chapter 107 -- the carpenter

"Seat thyself sultanically among the moons of Saturn, and take high abstracted man alone; and he seems a wonder, a grandeur, and a woe. But from the same point, take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates, both contemporary and hereditary. But most humble though he was, and far from furnishing an example of the high, humane abstraction; the Pequod's carpenter was no duplicate; hence, he now comes in person on this stage."

- Herman Melville, Moby Dick

one of my favorite book chapters of all time. this is the first paragraph of "The Carpenter", aka chapter 107 of Melville's Moby Dick. I read this in 08/2020 for my AP literature class. my teacher had us write 2 annotations on every single page, which was quite the undertaking if you can imagine. but I think the paragraph fits pretty nicely into my 'small things' definition. what do you think?

and, why do I like it so much? it's just beautiful. if I am ever immortalized in writing I would hope to be introduced in this way. here are the greatest mysteries of life, matter, relativity... now forget all of that. let's talk about this excellent man. and, we're on a stage now.