Moby-Dick, or, the Whale /

Archaeology, Anthropology, and Dreaming

“…The term, derived from the Latin base creatus ("to make or produce" or literally "to grow"), was first used in literature by Herman Melville in Moby-Dick (1851) to describe a lightning storm (38). In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the study of creativity was called the study of "genius" and "imagination."…”

El procesamiento de ballenas varadas en las costas de la Patagonia occidental [a propósito de un grabado de mediados del siglo XIX]

“…Dice que la ballena, "está envuelta en una capa de grasa como en una verdadera manta o colcha, o, mejor aún, como en un poncho indio puesto sobre su cabeza y que cae hasta sus extremidades". Agrega que "a causa de esta acogedora cobertura, la ballena puede mantenerse cómoda en todo tipo de clima, en todos los mares, las estaciones y las mareas" (Melville, 1993(Melville, [1851. Esta similitud metafórica entre fueguinos y ballenas, con el poncho cayéndole hasta las extremidades, es notable.…”

Phantom Limb Pain: An Energy/Trauma Model

“…PLP was first recognized in the 1600s by French surgeon Ambroise Paré as a common sequela of blunderbuss wounds 1 and was wellcharacterized during the American Civil War by military surgeon Silas Weir Mitchell. 2 PLP has been described by novelists ranging from Herman Melville (in Moby Dick, Captain Ahab noted that "a dismasted man never loses the feeling of his old spar, but it will be still be pricking him at times") 3 to Stephen King (the protagonist in Duma Key drew artistic, if malevolent, inspiration from his phantom limb sensations) 4 and JK Rowling (the hero of her pseudonymous novel The Cuckoo's Calling "could still feel the missing foot…he could flex the vanished toes if he wanted to."). 5 Yet, despite its lengthy history, PLP is often resistant to standard medical and neurosurgical treatments for pain.…”