BOOKMONGER
More than a whale tale
Book’s author is a
whale enthusiast and
professor in Seattle
Judging by its title and front cover illustra-
tion, you might think “Touching This Levia-
than” is a book about whales.
Its author, Peter Wayne Moe, is an assis-
tant professor of English at Seattle Pacifi c
University. As you can imagine, an American
English professor is going to know “Moby
Dick” — so rest assured that you’ll get a dose
of Ishmael, Ahab and the rest. But that isn’t
all.
Moe became enthralled with whales when,
as a kid growing up in eastern Washington,
he and his family visited a traveling exhibit.
Whales, represented by life-sized plastic rep-
licas, were hung from the ceiling of a dark-
ened warehouse, while audio of whale songs
played, heightening the eff ect.
For college, Moe migrated across the
mountains, working toward a bachelor’s
degree at Western Washington University in
Bellingham, Washington. He began a quest
to witness whales in their environment. Curi-
osity eventually grew into a full-blown
obsession.
Today, as a committed whale-watcher,
Moe keeps a chart of all the whales he has
seen over his years of dedicated gazing
toward the ocean. He has seen orcas, gray
whales, humpbacks and minkes.
This week’s book
‘Touching This Leviathan’ by Peter Wayne Moe
OSU Press — 152 pages — $19.95
He is not alone. A growing cadre of folks
share their sightings on the Orca Network.
As Moe shares in this book, reports from one
day alone can include dozens of entries, rang-
ing from Oregon’s coast and throughout the
expanse of the Salish Sea, from the southern
reaches of Puget Sound all the way up into
British Columbia’s Gulf Islands.
Yet for all of the observations — it is a bit
like the fable of the blind men describing an
elephant — how much do we know about
whales?
Moe approaches this question from diff er-
ent directions. Through theology, he grapples
with the Book of Jonah and related Psalms.
From etymology, he gleans insights into
human interactions with whales. He plumbs
the depths of literature, from Herman Mel-
ville’s “Moby Dick” to works of modern
writers.
A couple of years ago, with the guidance
of marine biologists, he found himself inti-
mately acquainted with the corpse of a juve-
nile gray whale that washed upon a Kitsap
Peninsula beach. After fl ensing the carcass, he
eventually worked with Seattle Pacifi c Uni-
versity students to reassemble the bones he
retrieved. The 29-foot long skeleton hangs
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aloft in the lobby of the university’s science
building.
“Touching This Leviathan” refl ects Moe’s
voracious intellectual quest into myth, med-
icine, memory, faith, biology and pedagogy.
The author also loosely weaves in the story of
he and his wife getting fertility treatments to
start their family.
In his book, Moe quotes Melville: “There
are some enterprises in which a careful disor-
derliness is the true method.”
Moe understands that his ambitious
multi-disciplinary approach — he presents an
ocean’s-worth of ideas compressed into a rela-
tively slender volume — may be overwhelm-
ing for some readers. It was so for this reader.
The best bet might be to consume these
pages with deliberation. The book shares
worthwhile insights — only some of which
pertain to whales.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd McMi-
chael, who writes this weekly column focus-
ing on the books, authors and publishers of
the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at bkmon-
ger@nwlink.com