 77-105. 
• Class 8: V. The Trial in the Whale’s Belly: Chapters 106-135. 
• Class 9: V. Continued: chapters 106-135.

By the end of this course you will

• Recognize the contours and particulars of your own myth and the meaning it affords your life.
• Experience a greater appreciation and compassion for the stories of others as they face their own challenges in their sea journey.
• Grasp why C. G. Jung talked about Moby Dick, as ‘visionary fiction’
• Experience the benefits of this psychological book club for self-exploration and self-understanding.
• Understand further the intimate relation of the natural and spiritual orders manifested through connections with others in a common enterprise.