…is kind of a cliche in discussion of p.o.v. , but has anyone actually written such a story or such a novel. If not, I’d like to give it a try.
Also, if not, could someone point me to a good layman’s intro to cetatology, since I don’t actually know much about whales.
Ummm…in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, the White Whale symbolically represents God.
You want it from God’s pov? 
:rolleyes:
the White Whale symbolically represents God.
cite?
Ah, now we need a good layman’s intro to cetotheology.
I’ve heard the God interpretation, but I’m not sure why the :rolleyes: . I’ve read stories from the pov of God. I like them.
I’ve also heard that the whale represents any unattainable thing the seeking of which takes over your existance. (No, I can’t parse that any better this early.) The whale may represent money, love, greed, a winning football season…
But none of those are reasons why a whale pov Moby Dick wouldn’t work or be interesting. What would it be like to be sought after with such lust and greed, yet know that you yourself aren’t what the seeker is really looking for? The seeker is looking to fill a hole inside himself, and using you as a convenient focal point. To know that you are so sought and perversely loved, but only as a symbol. To also know that if he catches you, he will be completely disillusioned and come to hate you. Only by not having you does he love you. Attainment of the goal destroys the relationship.
I think it would make a great story.
Last paragraph, scroll down.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-79,pageNum-156.html
The White Whale is a mask for a greater power that limits Man. If this is not a description of God, then just what is it describing?
Speed traps on the highway? 
The melting point of skin?
Bosda–Any time you’re relying on Cliff’s notes for a definitive interpretation, you can pretty much depend on being overly simple, if not outright wrong. If Melville wanted the whale to “stand for” God, he would have made him into God.
Cite? 
Then, oh wise one, what does the damn whales stand for? :dubious:
Moby Dick (a Whale’s Story)
by **Herman Scrappy Hero Pup**
“Mmmmmmmm… leg.”
“Stop chasing me. Seriously. Stop chasing me. This is getting old. Didn’t you learn when I bit off your leg?”
“Would you STOP?”
“OK, that’s it. I’ma f-ck you up.”
“Hey, you. Yeah, you on the coffin. Go tell people to leave me the hell alone.”
Anything else I can help you with today? 
Actually, the OP’s idea sounds like something Gregory Maguire would write…
Is anybody else thinking of a Hitchhiker’s Guide tie-in?
Suddenly, and quite improbably, a flowerpot and a one-legged ship’s captain appeared. The whale said “I wonder if they will be my friends?” The captain started to poke the whale with a harpoon, the whale thought “I guess not”, and promptly ate him. “I wonder if the flowerpot will be my friend, at least?” he wondered.
“Call me Ishwhael.”
… and who are you going to get to play him in the movie??
Louis Anderson?
Appologies for having pasted this in two different cafe threads, but I like it:
A hunt. The last great hunt.
For what?
For Moby Dick, the huge white sperm whale: who is old, hoary, monstrous, and swims alone; who is unspeakably terrible in his wrath, having so often been attacked; and snow- white.
Of course he is a symbol.
Of what ?
I doubt if even Melville knew exactly. That’s the best of it
-D. H. Lawrence
And a book from the whales point of view would be awesome if someone managed to pull it off.
I quote from my currently-unpublished masterwork:
It’s evident.
Moby Dick really is a zombie white whale.
There was a good love story (at least I liked it) written from a whale’s p.o.v. It was written by Adrian Conan Doyle (Arthur’s son), was titled ‘The Lover of the Coral Glades,’ first appeared in Playboy in November 1956 and was collected in the book Tales of Love and Hate that first came out in 1960. Unfortunately there does not appear to be an online version of it. Anyway, nothing to do with Moby Dick, but at least it’s a story from a whale’s viewpoint.