The Daily Dick: Musings on the Greatest Novel Ever

"Hither, and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea."

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There has been much written, studied, and argued about the references to gender in Moby Dick. Anything above the ocean is generally female while the water is rough and masculine. Yet they always, somehow, come together. I just love the words in this chapter.