Moby Dick, Existentialism, Heroic Nihilism, Polytheism - Herman Melville (Hubert Dreyfus lecture)

“Whatever my fate, I’ll go to it laughing.“ — Herman Melville “Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eterna