- the whale represents nature, resources, infinity, wealth (Omnipotence? Immortality?)
- the scream is the reaction to the absurd. It represents desperation, fear, horror, dread, insanity
– you are at the center of the lived universe. The world is seen through your eyes. The world is to the left and right of you. Yet, from the perspective of the planet, the solar system or the universe – no more significant than a carrot or a speck of dust. In the light of this our situation becomes absurd.
TODAY’S CONCEPTS
Absurd
Genocide
Ecocide (”antropocide”?)
City Upon Hill
Manifest Destiny
American Dream
Anomie (from Emile Durkheim)
First page from Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Call me IshmaEL. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
magisterwernegren 