Chapter 11: I was only alive to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and blanket with a real friend.
Chapter 12: Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are.
Chapter 13: (Queequeg saves a greenhorn who had been teasing him before he was swept overboard.) “It’s a mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians. (He says.) We cannibals must help these Christians.”
Chapter 14: The Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships; to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation.
Chapter 15: “So, Mr. Queequeg (said the inkeeper’s wife), “I will just take this here iron (harpoon) and keep it for you til tomorrow morning. But the chowder; clam or cod tomorrow for breakfast?”
”Both,” says I; “and let’s have a couple of smoked herring by way of variety.”
Chapter 16: You may have seen many a quaint craft in your day, for aught I know…but take my word for it, you never saw such a rare old craft as the Pequod. She was a ship of the old school, rather small if anything; with an old-fashioned claw-footed look about her…a cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies.
Chapter 17: As Queequeg’s Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation was to continue all day, I did not choose to disturb him until nightfall; for I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, never mind how comical…
Chapter 18: Without saying one word, Queequeg, in his wild sort of way, jumped upon the bulwarks, from thence into the bows of one of the whale-boats hanging to the side; and then bracing his left knee, and poising his harpoon, cried out in some such way as this: “Cap’ain, you see him small drop tar in water dere? You see him? Well, spose him one whale eye, well, den!” and taking sharp aim at it, he darted the iron right over old Bildad’s broad brim, clean across the ship’s decks, and struck the glistening tar spot out of sight.
Chapter 19: Names down on the papers? Well, well, what’s signed, is signed,; and what’s to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it won’t be, after all.
Chapter 20: But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself.
***
Critics now want to say that Ishmael and Queequeg have a homosexual relationship; I disagree. I think they have a friendship that is formed of the tightest bonds from two lonely people who understand each other.
The chapter in which Queequeg displays his skill with the harpoon is entitled “Queequeg’s Mark.” He is far more adept at making his mark with a harpoon than he is with a pen as he is asked to do near the end of the chapter. What a clever title Melville used.
Melville’s humor, descriptions, setting, characterization, and foreshadowing are incredible. It is a book I carry on reading with the greatest of zeal.
Dolce Bellezza 
Even in the late 1970s, that hypothesis about the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg was abroad in the land. My professor who used Moby Dick as a class resource had his own opinion. I can’t quote him exactly at this remove in time, but this is a close paraphrase: “Those who posit such a relationship are engaged in cheap reading: cheap in the sense that they prefer a soap opera story line to the difficulties of working through a literary masterpiece.” You could agree or disagree with the man, but he wasn’t afraid to express his opinion.
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Oh, this is difficult. I had no plans to read Moby Dick, but your posts and Bronna’s are making me long for it. I’m going to jump and read it. I must. I remember having loved it, but at the time there wasn’t a community reading along together that motivated me to finish it.
I’m going to tell Bronna, I’m in!
Thanks for these posts. I devour them and they enhance my reading experience.
I only read half of the book, but as for your opinion, it’s also mine that these two are just a very special couple of friends.
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I’m enjoying the reminders from your quotations of this novel’s array of wonders
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Your quotes are a lovely lens to look at the book. Thank you for sharing these with us.
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I’m getting there in my slow pace.
I’m finding Ishmael a good reader of character and has a light and sometimes wicked sense of humor.
He does not preach but reaches for your heart.
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