I want to kick the Narwhal in the face

First off… I’m the worst blogger EVER. Seeing as this is my first post and we started before October. I’ve been really busy with work and such outside of work that sometimes I just pass out at the end of the day. I’ve done that twice now writing this blog in my bed, woke up with my laptop on my chest in the morning with not even half of what I wanted to say written. So for tonight’s post I am only going to review the first seven chapters because once again, I am exhausted but feel if I do a review of 7 chapters tonight and 7 chapters later in the week that gets me though a little more than half of part one and then maybe finish part one by next Monday (fingers crossed). So let’s get started.
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Since Carrie’s sister had mentioned this was going to be a dry read I was very hesitant to even start it because I was like “Ohhhh this is gonna suck, can’t we just read something else?” But the minute I started reading it, I found it to be quite entertaining. Especially because my book has hilarious pictures in it, for instance the need to have this picture of a glow worm as if without the visual I wouldn’t be able to procure in my mind what a glow worm would be:

Love the detail (Bahahahaha!)

But on serious note, this novel has some amazing insights and quotes. The first I came upon on page 7 where it is stated “Either we do know all the varieties of being which people our planet, or we do not. If we do not know them all – if Nature has still secrets in ichthyology for nothing is more conformable to reason than to admit the existences of fishes, or cetaceans of other kinds, or even new species, of an organization formed to inhabit the strata sort, either fantastical or capricious, has brought at long intervals to the upper level of the ocean”

I relate to this statement so much because I still believe there is an unfathomable amount of species to be discovered in the depths of the ocean let alone in the world itself. To have someone of that time era have such insight that man does not know everything about how the world was evolving is so refreshing. It reminds me of the thought processes great scientists such as Darwin possessed at the time when not much was known about why things were the way they were. It gives me such satisfaction reading a novel based on fantasy of a narwhal with deep reflections embedded within it.

Moving forward, at first I didn’t know what to think of Conseil when he was introduced in chapter 3. He seemed like a background character that would fall out of the story. He had no depth to him until he rescued Aronnax and swam with him after the creature first struck the Abraham Lincoln. (Nice Comeback!) Ned Land’s name will forever remind me of Ned Flander’s on the Simpsons. For some reason when I envision him, I see a supped up Ned Flanders with ripped muscles and chest hair carrying a harpoon and spitting chew. It’s the strangest thing ever, I have even begun to read his name as Ned Flanders. Don’t ask me why I just do. But he’s obviously the bad ass of the story. He beats whales down like they are shrimp apparently from his description. Plus, he harpoons the shit out of the narwhal when they encroached upon it sleeping. Which while we are on the topic of the narwhal, why the fuck did it just start sleeping right in the path of pursuit after it had been swimming away from the Abraham Lincoln at like 19 – 30 mph for hours. It obviously has a tiny brain. I mean it could have slept at a lower depth or sank down and swam somewhere else then floated to the top to sleep out of sight of the boat. And secondly, why does it glow only at certain times? Does it have some sort of symbiotic relationship with the glow worms where if they glow when it wants it to and then it lets them sea gunk off it’s back? That scene was so weird to me when it stopped glowing then started glowing again but didn’t attack the ship. (Oh, and I'm not so sure the captain is the smartest man to bein charge of sailing a ship).

Anyway, those were my thought before reading the subsequent chapter only to find out that our stud Ned saves the distressed duo only to pull them up on top of the metal creature that appeared to be “human constuction”. Didn’t see that coming, I thought this was just going to be a good old Moby Dick fashioned novel. Man v. Beast. Which also answers my questions about why it was sleeping so close to the top because plain metal can’t sink that low in the ocean before the pressure caves it in. (But the question of those damn glow worms still lingers to me….) AND AND to top it off after Ned acts like a juvenile in a delirious state and bangs on the metallic thing and says “open up you inhospitable rascals”, there are men inside of it the whole time?? Is this the twilight zone?

Now I’m extremely tired, so here are some closing thoughts about the book. I absolutely see how it became a classic novel with the story line developing more now and with the immense vocab. Words such as obstinate, formidable, nyctalopes and imperturbable are not seen very much in some of the more modern books I’ve read lately – just makes me feel smart to know what ¾ words mean. (BTW nyctalopes means you can’t see very well in dim light). And I hate when they refer to hanging out in the “poop” I know it’s the “poop deck” or whatever where sea men hang out, but I can’t help imagine a stinky place where men go to brood. That might be ignorant and not very mature of me but, gross.

Next review will hopefully be on Thursday or Friday. Until the, Smooth Sailing Mateys!

And this pretty much sums up why people thought the narwhal was a "Sea Unicorn" to begin with... I mean just look at that face.