The classic novel “Moby-Dick” starts with the three-word sentence: “Call me Ishmael.”
Some tout this as a great opening line. I honestly am on the fence about that, but to be honest, I wonder what exactly the author meant to convey by it, other than the narrator introducing himself.
I first read this line at the age of around seven, in an abridged version of the book. I was a little confused, as the invective “call me” sounded to me as an invitation to use a diminutive, nickname or pseudonym, and Ishmael sounds like someone’s rather weighty full name. I’m considering these alternative possiblities:
The protagonist wants to be on a first-name basis with the reader
Perhaps in 19th-century English, “call me” was a way to say “my name is”???
Something else is implied by this formulation that I’m missing?
It’s a pseudonym - “Call me Ishmael, because I’m not telling you my real name.” Ishmael is a Biblical name - the name of Abraham’s son - by a servant, not a wife, which may be meant to imply that the character is illegitimate.
Sharing the name of another wanderer miraculously rescued from oblivion would be a little too on the nose without the suggestion that it is a pseudonym.
A lot of old novels have the conceit that they’re an account of a true story, and part of that is that they’re anonymized. Along the same lines, you’ll see things like “M_____ Street”, because the author doesn’t want to tell you the street’s “real” name.
Call me [a name dripping with olde Biblical resonance, so it carries all the weight of Godly authority, and gives me license to not just tell you a rambling fishing story, but a narrative laden with moral value and meaning and consequence; but also, I won’t tell you my real name is Steve, because that will absolutely kill that vibe].
In the 19th century, “Ishmael” was a generic name used to address a stranger, like we might use “Mac” or “Buddy” today. Also, a comma was inadvertently omitted from most printings. The narrator is actually asking the reader to phone him.
It’s a pseudonym because he left out the part about signing up to sail out to sea because the police are looking for him in connection with a long string of grisly serial killings up and down the coast.
It used to be longer. it originally said “Call me, Ishmael, after 5 or all day Sunday.” Melville had a contract with AT&T who were using popular media to advertise their long distance rates.
Nathan Lowell starts “Quarter Share”, the first of his “Tales of the Solar Clipper”, with ‘Call me Ishmael’, and riffs on it and other famous lines from nautical literature throughout the series.