166 Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel
scenes are described evokes “Melville’s intricate scrutiny of the pro-
cess of utilizing the different parts of whale oil and other products
in Moby Dick. ”^80 But the comparison to Melville’s great epic (a work
that also exhibits a number of cosmopolitan themes) is apt in other
ways too. Like American Pastoral , the narrative of Moby-Dick is pro-
pelled by a voice rich in texture and psychological depth. Although
mostly narrated from a single homodiegetic point of view, the novel
also conveys a profound sense of emotional and ethical disjuncture.
We could recall, for example, the famously harrowing scene that
captures the pursuit and slaughter of the wounded whale. In keep-
ing with the Romantic aesthetic, the whale is described in sublime
terms: being “omnipotent” and “amazing” to behold.^81
Adopting the male pronoun throughout much of the scene,
Ishmael displays piques of profound sympathy for the “poor,”
“unspeakably pitiable” creature that is enduring an “agony of
fright.”^82 But this sympathy is also laced with the stinging knowl-
edge that Ishmael himself is participating in the “appalling” act
of cruelty he relates. As the scene comes to a close, he laments
with sardonic disgust over the hubris that attends whale hunting,
which requires that such “venerable” animals be “murdered, in
order to light the gay bridals and other merry-makings of men,
and also illuminate the solemn churches that preach uncondi-
tional inoffensiveness by all to all.”^83 We could observe here that
Ishmael’s acerbic critique of the moral hypocrisies of Christianity
relies upon a vision of ethics whose breadth extends to the care of
nonhuman animals—a notion that finds parallels with some of
the themes discussed in the previous chapter. But we should also
note the manner in which Ishmael recognizes the global scale of
the process in which he is implicated. As one of the major fuels of
the age, whale oil was used in some form or other by the majority
of people in the West, and it would have taken a conscious effort
to completely detach oneself from playing a role in its consump-
tion or production.^84 Indeed, the terms he uses in the quote above,
“merry-makings of men” and “all to all,” suggest that Ishmael
is addressing humankind in general and that he is discussing
whale hunting as a global activity of humanity that marks us all
as culpable.