Talk:Cetology of Moby-Dick

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Cetaceans (inactive)

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Comments[edit]

Am I the only one in thinking it was not Melville's system, but rather Ishmael's system and that this article therefor misunderstands Melville by claiming he is Ishmael and that whatever he says is also said by Melville. I think Melville knew perfectly well he was not giving a proper account, but just decided to give one for the benefit of his novel. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.190.84.134 (talk) 21:37, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No, you are correct. Melville makes fun of the simplistic classification system; it is Ishmael's system. This article needs to be edited quite a lot, or taken down until it is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.9.210.198 (talk) 01:41, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Where does Melville make fun of it? From within the novel or without? We need citations. --81.158.153.228 (talk) 01:18, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Various things[edit]

Firstly, I'm glad this article is here. I'm reading Moby-Dick at the moment, and wanted to know what whales Melville/Ishmael was refering to. However, there aren't any citations. Is this all OR, or was it taken from somewhere else?

Secondly, the article currently states that the Grampus is the Ocra, while the Killer is only "probably" the Orca.

a) Is there any reason at all to think Melville's Killer isn't the same as the current Killer whale (i.e. Orca).

b) And as he differentiates them, are we sure that his Grampus is not Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus)?

Wardog (talk) 13:28, 8 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Inacuraccy[edit]

"[h]owever, he [Ishmael] goes on to dismiss Linnaeus' classification as "humbug".

Actually, he merely refers to an "expert opinion" by another character: "I submitted all this to my friends Simeon Macey and Charley Coffin, of Nantucket, both messmates of mine in a certain voyage, and they united in the opinion that the reasons set forth were altogether insufficient. Charley profanely hinted they were humbug."
(In fact the whole Chapter 32 reads more as a prolonged parody of both then contemporary scientific cetology and sea-lore of ordinary whalers than anything else, but I see that this claim would need some sources before incorporating into the article.)--87.249.145.69 (talk) 15:08, 18 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]