Ishmael

One upmanship indeed, said Pliny the Elder. So your art film was merely a spy-cam. I hope you are proud of yourself.

It was just stab in the dark, I replied. I knew you would be tempted to read page 470 if I asked you not to. What did you think when you read it?

I was quite put out of countenance. But I decided nevertheless to read the book in its entirety. I have been reading it at night after you have gone to bed. I find that I am much of a mind with Ishmael on many topics relating to the whale.

I thought you might be, I said. In fact Ishmael reminds me of you. In Chapter 80, for example, called The Nut, where he claims that the whale's magnificently proportioned spinal cord ought properly to be considered as part of its brain, which would otherwise seem disproportionately small, and in support of this claim he cites the German conceit that the vertebrae are undeveloped skulls.

An interesting idea, said Pliny, and worth pursuing.

I also like his idea that Saint George may not have fought and killed a dragon, but a whale, as in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together, and it would be a much grander exploit to have battled with a whale than a mere crawling reptile. Saint George, he claims, could well have been mounted on a seal, or a seahorse. Artists in those days were ignorant of the forms of aquatic creatures, which would explain why he was depicted slaying a dragon while mounted on a horse.

An intriguing conjecture, agreed Pliny. I also find the story most exciting. Do you think Captain Ahab will eventally do battle with Moby Dick?

Everything points to it, I said.