"In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers."  –Herman Melville, Moby-Dick Moby-Dick, Herman Melville's story (1851) about Ahab, the obsessed captain of the 19th-century whaling ship, the Pequod, is one of the best American novels ever written.  Melville did not live to see or enjoy its success, but his book  gradually became appreciated for its vast wonders in the years since.  It is a complex book with countless interpretations and a timeless tale, exceptionally relevant today.  While his crew has signed up for a whaling expedition from which they will all profit, Ahab announces to the men after days at sea that they are going to instead search for the legendary, rare, and somewhat deformed white whale that had bitten off Ahab's leg on a previous expedition.  This particular whale is ferocious and seems to have an...(Read Full Post)