The Moby-Dick Bible
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Themes › Incomprehensibility

Incomprehensibility

2 passages in the novel carry this mark, in the order they appear.

Dissect him how I may, then, I but go skin deep; I know him not, and never will. But if I know not even the tail of this whale, how understand his head? much more, how comprehend his face, when face he has none?

Chapter 86, The Tail · verse 22

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From his mighty bulk the whale affords a most congenial theme whereon to enlarge, amplify, and generally expatiate. Would you, you could not compress him. By good rights he should only be treated of in imperial folio.

Chapter 104, The Fossil Whale · verse 1

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