From Hell's heart I stab at thee!

[malsperanza]

Yep, still on about the Pirates.

So,

Though "Dead Man's Chest" managed to include nearly every seafaring and pirate cliche in the history of film and fiction, there was no Whirlpool, no famous Maelstrom of the Norsemen (not to mention the version in Edgar Allan Poe's creepy story, "Descent into the Maelstrom"). So I assume a Vortex or Whirlpool will turn up in POTC3.



But right now I am just altogether happily savoring the AMAZING Moby-Dick references, which didn't strike me until this afternoon, while I was trying to figure out what was so familiar about Jack's exit line to the Kraken, "Hello, Beastie!"

"I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! let me hear thy hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel; and only god-bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed prow,--death-glorious ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces,
while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

It is Ahab's great moment, when he confronts the Leviathan of the deep, and the Beast swallows him and his ship together. I love the fact that Mad Jack Sparrow has his Ahab moment equally alone, confronting the monster laughing, while from the escaping longboat Ishamael and the crew of the Pequod Will and Elizabeth and the crew stare aghast.

And it's not as if we weren't warned that Jack and the Pearl would go down to the Kraken, for consider how we first met Jack again, back at the beginning of the movie: he was, hilariously, escaping from dire peril and floating to safety in a coffin. Which perfectly echoes Ishmael's escape floating on the coffin of Queequeg: "Buoyed up by that coffin, for almost one whole day and night, I floated on a soft and dirge-like main."

Yeh, the boys has read their sea classics.



Only other thing missing is the Ancient Mariner and his pet albatross, which may yet turn up in POTC3.

Oh, and maybe the Bermuda Triangle.

Comments

[rex-dart.livejournal.com]

Dude, I hope that the Mariner shows up in AWE. And that the albatross talks and does tricks.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Dude, the Mariner will totally show up because POTC3 will naturally end with a Wedding at which Jack will of course be the Wedding Guest from Hell (literally, from Hell). And the albatross will totally talk. It will say, "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink."

And then the Parrot will answer, "For the Snark was Boojum, you see."

I mean, when you think about it, POTC is all about Teh Coleridge, what with ships full of corpses and whatnot, not to mention

Old men, and babes, and loving friends
And youths and maidens gay!

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Let me revise that.

The Albatross will say, "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink."

And then the Parrot will answer, "Well, have some rum, Mate. There's plenty!"

And that's how we'll know it's a happy ending.

Someone else will have to do the Hunting of the Snark. Norrington, maybe. He's turning out to be quite snarky himself.

[noblerot.livejournal.com]

This is the best review I have ever read. I would like to come live with you.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

It's a bit crowded in my head already, what with all these 19th-century lodgers and giant fish and gay pirates, but thanks. :)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

It may be because I'd just written something and been struck by Seamus-and-Dean-as-Ishmael-and-Queequeg, or because Queequeg is my favorite character in Moby Dick, but those two things hit me immediately. That Queequeg ultimately saves Ishmael's life is one of my favorite things about the book.

But the movie, alas. No great love for the movie.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Good call. Once you see it, it's hard to miss, int it? But I did. Alas, I fear the Kraken was a more interesting enemy than poor Davy Jones with his sinus problems, for all the reasons that Moby himself is such an interesting enemy. Nemesis must have size, and grandeur, and Unknowability.

That Queequeg ultimately saves Ishmael's life is one of my favorite things about the book.

Yes, and that he knows way back at the beginning that somehow this will be his job to do, though not perhaps how it will come about. Whereas we are taken by surprise.

Me, I fangirl Starbuck, but Queequeg is a wonderful character who somehow transcends all the trappings of Tontoism. Damn good book that; I should reread it.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Starbuck is amazing, and my second favorite, though I do have an odd love for Ishmael himself, dippy as he is.

Queequeg is a wonderful character who somehow transcends all the trappings of Tontoism

I think because Queequeg is the big cool friend and Ishmael is the little buddy. Queequeg has the mad skilz, Queequeg is more valuable to the Pequod, Queequeg is super cool. I mean, Ishmael falls for Queequeg first, really, and not out of some Orientalist fascination. I think that's why Queequeg knows he has to watch out for Ishmael, becasue Ishmael is kind of a moron. A loveable moron, but a moron nevertheless.

My love for the movie was helped by Will, who I found to be approaching interesting, but wrecked by the completely tiresome Elizabeth with her super powers and inability to make up her mind, and Jack who wandered a little too far into complete selfishness for me to find it charming.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

My love for the movie was helped by Will, who I found to be approaching interesting, but wrecked by the completely tiresome Elizabeth with her super powers and inability to make up her mind, and Jack who wandered a little too far into complete selfishness for me to find it charming.

I can understand not loving the movie. If I were honest (which I'm not), I'd say that the movie was waay too full of squidlies and explosions, and didn't have enough, youknow, scenes where things happen and people have emotions and events take place. It's the middle-of-the-trilogy syndrome, visible not only in movies but in books (including, frex, the Draco Trilogy, a bit).

Will did, however, manage to be more lively and interesting than in the past. Orlando Bloom, poor woobie, has been trying to live up to the Legolas thing and doesn't have much in the way of actor's chops to do it with, but he has made great strides in Errolflynness, which helps.

Elizabeth is tiresome because that's what the heroine does in the middle section of a romance: She becomes tiresome so that there can be a Lovers' Misunderstanding. What I liked was the way her relationship with Jack took a sharp left turn into all sorts of new waters: the parallelism between them, the mutual attraction not so much to each other but to something mutually interesting to them both; the recognition that she is more curious and less honest than her fiance. The fact that she alone of all the other characters, including Jack's own crew, has some understanding of him and actually likes him. Everyone else merely tolerates him or grudgingly respects him. His own crew admires his luck and his daring, but also has a certain contempt for him. But Jack and Elizabeth are--or will be--real friends. Brothers under the skin, one is tempted to say.

As for Jack's selfishness: It was always there; it's just a little more visible now. He's not really a very nice fellow. For one thing, he's insane. For another, he doesn't live within the world, but between this world and the Underworld, and he has a hard time remembering to care for things like whether or not the people he loves are happy, or even alive. Think of Tom Bombadil (another motly Trickster). Or Puck, Caliban, Mercutio. All selfish, all capable of great and inexcusable wickedness. For all his charm, there is nothing really endearing about Harlequin. But he does keep the world from getting boring, and it will be interesting to see if (or rather, how) he and Elizabeth overcome their very bad behavior to redeem the story.

I don't think she's failing to make up her mind: She loves Will, she wants Will; she was merely vamping Jack,

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

A loveable moron, but a moron nevertheless.

Word. The original "Did I miss a memo?" guy. And how that boy can natter.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

What ho, Tashtego! let me hear thy hammer!
Beats "come here often?" by a fathom.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Yep, and second only to "Let it come down" as an exit line.