The Cartesian Vortex in Moby-Dick Author(s): David Charles Leonard Source: American Literature, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Mar.

, 1979), pp. 105-109 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2924925 Accessed: 30/08/2010 02:35
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The Cartesian Vortex Moby-Dick in

interpretationstheCartesian of vortex Moby-Dick in without a thorough study Melville's of scientific source, Rene Descartes.' From HermanGansevoort, Herman Melville acquiredin I846 Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia:or, An Universal Dictionary Artsand of Sciences, whichhe keptuntil I872, when it was passed to Captain ThomasMelville.2 his article"Melville'sEducationin Science," In TyrusHillwayincludesChambers's huge two-volume encyclopedia in a listofsource booksfrom whichMelvillederived hisscientific all information I85I (thepublication ofMoby-Dick).'Given before date the specific reference the Descartianvortices the Mast-Head to in scene,it seemscertainthatMelville read the "CARTESIANISM" and 'VORTEX" entries Chambers's of Cyclopaedia: Butwhile sleep,thisdreamis on ye,moveyourfootor hand an inch; this slipyourhold at all; and youridentity comesback in horror. Over Descar' Howard P. Vincent, The Trying-Out of Moby-Dick (Carbondale, Ill., and Edwardsvi'le, Ill., I949), p. I57, has come closest to a Cartesian framework for Melville's vortex by stating that "the Descartian vortices represent multiplicity." And indeed, the Cartesian cosmos is made up of an infinitenumber of vortical systems. However, the primary meaning of the Cartesian vortex system is three-dimensionalcircular (vortical) motion. Declaring the vortex an avatar of reincarnation,James Baird, Ishmael: A Study of the Symbolic Mode in Primitivism(1956; rpt. New York, I960), pp. 266-273, regards the vortex as a "descent into the water, the emblematic essence of God." In the Cartesian cosmology, the central portion of each vortex is inhabited by a sun, not God. Baird, however, does note Melville's repeated use of the vortexin Mardi, White-jacket, Moby-Dick,Clarel, and Billy Budd. To Paul Haven, Conn., I965), p. 37, the vortex is a "way out of horizontal, circular motion." Descent into the Cartesian vortex is not vertical and linear, as Brodtkorb suggests; it is instead horizontal and circular. Thomas Woodson, "Ahab's Greatness: Prometheus as Narcissus," ELH, XXXIII (Sept., I966), 357, declares that the Descartian vortices support the "assumption of a cleavage between mind and matter." But nowhere in the Cartesian system of vortical motion does mind have a place in an essentially mechanistic and clockwork construct.Emphasizing the importance of the vortex as a primal form, Robert Zoellner, The Salt-Sea Mastodon: A Reading of Moby-Dicl (Berkeley and Los Angeles, I973), p. 203, defines the vortex as "a void surrounded by a circle." But in the Cartesian vortex system,no void exists in the universe. All space is filled with matterin motion. 2 Merton M. Sealts,Jr., Melville'sReading:A Checklist Books Owned and Borrowed of (Madison, Wisc., I966), p. 48. 3Tyrus Hillway, "Melville's Education in Science," Texas Studies in Literature and Language, XVI (Fall, I974), 42I-422.

CONTEMPORARY CRITICS

of Herman Melville haveoffered various

Brodtkorb, Ishmael'sWhiteWorld: A Phenomenological Jr., Readingof Moby Dick (New

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weather, you tianvortices hover.And perhapsat midday,in the fairest air thattransparent into shriekyou drop through withone half-throttled thesummer sea, no more to rise for ever.Heed it well, ye Pantheists!4 Melville would have found that Under Chambers's "VORTEX" entry, the of is or VORTEX, in the Cartesian Philosophy, a System Collection Partimovingthesame way,and roundthesame Axis. clesof Matter solve thesePhilosophers Such Vorticesare theGrandMachineswhereby mostof the Motionsand otherPhaenomenaof the heavenlyBodies.the Accordingly, Doctrineof these Vortices makes a great part of the See CartesianPhilosophy. CARTESIANISM.5 Under Chambers's "CARTESIAN Philosophy, or Melville would have found
CARTESIANISM

entry,

Extension . . ; that he imthatGod createdMatterof an indefinite round each Partrevolv'd one,whereby on press'd twoMotions thisMatter; or an whereby Assemblage, Systemof 'em, turn'd its Centre; another, or Vortices, rounda commonCentre: Whence arose as many different Masses of Matter,thus moving round Eddies, as therewere different commonCenters.6

de Monde; ou, Traite' la Lumie're.

Descartes posits this basic concept of vortical systems in his Le

La fort Or il suitde ceci deux chosesqui me semblent conside'rables. preles fairetourner miereest que la matierede Ciel ne doit pas seulement centre (excepte autourdu Soleil,mais aussi autourde leurpropre planetes que lorsqu'ily a quelque cause particuliere les en exnpeche)et ensuite de qu'elle doit composer PetitsCieux autourd'elles,qui se meuventen deux memesensque le plus grand.Et la secondeestque, s'il se rencontre leurscoursdans le mais disposees prendre 'a inegalesen grosseur, Plane"tes Ciel a une meme distancedu Soleil, en sorteque l'une soit justement d'autantplus massiveque l'autresera plus grosse: la plus petitede ces devrase joindre plus viteque la plus grosse, deux,ayantun mouvement continuelleau petitCiel que seraautourde cette plus grosseet tournoyer
ment avec lui.7
4 HermanMelville, and Howard P. or Moby-Dick: The Whale,ed. LutherS. Mansfield and thisedition the from novelare from (New York,I952), p. I57. All quotations Vincent willbe citedin thetext. 5 EphraimChambers, Cyclopaedia:or, An UniversalDictionary Arts and Sciences of (London,I728), II, 330, S.V. VORTEX. 6 Ibid.,I, I64, s.v. CARTESIANISM. 7 Rene' ed. Alquie (Paris,I963), I, 334. Oeuvres Philosophiques, Ferdinand Descartes,

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107

upon their innercentre"(p. 388). The Grand Armadavortex, like theDescartian vortices theMast-Headscene, a microcosm the of is of violent cosmicmacrocosm. fourth The vortical in system described is thefinal climactic sceneofMoby-Dick: "concentric circles seizedthe lone boat itself, and all its crew,and each floating oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning, animateand inanimate, round and all roundin one vortex, carried smallest the chip of thePequod out of sight"(p. 566). Only Ishmaelis leftin thecenter thevortex of system: "at the axis of the slowlywheelingcircle, like another Ixion I did revolve" 567). Like Ixion,Ishmael'sfateis to be bound to (p. a fiery wheelin Hades, to be boundto a circular universe endless of motion. Unlikethetranscendentalists, viewman as progressing who towardGod throughnature,Melville in Moby-Dickfinds man

in thickeningclusters .

MelvilleusesDescartes's paradigmto createa number revolving of vortical systems Moby-Dick. in The motionof each system endis lessly circular, beingthree-dimensional, and As endlessly vortical. a result, everything the material in world is condemned a hellish to circular flight aboutitscenter well as aboutthecenter a central as of sun. The first vortical system Ahab and thesun endlessly has circling abouttheearth:"For a long time, now, thecircus-running has sun racedwithinhis fiery ring,and needsno sustenance what'sin but himself. Ahab" (p. 378). Boththesun and Ahab appearto circle So the earthon theirown power,but in actuality thereis an agent beyond sunand beyond the Ahab thatmovesthem endless in circles: "Byheaven, man,we are turned roundand roundin thisworld, like yonder windlass, Fate is thehandspike" 536). Ahab and the and (p. sun circleendlessly on their not own volition, as a result the but of clockwork system Cartesian of vortical motion. The secondvortical system a subunit thefirst. is of Ahab spinson his axis and as a result his crewrevolve abouthim: "myone coggedcirclefits intoall their various wheels, they and revolve" i66). Ahab as thecenter this (p. of vortical system spinsabouton his own axis and his spinning motion causestheother satellites (the crewof thePequod) to revolve about him.Ahab'sgrimpurpose hunting WhiteWhale becomes of the the mad questof all thecrewof thePequod. The third vortical system is described the Grand Armada scene: "in moreand moreconin tracting orbits whalesin themorecentral the circles began to swim
. .

the entirehost of whales came tumbling

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nonspiritual. of thatis nonprogressive, caught a system nature in from is and from Godisseparate nature maninnature separate God. An in to According Gillispie hisThe Edge of Objectivity: Essay century produced in theHistory Scientific Ideas,theseventeenth of of Bacon, and thefounder science, Francis of theprophet science, which a Both Rene Descartes.8 mensought newmethodology would of methodology Ages. Bacon's ofthe refute scholasticism Middle the methodology Descartes's complemented and experiment induction Emand Rationalism Baconian Descartian and ofreason deduction. physics wouldrethat a combined form mathematical to piricism only whosucceeded Unlike Bacon, the order reexplain universe. and severed unwittingly in separating Descartes from science, religion in According Burtt his Metaphysical to God from universe. the system vortex Science, Descartes's Physical of Foundations Modern teleologiworld wasno longer that new created entirely external an spiritual: cal,nolonger
that for existence, thepurpose in God had created world physical of the might itswayback find process end, natural thewhole man, highest the the causeofmotion, of toGod.Now God is relegated theposition first to as in in then of universe continuingaeternum incidents the happenings the machine.9 mathematical of regular revolutionsa great of Being.The progress the world no longerconcludeswith God. abouta sun in an endEach worldspinsaboutitsaxis and revolves in resolution God. paththatfailsto lead to anyspiritual lessvortical is the law For Descartes and Melville, primary of nature circular au motion qui ("tousles mouvements se font Monde sonten quelque To thisgreatcircularmotionis a faconcirculaires"10). Descartes, in God thatkeepsorderand stability a signof a greatwatchmaker motion of and vortical circular the fluid To universe. Melville, great and as theuniverse a horror, horrible as real as theWhiteWhale is Mobyof and thewhitedepths theMilkyWay. Thus, in Melville's The transcenas is Dick, stasis as illusory thecolorsof theuniverse. by dentalpeace and calm experienced Ishmael in the Mast-Head
8 Charles Coulston Gillispic, The Edge of Objectivity: An Essay in the History of ScienN.J.,I960), p. 83. tificIdeas (Princeton, 9 Edwin Arthur Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science: A Essay (London,I932), p. I05. Historical and Cr-itical 10 Descartes, 332. I,

ofa a manifestation spiritual then, no longer physical is The world,

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churnof for deceit, at thebottom it all is a yawning, sceneis a subtle a hell, aboutin a chainedorbit, fiery whirling ceaselessly ing vortex, moIn motion. universal all colorless colorof universal an ungodly But or lies whiteness blankness reality. thisblanktionand universal a it of is nessin Moby-Dick notan absence matter; is,rather, nullity who spins infidel motionforthe wretched circular of meaningless and gainsno headland.To Melmakesno headway, abouthimself, of replacesthe optimism tranvortical system ville,the Cartesian of As a result his of with scendentalism thepessimism mechanism. as Melvilleviewsnature an impersonal of knowledge Cartesianism, Thus, humanor divineintervention. mechanism runswithout that alienatedhim fromthe mainwith affinity Cartesianism Melville's thought. transcendental currents nineteenth-century of