{"id":"01KFNR8B5P9B4633XQY6PNTEH8","cid":"bafkreidd7p3ppgikvcp66km5ihrharp4ijdn5f472e5dngz45a2laytk64","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":19466,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":19398,"text":"supernal power; and though thou launchest navies of full-freighted\r\nworlds, there’s that in here that still remains indifferent. Oh, thou\r\nclear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of\r\nfire, I breathe it back to thee.”\r\n\r\n[_Sudden, repeated flashes of lightning; the nine flames leap\r\nlengthwise to thrice their previous height; Ahab, with the rest, closes\r\nhis eyes, his right hand pressed hard upon them._]\r\n\r\n“I own thy speechless, placeless power; said I not so? Nor was it wrung\r\nfrom me; nor do I now drop these links. Thou canst blind; but I can\r\nthen grope. Thou canst consume; but I can then be ashes. Take the\r\nhomage of these poor eyes, and shutter-hands. I would not take it. The\r\nlightning flashes through my skull; mine eye-balls ache and ache; my\r\nwhole beaten brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning\r\nground. Oh, oh! Yet blindfold, yet will I talk to thee. Light though\r\nthou be, thou leapest out of darkness; but I am darkness leaping out of\r\nlight, leaping out of thee! The javelins cease; open eyes; see, or not?\r\nThere burn the flames! Oh, thou magnanimous! now I do glory in my\r\ngenealogy. But thou art but my fiery father; my sweet mother, I know\r\nnot. Oh, cruel! what hast thou done with her? There lies my puzzle; but\r\nthine is greater. Thou knowest not how came ye, hence callest thyself\r\nunbegotten; certainly knowest not thy beginning, hence callest thyself\r\nunbegun. I know that of me, which thou knowest not of thyself, oh, thou\r\nomnipotent. There is some unsuffusing thing beyond thee, thou clear\r\nspirit, to whom all thy eternity is but time, all thy creativeness\r\nmechanical. Through thee, thy flaming self, my scorched eyes do dimly\r\nsee it. Oh, thou foundling fire, thou hermit immemorial, thou too hast\r\nthy incommunicable riddle, thy unparticipated grief. Here again with\r\nhaughty agony, I read my sire. Leap! leap up, and lick the sky! I leap\r\nwith thee; I burn with thee; would fain be welded with thee; defyingly\r\nI worship thee!”\r\n\r\n“The boat! the boat!” cried Starbuck, “look at thy boat, old man!”\r\n\r\nAhab’s harpoon, the one forged at Perth’s fire, remained firmly lashed\r\nin its conspicuous crotch, so that it projected beyond his whale-boat’s\r\nbow; but the sea that had stove its bottom had caused the loose leather\r\nsheath to drop off; and from the keen steel barb there now came a\r\nlevelled flame of pale, forked fire. As the silent harpoon burned there\r\nlike a serpent’s tongue, Starbuck grasped Ahab by the arm—“God, God is\r\nagainst thee, old man; forbear! ’tis an ill voyage! ill begun, ill\r\ncontinued; let me square the yards, while we may, old man, and make a\r\nfair wind of it homewards, to go on a better voyage than this.”\r\n\r\nOverhearing Starbuck, the panic-stricken crew instantly ran to the\r\nbraces—though not a sail was left aloft. For the moment all the aghast\r\nmate’s thoughts seemed theirs; they raised a half mutinous cry. But\r\ndashing the rattling lightning links to the deck, and snatching the\r\nburning harpoon, Ahab waved it like a torch among them; swearing to\r\ntransfix with it the first sailor that but cast loose a rope’s end.\r\nPetrified by his aspect, and still more shrinking from the fiery dart\r\nthat he held, the men fell back in dismay, and Ahab again spoke:—\r\n\r\n“All your oaths to hunt the White Whale are as binding as mine; and\r\nheart, soul, and body, lungs and life, old Ahab is bound. And that ye\r\nmay know to what tune this heart beats; look ye here; thus I blow out\r\nthe last fear!” And with one blast of his breath he extinguished the\r\nflame.\r\n\r\nAs in the hurricane that sweeps the plain, men fly the neighborhood of\r\nsome lone, gigantic elm, whose very height and strength but render it\r\nso much the more unsafe, because so much the more a mark for\r\nthunderbolts; so at those last words of Ahab’s many of the mariners did\r\nrun from him in a terror of dismay.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR85HK63M6FMMNWDGJEK00","peer_label":"123","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR85HK63M6FMMNWDGJEK00","peer_label":"123","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV","peer_label":"Moby Dick","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KFNR8B4DGJBF3ECHCZ5JF2C4","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8BFK0W5N2ZVBXC9WQZP6","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.941Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.972Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}