Is Reading a Design?
“The moon must be monstrous coy, or some things fall out opportunely, or else almanacs are consulted by nocturnal adventurers; but so it is, that when Cynthia shows a round and chubby disk, few daring deeds are done. Though true it may be, that of moonlight nights, jewelers’ caskets and maidens’ hearts have been burglariously broken into—and rifled, for aught Copernicus can tell.”- From Mardi by Hermann Melville
Herman Melville’s novels and poems did not receive favorable reviews during his lifetime. However, the designs he introduced in Moby-Dick, or The Whale, are still visible in various inventive disciplines today. In his Moby Dick impressions, Stella incorporates passion using euphoric patterning choices and raucous neon hues, resulting in a vast network of aesthetically divergent layers.
Melville’s Mardi was a critical disaster. One reviewer described the book as a thick haze that makes it difficult to distinguish between ideas.The narrative starts as a story of evasion and endurance. The narrator develops romantic feelings for a mysterious lady he rescues from a perilous predicament. The narrative presumably evolves into pursuing the lady in the “uncovered” archipelago of Mardi, which has several symbolic and metaphorical significances. As the protagonists pursue the lady, the narrative shifts from travelogue-style descriptions of Mardi’s sights, sounds, tastes, and aromas to a more immersive experience. The social norms, governmental structures, religious customs, peculiar histories, and many other elements of each island and its inhabitants inspire philosophical discourse among four main characters, two of whom are no longer present in the narrative while the narrator is absent. Despite accelerating the protagonists’ traversal of Mardi, the pursuit of the lady rarely receives reference.Nevertheless, an additional noteworthy aspect of Mardi, or his other novel, Redburn, is that his narrators confront a range of figurative objects that are, in a sense, dedicated to submission, adoration, and servitude.
In “Mardi,” Melville’s unrestrained allegorical narrative aims to evoke vivid imagery, encouraging readers to engage in independent thought rather than fixate on factual particulars.Mardi encourages readers to think for themselves rather than rely on the author to compel them to follow the writer’s belief systems. Thus, Mardi operates to create unique personal sequences in the reader’s mind and imagination through vocabulary, metaphors, and symbols.
Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” inspired Frank Stella, a renowned painter and printmaker, to dedicate more than a decade to creating a substantial series of works. The collection comprises approximately 135 works, such as large metal reliefs, engravings, a sculpture, a mural, and others. Each component symbolizes a volume of a book.Stella devoted a three-dimensional metal sculpture and painting to this project. Heads or Tails is named after the ninetieth chapter of Melville’s novel Moby Dick, in which he describes an English law that mandates the king must receive the head of any whale caught along the coastline, while the queen must receive the tail. Melville compares this to “halving an apple,” as it will result in “no intermediate remainder.” The piece combines aluminum shapes, acrylic, and enamel designs.
A pattern of red, nested curves at the top left implies bloodied rib cage bones; the aluminum curves and shimmering substance imply waves; the highest form resembles a whale’s tail, and the rear form may resemble a skull or globe.Stella has sliced forms with jagged slashes and brightened an earthy palette with vibrant pink, scarlet, and baby blue. Abstract sculptures depict smashing parts and layered materials.
To conclude: when you read, do you see or form dynamic patterns in your imagination as the author describes a scene, a character, or a moment? When the author describes a garden in bloom, do you detect the scent of flowers? Touching, sniffing, and listening are dynamic processes that we all feel or sense. Can we then understand reading as a predesigned, dynamic, synergistic process?