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In childbirth, this is known as “turning” the fetus.

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The language here is more alive–less archaic and meandering–than we’ve seen so far in the book. We are in the action. This newly energetic prose does justice to Tashtego’s agility, showcases Melville’s skill as a writer, and heightens the drama of the scene.

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The Heidelburgh Tun is a big ass wine vat contained in the cellars of Heidelburgh Castle in Germany.

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Here’s a picture

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In Freidrich Schiller’s “The Veiled Statue at Sais,”, a young man is told that he will see the truth if he looks under the veil of a statue of Isis. He looks, but is horrified and refuses to tell anyone what he saw.

He speaks, and, with the word, lifts up the veil.
Would you inquire what form there met his eye?
I know not,–but, when day appeared, the priests
Found him extended senseless, pale as death,
Before the pedestal of Isis' statue.
What had been seen and heard by him when there
He never would disclose, but from that hour
His happiness in life had fled forever,
And his deep sorrow soon conducted him
To an untimely grave. “Woe to that man,”
He warning said to every questioner,
“Woe to that man who wins the truth by guilt,
For truth so gained will ne'er reward its owner.”

This resonates with the experience of the Pequod’s cabin boy Pip, who falls overboard and sees God, but returns to the ship an incoherent wreck.

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Not to be confused with the very real giant salamander or fire salamander, salamander giants were mythical versions of the amphibian that were supposedly immune to fire. The idea is that you would have to be supernatural to comprehend total truth.

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The Isthmus of Darien is an old name for the Isthmus of Panama–the narrow piece of land through which the Panama Canal was dug.

The Panama Canal is 48 miles long. This is hyperbole.

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Melville switches to the second person to give the reader a better sense of actually observing a sperm whale.

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Not a British pedophile, “nonce” means now here.

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