In high school, when it came time to read Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, we had to read the unabridged version.

To make sure we hadn’t read the abridged version, or just the Cliff Notes, while attempting to appear to have read the unabridged version, quizzes included questions on certain trivia points that only those who read the assigned version would get correct.

Did I mention the school was very strict?

Later, when I assigned the book as a college prep high school American Literature teacher, I allowed the students to read whichever version they chose.

What there was about whaling in one version but left out in the other, I covered in class by explaining the whaling industry, and bringing in a harpoon, a sample of scrimshaw, some whale teeth, and a small bottle of Ambergris.

Those last two were still legal to own when I taught the class, unlike today.

The book and movie “Jaws” had recently come out during those days, and some of my students noticed there were certain similarities between the books that gave them the impression that either Melville had greatly influenced Peter Benchley, or Benchley had simply stolen the basic story and updated it.

Some of my students asked if they could write a report for extra credit comparing the two books, and found, among other things, that the whale and shark were not only huge (“great” in one case), but they were both described as white; the ship and fishing boat both had names based on the Pequot Tribe from Connecticut; and the final encounters covered three days.

The school at which I was teaching was located just down the hill from the provincial headquarters of the religious order that ran the school, and one of the old priests, finding that I had allowed my students to read jaws, something he considered to be officially promoting it, took a copy of the book and underlined all the F-bombs he found in it because someone he knew told them the book was filled with them.

While most people have a happy memory of their 25th birthday, my memory of it was being informed that this priest had recommended that I be fired for exposing my students to filth.

On the day of the meeting to decide my fate, rather than being allowed to attend and defend myself, I had to sit out in the hall while the principal, who had found the extra credit assignment interesting, and the fact that the idea had come from students a good thing, represented me.

The old priest presented his case to the provincial and the provincial’s council, going through the book page by page and showing them every F-bomb he had underlined with a red pen in his copy of “Jaws” as he could not bring himself to read the word out loud.

There were a lot of them.

The principal, Father Earl, then rose in my defense.
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He began by asking the old priest some questions about the book, establishing that he had not actually read it, but had simply skimmed it to find the offending language.

He then pointed out that I had not assigned the book, but that some students who had read it saw the similarities between the two books, and they had asked if they could write the report.

Using one student’s paper as an example, he presented the similarities that they had found using that to show that the students had read both books and had recognized the similarities on their own.

He finished with reminding those in attendance that the complaining priest had not actually read the book, but had, instead, spent his time looking only for and underlining the “F word”, while students had read both books, a classic of American Literature and a modern novel, and were able to point out the similarities, and had concluded that just as “Jaws” captured people’s imaginations now, perhaps “Moby Dick” had had the same affect in its day.

So between the two, the students who read two books and did a written report that showed they had good thinking skills, and a priest who sat quietly in his room at night not reading the book, but just underlining the bad words, it was clear, if it needed to be established, which seemed to be the less virtuous.

I was not fired, but I was cautioned by the principal to be aware that in my teaching career I would encounter many people in authority who would fear teachers who thought outside the box and tried innovative teaching approaches,  even though it would be a benefit to the students. Such thinking and innovation,  because of their lack of imagination, represented an internalized threat to their self image and need to always appear to be the most informed in the room.

He was not wrong.

I mention this because this weekend, to a certain degree, I come full circle.

This weekend is the 20th year of the Moby Dick Marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Along with activities that include the dedication of the Herman Melville Room at the museum and various lectures related to Melville, his book, and whaling in general, the marathon reading of “Moby Dick” begins at 12:00 noon on Saturday with the opening chapter, beginning with the famous first sentence, “Call me Ishmael”, being read my Nathaniel Philbrick, author of “In the Heart of the Sea”.

I am scheduled to begin my reading segment at 4:50 a.m. on Sunday morning, with the final reader scheduled to finish by 12:00 noon that day.

This is one of the big events, if not THE big event, at the museum, and I am glad I get to be a part of it.

I just hope that that inner imp in me does not tempt me, and then prevails in that attempt, to have me utter an F-bomb somewhere along the line for nostalgia’s sake.

But I will be thinking of Father Earl and those days forty years ago now.