A Whale of a Tale: A Conversation between Joseph Smith and Herman Melville (Short Story - Fiction)

The following is a fictional conversation between Herman Melville, the author of Moby-Dick, and Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church. In this imagined dialogue, Melville shares insights from his classic novel, Moby-Dick. One particular chapter, Chapter 86, titled "The Tail," offers an unexpectedly profound reflection on experiences within a Mormon temple. While ostensibly about a whale’s tail, this chapter subtly, maybe ironically, but certainly unknowingly and unintentionally extends its meaning to touch upon the LDS temple ceremony. While some may find LDS temple ceremonies profoundly spiritual, others may feel uneasy or isolated due to exclusion from these religious rituals. Yet others may be bored or uninterested. This conversation is not meant to favor any particular perspective. Still, we issue a warning to the listeners. For card-carrying, LDS temple-participating members, you may not want to listen. This may seem demeaning and offensive, though it is not meant to be. For ex-Mormons, especially those that carry animosity and would like to burn the whole thing down, we get it, but this probably isn’t for you either. It’s a little too middle of the road and somewhat complimentary of the spiritual mystery behind it all. As a short non-fiction history, Melville and Smith were born in the same era and similar locations. There really is no evidence that they knew or met each other; however, Melville was certainly familiar with the Mormon movement and the Book of Mormon, as he writes about it in some of his works. In 1836, Joseph Smith completed the first LDS temple in Kirtland, Ohio. Melville was 16 at the time and living in Albany, New York. He was familiar with the Mormons and their temples. Now onto the fiction (though historically accurate in many ways and most of the reading and the quotations are taken directly from Chapter 86 of Moby Dick, The Tail). The setting is 1840, and Joseph Smith travels to Albany for a missionary meeting, to proselytize his religion and to spread word of his new temple ceremony and endowment.........