# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/21 "2025-06-21T11:57:08Z")
My name is Raymond J. Johnson Junior. You can call me Ray. Or you can call me Jay. You can call me Ishmael. But ya doesn’t have to call me Mister Johnson. (A reference that no one not living in the 1970s will get.) ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/22 "2025-06-21T12:14:30Z")
Actually, the editor made more than one blunder. The line was supposed the read: _Call me-ish, Mael_, meaning he wants a guy named Mael (an old Celtic name) to sort of call him on the phone. ---
**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 21, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/23 "2025-06-21T12:28:25Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > 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. While Judas is definitely better known, what he’s better known for would be all wrong for the book. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/24 "2025-06-21T15:33:58Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#): > > Perhaps in 19th-century English, “call me” was a way to say “my name is”??? Even today there seems to be a difference between US and UK English: Brits will use “called” where Americans would use “named.” A British person would say “He’s called Ishmael” to mean that “Ishmael” is his name, but as an American, I’d be tempted to interpret this as “His actual name may be something completely different, but ‘Ishmael’ is what people _call_ him.” ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/25 "2025-06-21T15:49:52Z")
19th-century Brits (well, Lewis Carroll, anyway) do seem to have made that distinction at least some of the time: > “You are sad,” the Knight said in an anxious tone: “let me sing you a song to comfort you.” > > “Is it very long?” Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry that day. > > “It’s long,” said the Knight, “but very, _very_ beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it—either it brings the _tears_ into their eyes, or else—” > > “Or else what?” said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause. > > “Or else it doesn’t, you know. The name of the song is called ‘_Haddocks’ Eyes_.’” > > “Oh, that’s the name of the song, is it?” Alice said, trying to feel interested. > > “No, you don’t understand,” the Knight said, looking a little vexed. “That’s what the name is _called_. The name really _is_ ‘_The Aged Aged Man_.’” > > “Then I ought to have said ‘That’s what the _song_ is called’?” Alice corrected herself. > > “No, you oughtn’t: that’s quite another thing! The _song_ is called ‘_Ways and Means_’: but that’s only what it’s _called_, you know!” > > “Well, what _is_ the song, then?” said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered. > > “I was coming to that,” the Knight said. “The song really _is_ ‘_A-sitting On A Gate_’: and the tune’s my own invention.” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/26 "2025-06-21T15:53:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > When I had to read the book in school, I didn’t know the Biblical context of the name. That might have helped. Of course the name [Ahab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahab) has some negative connotations as well. ---
**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, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/27 "2025-06-21T15:55:21Z")
Again, I hadn’t read the Bible, so these references were not apparent. ---
**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 21, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/28 "2025-06-21T16:11:19Z")
Unlike, perhaps, Ishmael, Ahab’s is a given name chosen by his “insane, widowed mother.” I suspect a lot of this is Melville just goofing on the proclivity for obscure biblical names in insular New England communities. Just like how an outsider writing about Mormons might. ---
**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, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/29 "2025-06-21T16:16:41Z")
BTW I remember being bored to death by the novel, despite it being so highly regarded. I think there was an entire chapter that described a rope or line on the ship. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/30 "2025-06-21T16:58:14Z")
Different strokes I guess. That’s what I loved about it, alternating chapters between the whaling adventure and obscure tangents. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/31 "2025-06-21T17:00:21Z")
There were also entire chapters on processing spermaceti, and many other topics. Such details (and they way they symbolically fit into the narrative; these are not completely non sequitur) written by an actual sailor are the exact opposite of boring. ---
**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, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/32 "2025-06-21T17:01:31Z")
I didn’t mind Billy Budd, though. That was shorter and easier to read. (Though my English class was convinced that Melville was gay based on that book.) ---
**Author:** ![knavette57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knavette57/32/3871_2.png) [@knavette57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knavette57)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/33 "2025-06-21T17:02:56Z")
He does mention that he sometimes feels violent, knocking off people’s hats. Maybe he just added the “hats” part, though…and meant to say, “knocking off people”. (I am recalling this from my memory, and the sentence might not have said exactly that, but the meaning is the same…he is fed up with humanity and needs to get out to sea, but I like your idea about the possibility that he is a serial killer, it made me laugh). ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/34 "2025-06-21T17:04:08Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > (Though my English class was convinced that Melville was gay based on that book.) He did write a book called Moby Dick (aka The Whale)… ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/35 "2025-06-21T17:06:54Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > I was coming to that,” the Knight said. “The song really _is_ ‘_A-sitting On A Gate_’: and the tune’s my own invention.” But of course it’s _pronounced_ Throat wabbler mangrove… Meanwhile, My name’s John Lee Pettimore. Same as my daddy and his daddy before… ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/36 "2025-06-21T17:12:03Z")
I’ve heard a few people use the opening line based on their understand of it. For instance starting a tale of woe and/or failure with the line. I just assumed it was the name of the narrator when I read the book. ---
**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, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915/37 "2025-06-21T17:15:58Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > (Though my English class was convinced that Melville was gay based on that book.) > > He did write a book called Moby Dick (aka The Whale)… Which has a whole chapter about the pleasures of squeezing sperm… > Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,–Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-we-to-read-the-opening-line-of-moby-dick/1019915.md?page=1)