# How are we to read the opening line of "Moby-Dick"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [June 20, 2025, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915 "2025-06-20T22:57:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/1 "2025-06-20T22:57:02Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/2 "2025-06-20T23:00:49Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/3 "2025-06-20T23:20:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/4 "2025-06-20T23:25:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/5 "2025-06-21T00:55:39Z")
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_]. That’s how we read that line. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/6 "2025-06-21T01:02:17Z")
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. > Call me, Ishmael. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/7 "2025-06-21T01:04:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/8 "2025-06-21T01:44:46Z")
His real name is Jessica Fletcher ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/9 "2025-06-21T01:45:05Z")
When I had to read the book in school, I didn’t know the Biblical context of the name. That might have helped. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/10 "2025-06-21T01:47:11Z")
It’s been so long that I don’t remember if my teacher talked about that when I read it ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/11 "2025-06-21T01:50:16Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/12 "2025-06-21T01:53:15Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > a long string of grisly serial killings up and down the coast. Is it an unreliable narrator, like Life of Pi? Where “Ishmael” actually killed everyone on board, not the white whale? ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/13 "2025-06-21T02:06:58Z")
Not only that, but he’s been tripping balls the whole time. There’s no whale. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/14 "2025-06-21T02:07:56Z")
There is at least one scene ehich is very trippy. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/15 "2025-06-21T02:23:57Z")
Supposedly true story, related in my university’s alumni magazine: Scene: first day of class. Professor writes on the blackboard CALL ME ISHMAEL. Student: Uh, Professor Ishmael, I had a question about the syllabus… Professor [not amused]: The name is _Cogan_. A few minutes later, the professor starts his lecture: Professor: “Call me Ishmael.” Those, **as everyone knows** , are the first words of _Moby-Dick_… ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/16 "2025-06-21T10:25:39Z")
I hadn’t thought of that, but based on the explanations it sounds like it would be the same as “Call me Judas”. Judas is better known than Ishmael. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/17 "2025-06-21T10:40:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/18 "2025-06-21T10:59:38Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > In the 19th century, “Ishmael” was a generic name used to address a stranger, like we might use “Mac” or “Buddy” today. Sheryl Crow…is that you? > **[Sheryl Crow – All I Wanna Do](https://genius.com/Sheryl-crow-all-i-wanna-do-lyrics)** > > This song was Sheryl Crow’s breakthrough hit; in 1995 it was nominated for Best Song of the Year, won the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and was on the Grammy Record ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/19 "2025-06-21T11:40:49Z")
And all this time, I thought it was “Call me Schlemiel.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/20 "2025-06-21T11:45:42Z")
Schlemiel, Schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer Incorporated [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915.md?page=2)