Why Whiteness is Frightening : Moby-Dick

The Whiteness of the Whale is probably the most famous, oft-cited chapter in "Moby-Dick," and why is that? Because it's so counterintuitive and unconventional, just like the novel. The convention, the cliche, is that darkness is sinister and evil but Melville turns the cliche inside out and finds light, pure whiteness, to be the most frightful of all colors, conditions, or hues, and he cites many examples. Are they convincing? Well, not to me, really. Let's set aside the casual racism that Melville expresses (the convention that the white race is superior to the "dusky" races) - he finds in whiteness an incredible strength and power that to him is deeply unsettling. It's a great argument - he cites the power of white horses and white knights as symbols, white hair as a sign of wisdom (great!) - but he doesn't really convince me that white is frightening, not in the ordinary sense - i think what is convincing is that unexpected colors/hues are disturbing: he writes about albinos as frightening, and while his views are unacceptable by today's cultural standards his point is valid - what's frightening is "difference," anything that challenges our preconceived sense of order - the Times today had a story about animals that look frightening, and highlighted a kind of mole that looks as if it has no face. Also, think of pix of people with face transplants - unsettling because so close to normal but disturbingly off, the flatness and lack of affect. So I'd say it's not the whiteness of the whale but the differences, the defiance - the same qualities that make Melville's novels so grand and disturbing as well.