July 25, 2008
Images of Moby Dick ...
Some are the famous Rockwell Kent illustrations (I have the copy of the book with those images in it - and more haunting images you will never see! He has created the looming leviathans of nightmares) ... others are from other versions of the book ... book covers, artist renditions, etc.
I love to see all of the different viewpoints of the artists. Everyone is trying to capture - or imagine themselves into - a single event. There's something beautiful about that. (Reminds me of this post I did way back when.)
Ooh, Sheila. These are all so great!
I love the ghostliness of #2.
The swiping tail in #4.
The ones that just show an ominous restless sea.
The shadowy-ness of the whale in #6 -- the one that looks like a woodblock print.
The falling men in #7.
#8 is terrifying to me, frankly.
But #9 scares me most of all -- just the tail and Ahab's head. It fills me with dread just looking at it.
The movement in #18 -- wow. I feel like I'm IN that one. I can FEEL it. The water, the whale, the cracking boat, all of it. Shiver.
4th one from the bottom -- he's breathing the whale! Such a fierce image.
These are wonderful -- I'm so glad you posted them! I'm loving studying them. Except #9, which makes me want to die.
Okay. I want to -- but can't -- stop looking at #9. I'm going to have nightmares about it. It's just the implication of it all. The inevitability of doom that is so so creepy to me.
Posted by: tracey at July 25, 2008 2:15 PM#9 is truly awful. I agree.
There's one Rockwell Kent image from my book that I can't find online - and that is the whale coming up from the deep to the ship - the whole thing in profile - like the poster for Jaws. One of the scariest images he did!! But his other ones (the last one posted above) are still pretty damn great.
Posted by: red at July 25, 2008 2:15 PMI think the worst part of it is how CALM the water is in that one. Like you would have no warning.
*shivers*
Posted by: red at July 25, 2008 2:17 PM