Leviathanic Histories

One way Melville smoothly ties technical writing into an otherwise fictional narrative is his introduction of a book Ishmael discovers: "an ancient Dutch volume, which, by the musty whaling smell of it, I knew must be about whalers" (342). He goes on to recreate a list of what a whaling boat should carry:

400,000 lbs. of beef

550,000 lbs. of biscuit

2,800 firkins of butter

10,800 barrels of beer

[etc]

The question to ask, other than what a "firkin" is, would be how this material fits in the larger creative whole. Ishmael answers: "Most statistical tables are parchingly dry in the reading; not so in this present case...where the reader is flooded with whole pipes, barrels...of good gin and good cheer" (343).

For Melville, the creation of fake technical writing, like the quotes from his imaginary Dutch volume above, easily combines the two forms. However, Melville spent years on the sea and on whaling ships. His specialized knowledge in the field allows him to write technically without such light-hearted fictionalization.

In Chapter 63, "The Crotch," Melville describes with minute detail the part of the ship that gives the chapter its name:

"It is a notched stick of a peculiar form, some two feet in length, which is perpendicularly inserted into the starboard gunwale near the bow, for the purpose of furnishing a rest for the wooden extremity of the harpoon, whose other naked, barbed end slopingly projects from the prow. Thereby the weapon is instantly at hand to it s hurler, who snatches it up as readily from its rest as a backwoodsman swings his rifle from the wall. It is customary to have two harpoons reposing in the crotch, respectively called the first and second irons" (234).

This paragraph contains the specific vocabulary of the whaler: crotch, starboard gunwale, bow, prow, first and second irons. Of these unfamiliar terms, some Melville has taught his reader in previous chapters, and some--crotch and irons--the reader learns for the first time in the passage. A technical writer would recognize the multiple levels of comprehension (an expert in the field versus a layman) at work as Melville attempts to teach his reader the particulars of a whaling ship. For his novel to be successful, the reader must learn a new vocabulary. In this way, Melville blends imaginative, entertaining fiction (the backwoodsmen simile interrupts this "parchingly dry" description) with instructive technical writing.

Page numbers taken from the Norton Critical Edition.