PODCAST · arts
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements
by Ben Klug and Mark Sokolov
Join Ben and Mark as we explore Moby Dick! Now that we’ve completed the novel itself, in the Appendices we’re plunging like fate into the many ways people have adapted it. Whether as film, anime, musical theater, or theme park ride, whether faithful, reinterpreted, or just plain bizarre, we’re here to see Moby Dick in whatever form culture can provide it to us.
Episodes
-
Special announcement: Detect or Die!
A quick update about Detect or Die, a new TTRPG Ben wrote and Mark edited, that’s going to be available on Ben’s Itch Page HERE, and then the project page HERE starting August 25th! Also, if you are interested, August 25th is Itch.io Creator Day, so Ben would certainly appreciate first-day...
-
Not Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements: Starboard Vineyard Tours!
No appendix today, but we have something else for you. We’ve started a new podcast, called Starboard Vineyard Tours! It's the same two overthinking goofballs talking about literature, but this time we'll be reading academic works of science fiction studies, which is a field with a lot of depth…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 8: Whalecore
This time around, we delve into one of the least rigorously defined musical genres, whalecore. From the classic of the genre, Mastodon’s Leviathan, to a period-accurate sea shanty collection, your hosts Mark and Ben discuss a wide variety of Moby Dick inspired, nautical, or simply whale-flavored...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 7: Hakugei/White Cyclone
This episode is a real roller coaster ride, and by that, we mean that in it we experience (virtually) a literal roller coaster! We’re joined by Hannah Yoleau to discuss Hakugei, a Moby Dick-themed roller coaster at Nagashima Spa Land in Kuwana, Japan, and its history as White Cyclone. We live…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 4: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (Dawn of the Final Day) (Cursed Recording Remix) (Send Help)
Here it is: The last episode of our coverage of Dave Malloy’s Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). Due to technical issues, we actually had to re-record this whole thing, which only adds to the list of Malloy’s crimes against us specifically. That ‘us’ once again includes our wonderful guests...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 3: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (The Pip Part) (Oh No)
We’re back for round three of our review of Dave Malloy’s Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). This time, your hosts (including eminent guests and friends of the podcast Danny (@BerserkerDanDan) and Clay (@ClayDanteT) reach the point of no return, after cleaning up the end of Part II. Part III:...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 2: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (Again)
We may have bitten off more blubber than we can chew here, but the crew of Whale Statements forges on with our review, and extensive discussion, of Dave Malloy’s Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). That crew also continues to include Danny (@BerserkerDanDan) and Clay (@ClayDanteT), our guests,...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 1: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning
We have returned from a long journey. Our skin is weathered by salt spray, our hair shaggy, our spirits subdued, but we bring an oily bounty to you, our listeners. We have drawn out Dave Malloy's 2019 musical version of Moby Dick with a fish-hook, taken it alongside for butchery, and now come to...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 5: Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick
90s-est things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs; this podcast episode is the stoneless grave of Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick. In this episode, we’re joined by special guest Rick (@combattlerRickV) to attempt to make sense of the utterly singular Hakugei: Legend of…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 4: Orson's Whales
In this episode we cover Orson Welles’ various efforts to produce, direct, and star in Moby Dick, covering a radio play (1946), a metafictional theater production, Moby Dick - Rehearsed (1955), and fragments of an incomplete film version (1971). Welles is clearly having a great time, and so are…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 3: The Sea Beast (1926)
In this episode, we take a break from the talkies, with the 1926 silent film The Sea Beast. This adaptation of Moby Dick, starring John Barrymore, takes it to strangely conventional new places with love-lorn hero Ahab Ceeley seeking the hand of his sweetheart in competition with his half-brother...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 2: The Whale God (1962)
This week, we watched The Whale God (1962), a gothic, black and white kaiju drama adaptation of a novel by the same name that adapted Moby Dick to the world of Japanese whaling in (we think) the later 19th century. It's an intense story of a village's reigning madness of revenge after generations...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 1: Moby Dick (1956)
And now, Moby Dick - in living color! We regret to inform you the whale is still white. For the first Whale Statements Appendix, we watched Moby Dick (1956), starring Gregory Peck, directed by John Huston, and with a screenplay by John Huston and Ray Bradbury. Yes, that Ray Bradbury, and you'll...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 37: Wrap-up
Cleaning up loose ends, we rank our favorite chapters with an infallible device, discuss the various characters, and talk a bit about the structure of the thing. Then, most importantly, we answer your questions! Including some thematic, some specific, and a few impish. Also, a bunch of…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 36: Chapter 135 and Epilogue
A dead whale or a stove boat. Next episode: We look back over the book, respond to listener questions, and generally clean up our loose ends. Please send your questions to [email protected]!
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 35: Chapter 134
The chase enters the second day, and Ahab will not swerve. Next episode: Chapter 135, and the Epilogue. The whole act’s immutably decreed.
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 34: Chapters 131-133
Omens and misgiving abound, and even Ahab almost turns aside... but too late. The White Whale is sighted, the doubloon is earned, and the chase has begun. Next episode: Chapter 134, The Chase – Second Day.
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 33: Chapters 125-130
Update your logbooks, everyone. This week, we have the last episode of relatively normal chapters before the chase begins. But ‘relatively’ doesn’t mean much: Ahab’s intensity has reached fever pitch, and everyone on board has to deal with it. The carpenter shows up and Ben does hand gestures on…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 32: Chapters 119-124
The Typhoon has arrived, and we now see Ahab in all his fatal pride. Next episode: We read chapters 125 through 130, through the intensity and omens of The Hat.
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 31: Chapters 111-118
The Pequod has entered the Pacific, and Ishmael is delighted by the mild sea. Ahab’s deep and tempestuous thoughts, however, take up most of these chapters. We meet the blacksmith, who would be singularly unhappy if Ahab wasn’t right there, and witness the creation of a lance to slay God. From...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 30: Chapters 106-110
In this episode, the material world of the Pequod looms large, as does its materials. Instead of getting a new friend, Ahab gets a new leg, and we meet the carpenter. He gets a whole chapter to himself, describing him more or less schematically. After that, we try something a bit different: Since...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 29: Chapters 101-105
This week, we delve deep into the prehistory of whales, and from there, consider their most remote future. But first, an extended examination of Dutch and English whaleship supplies in a chapter Ben grades ‘passable.’ There’s 135 of them, they can’t all be winners. But after that, the whale’s...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 28: Chapters 99-100
This week, we have some excellent Ahab content. First, in “The Doubloon,” we discuss the hermeneutics by which the crew of the Pequod interpret the markings on Ahab’s golden prize, promised to whoever sights Moby Dick. Ishmael presents us with interpretations ranging from the conventional to the...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 27: Chapters 94-98
Well, here it is, what Mark’s called ‘the orgy chapter.’ It’s part of the elaborate processing of the whale for oil, which (in a somewhat chronologically weird way) we’re finishing up this episode. Ishmael experiences a deep and squishy benevolence for all mankind; some weird parts of the whale…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 26: Chapters 90-93
After some development on the theme of ‘royal authority is kind of unjust, huh,’ in connection with fast-fish and loose-fish, we move on to another meeting with another whale-ship (no gam). And, in the Pequod’s meeting with the less than fragrant Rose-Bud, the love of grey gold leads men to do...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 25: Chapters 87-89
We forge ahead now with the Grand Armada - when Ben stops talking about semi-related matters, anyways. In this wild and piratical chapter, the Pequod pursues and is pursued, Starbuck’s crew witness the secret hidden bowers of the whale, and we learn of the forbidden flavor. After all that, of...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 24: Chapters 85-86
This week we’re reading Chapters 85 and 86, The Tail and The Fountain - we are not reading 87, The Grand Armada, because there was just too much there to add on after we talked about two of the whale’s most noble attributes (according to Ishmael, who doesn’t seem to find much ignoble in the…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 23: Chapters 81-84
As is not unusual, we had a hard time making these chapters into a coherent lump - once again, Ishmael is all over the place. However, that’s to our listener’s benefits, as Ishmael is petty about rival whalers, somewhat overstates the historical and mythological importance of whale-slaying, gets...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 22: Chapters 74-80
It’s time to finally get inside a whale’s head. It’s a dangerous place, and we have some swashbuckling to save a crewmate from getting too deep into it. We’ll also travel around one, compare some, and apply the caliper sciences to them. There’s a surprising amount of geometry, some swordplay, and...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 21: Chapters 71-73
We’ll have no gam this time, friends - this episode, we try to figure out what thread goes through the three chapters we read, which cover a pretty wide variety of topics and forms. First, we hear the story of the Jeroboam, a distinctly unlucky ship. Not only do they have an epidemic aboard…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 20: Chapters 64-70
Time to dismantle a whale, dear listeners. Time to dismantle a whale. Be warned, it gets quite gory. In this episode, we first listen to Stubb harangue the cook (and, while reading it, we try to dodge quoting some extremely dodgy eye dialect) before Ishmael gets on his high horse about eating...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 19: Chapters 58-63
This episode, Ishmael keeps it brief with a number of short chapters touching on a variety of topics. In Brit we see right whales eating, and this inspires him to rhapsodize about the horrors of the deep. Then, in Squid, the Pequod witnesses what sperm whales eat and science has yet to…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 18: Chapters 55-57
Ishmael has decided we need a primer on the various images available of whales, before we return to the ongoing narrative. First, he gives us his scorching takes Of The Monstrous Pictures of Whales, and explains how science doesn’t know what it’s looking at, whalewise. Then he grudgingly admits…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 17: Chapter 54
Sit down with us, and hear Ishmael spin a yarn in later years with his friends in Lima, Peru: In Chapter 54, The Town-Ho’s Story, Ishmael shares what he learned at a gam with the crew of the Town-Ho, off the Cape of Good Hope. For the duration, we’re on a ship very unlike the Pequod, though she’s...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 16: Chapters 51-53
Strange signs have begun to dog the Pequod, and we’re just thrilled. In Chapter 51, the crew are enthralled by The Spirit-Spout as it floats eerily before them in the night. The language is beautiful and the sights strange as the Pequod rounds the Cape of Good Hope. In those cold seas we cross...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 15: Chapters 47-50
This episode, the crew of the Pequod launch the whaleboats! In The Mat-Maker we join Ishmael and Queequeg as they lie around on deck not doing much, until - THAR SHE BLOWS! - whales are sighted for the first time. Then we follow along through the frenzy as foreshadowing is fulfilled, new…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 14: Chapters 43-46
We're back, again! We start out with Hark!, an exercise in pure foreshadowing: is there an unknown person on the Pequod? The Chart introduces us to Ahab's enormously detailed efforts in tracking Moby Dick through the entirety of the world's oceans. We also learn about his metaphysically…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 13: Chapter 42
Today it's all about the singular attribute of Moby Dick that, to Ishmael at least, most powerfully invests him with terror: the color white. Ishmael spends a whole lengthy chapter doing his best to explain what's so scary about whiteness and therefore about a white whale, and ultimately can't...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Bonus 1: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Taking a slight detour from Moby Dick and from whaling (mostly), for this episode we watched the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Ben and Mark are both captivated by the minutiae of the world of tall ships. We also both shake our heads a bit at how right Stephen Maturin gets…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 12: Chapter 41
In this episode, we discuss Moby Dick. Finally. Ishmael does his best to sort fact from fantasy and give as full an accounting as he can of the white whale, and Ahab's obsession with it. This provides the basis for a free-wheeling, nearly three-hour discussion which I hope you enjoy but which I...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 11: Chapters 36-40
The narrative is back at full sail, as Ahab calls a meeting to discuss whaling and philosophy with the crew, and the Whale Statements team finds our new sign-off. He explains his purpose and the crew are on board, literally, except for First Mate Starbuck who thinks it’s stupid to try to get...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 10: Chapters 33-35
Today we have another grab-bag of a reading, getting us up to speed on a number of different topics relating to daily life on the Pequod. Ishmael introduces us to the role of the "specksynder", or chief harpooneer, and stakes out a clear Harpooners' Rights position. He characterizes Ahab as an...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 09: Chapter 32
This time, we talk about whales. Next episode, it's back to daily life on the Pequod in chapters 33-35.
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 08: Chapters 28-31
This episode gets off to a leisurely start with some chitchat about video games and sailing, then we settle in for a nice long introduction to Ahab. The man who commands the Pequod makes his first appearance on deck and on the page, cutting an extremely dramatic figure. His ivory leg and…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 07: Chapters 23-27
Ben's favorite chapter, in less than a page, exalts Bulkington unto divinity, prompts us to go deep on the sublime, and begins a section of uncertainly defined time on the Pequod that will continue for our next several episodes. Ishmael puts on his lawyer hat and presents a comprehensive defense…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 6: Chapters 17-22
Queequeg takes a fast day, to Ishmael's increasing consternation. We settle the "is Ishmael a universalist?" debate. Queequeg's job interview with the captains of the Pequod goes much better than Ishmael's. A mysterious stranger named Elijah gives vague warnings while Ishmael tries and fails to...
-
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 05: Chapters 13-16
Ishmael and Queequeg, now united by the bonds of matrimony, set out for Nantucket and thence to sign on to the Pequod. On their way to Nantucket, Queequeg relates a couple of funny stories and pulls off some heroic feats of strength. Ishmael gives us a brief introduction to Nantucket. The two…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 04: Chapters 9-12
It's time to hear the good word! The good word is, as it turns out, mostly about whales. Wikipedia informs us that the book of Jonah has a setting, characters, a plot, and themes. We debate the moral points and the effectiveness of Father Mapple's sermon. Ishmael admires the contours of…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 03: Chapters 4-8
Sometimes it takes five whole chapters to cover one Sunday morning. Ishmael wakes up in bed with Queequeg and explains his feelings on this with possibly the worst analogy in the book. Queequeg uses his harpoon for everything he possibly can. We get a little tourism pitch for New Bedford, which…
more -
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements 02: Chapter 3
This episode, we're reading the jumbo-sized Chapter 3: The Spouter-Inn. Ishmael comes in from the cold and instantly zeroes in on a chance for some art appreciation. Ben's favorite character makes his first of two appearances. We meet Queequeg, the mysterious harpooneer whose bed Ishmael must...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Join Ben and Mark as we explore Moby Dick! Now that we’ve completed the novel itself, in the Appendices we’re plunging like fate into the many ways people have adapted it. Whether as film, anime, musical theater, or theme park ride, whether faithful, reinterpreted, or just plain bizarre, we’re here to see Moby Dick in whatever form culture can provide it to us.
HOSTED BY
Ben Klug and Mark Sokolov
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements have?
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements currently has 51 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements about?
Join Ben and Mark as we explore Moby Dick! Now that we’ve completed the novel itself, in the Appendices we’re plunging like fate into the many ways people have adapted it. Whether as film, anime, musical theater, or theme park ride, whether faithful, reinterpreted, or just plain bizarre, we’re here...
How often does Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements release new episodes?
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements has 51 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements?
You can listen to Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements?
Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements is created and hosted by Ben Klug and Mark Sokolov.
URL copied to clipboard!