[brunoTbear]

> Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,- Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.

Chapter 94, A Squeeze of the Hand, Moby Dick. https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/775/chapter-94-a-squ....

Unforgettable passage about the hand processing of this substance.

[devindotcom]

Came here to post this. Such a fun and mischievous passage, and of course one with deliberate and heavy homoerotic overtones.

[padobson]

of course one with deliberate and heavy homoerotic overtones

Is it? Or was platonic affection more socially acceptable at the time?

I don't have an answer, but I've seen solid arguments in lit crit circles for both.

[BizarroLand]

The answer is what you make of it. Lot of people are dirty minded at some level, but Melville seems to simply be a person who was not very concerned with what the world thought of him.

I would side on the platonic affection, and the creepiness of the passage seems to me to come more from the desire to communicate the madness of the situation rather than some sort of homoerotic play on words.

[devindotcom]

Of course there certainly arguments in both directions but as I understand it this and some other passages are intended to subvert ideas of and normalize the same-sex relationships that developed in the then entirely male seafaring world.

It's like, when Ishmael bunks with Queequeg and they are spooning, well why shouldn't a couple guys cuddle, sure, that emphasizes platonic intimacy between men in a way you didn't often see in the literature of the time.

But then you have this passage. Like of all the things to discuss closeness with the other men, it's a bunch of sperm they're gently squeezing and caressing and becoming close with one another, breaking down boundaries between the globules and each other... "let us all squeeze ourselves into each other" - yes it could be referring to platonic affection but my feeling is Melville knew exactly what he was doing here and it's massively and happily gay. As far as who might be "canonically" gay in the book that's all down to interpretation but I think it's hard to argue against the erotic tone of the sperm squeeze.

[hammyhavoc]

Call me Ishmael.