Zen and the White Whale - by Daniel Herman (Paperback)

About the Book

Zen and the White Whale: A Buddhist Rendering of Moby-Dick examines how Herman Melville's Moby-Dick may have been influenced by contemporaneous sources of information about Buddhist thought and considers the book from a Zen Buddhist perspective, as it is expressed in both anci...

Book Synopsis

Zen and the White Whale: A Buddhist Rendering of Moby-Dickexamines how Herman Melville's Moby-Dick may have been influenced by contemporaneous sources of information about Buddhist thought and considers the book from a Zen Buddhist perspective, as it is expressed in both ancient and modern teachings.

Review Quotes

"Moby-Dick is as vast and wonderful as the whale itself, and like the animal, it admits of many interpretations. I was not at all surprised when I read Daniel Herman's extraordinary investigation into the spiritual life of this eternally intriguing and ineffable book. His 'hyper-thesis' is almost as endlessly interesting; looking at the numinous and the ethical quandaries of Melville's work through a Buddhist lens, he provides us with a vital new view of at the novel, aptly and empathetically reappraised, for the twenty-first century.

Daniel Herman presents an original and convincing interpretation of Moby-Dick as responsive to, and resonant with, Buddhist teachings. No other book in English pursues the parallels between Melville's greatest novel and Buddhism so thoroughly or perceptively. This bold and creative book makes a valuable contribution to Melville studies.

In Zen and the White Whale, Daniel Herman accomplishes three crucial objectives: he unfolds the historical context for understanding Melville's encounter with Buddhism, as understood in nineteenth-century accounts of it; he performs a thorough and elegant reading of Moby-Dick as a Zen meditation; and finally he models a form of criticism inspired by Buddhism, implicitly re-aligning traditional Western ways of reading in favor of something more fluid, open, and receptive. As a 'Buddhist rendering, ' this book refines Melville's metaphysical blubber into new and subtle oil.

About the Author

Daniel Herman teaches American literature at San Francisco State University and the University of San Francisco.