Comments on: Melville on Obama? http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/melville-on-obama.html The War of Ideas in the Middle East Mon, 28 May 2012 17:35:33 +0000 hourly 1 By: Citizen http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/melville-on-obama.html/comment-page-1#comment-157264 Citizen Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:39:19 +0000 http://mondoweiss.net/?p=16075#comment-157264 Starbuck,was the fictious young first mate of the Pequod, a relatively thoughtful and intellectual Quaker from Nantucket. Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life seemed to strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organization is said to spring, somehow, from intelligence rather than from ignorance... Starbuck's far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child, tended to bend him ... from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrained the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. "I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale." By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. — Moby-Dick, Ch. 26 Little is said about Starbuck's early life, except that he is married with a son. Unlike Ahab's wife, who remains nameless, Starbuck gives his wife's name as Mary. Such is his desire to return to them, that when nearly reaching the last leg of their quest for Moby Dick, he considers arresting or even killing Ahab with a loaded musket, one of several which is kept by Ahab (in a previous chapter Ahab threatens Starbuck with one when Starbuck disobeys him, despite Starbuck's being in the right) and turning the ship back, straight for home. Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal, which lacks reason. Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. But he lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain. Starbuck was an important Quaker family name on Nantucket Island, and there were several actual whalemen of this period named "Starbuck," as evidenced by the name of Starbuck Island in the South Pacific whaling grounds. The multinational (Jewish) coffee chain Starbucks was named after (Gentile and poor) Starbuck, not for any affinity for coffee but after the name Pequod was rejected by one of the co-founders. Starbuck,was the fictious young first mate of the Pequod, a relatively thoughtful and intellectual Quaker from Nantucket.
Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life seemed to strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organization is said to spring, somehow, from intelligence rather than from ignorance… Starbuck’s far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child, tended to bend him … from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrained the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. “I will have no man in my boat,” said Starbuck, “who is not afraid of a whale.” By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
— Moby-Dick, Ch. 26
Little is said about Starbuck’s early life, except that he is married with a son. Unlike Ahab’s wife, who remains nameless, Starbuck gives his wife’s name as Mary. Such is his desire to return to them, that when nearly reaching the last leg of their quest for Moby Dick, he considers arresting or even killing Ahab with a loaded musket, one of several which is kept by Ahab (in a previous chapter Ahab threatens Starbuck with one when Starbuck disobeys him, despite Starbuck’s being in the right) and turning the ship back, straight for home.
Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab’s quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal, which lacks reason. Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. But he lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain.

Starbuck was an important Quaker family name on Nantucket Island, and there were several actual whalemen of this period named “Starbuck,” as evidenced by the name of Starbuck Island in the South Pacific whaling grounds. The multinational (Jewish) coffee chain Starbucks was named after (Gentile and poor) Starbuck, not for any affinity for coffee but after the name Pequod was rejected by one of the co-founders.

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