Herman Melville created a legend, a life philosophy, an epic tale in Moby Dick. Unfortunately, the language of the original story is so digressive and complex, that it is difficult to finish, or even start.
He Called Me Ishmael is the story of Moby Dick, using original ideas, themes and focus. It is a fully developed short story with complex characters and themes.

The story begins as a young man, Ishmael (the lone survivor of Moby Dick and the ship Pequod) chases his dream of being a whale-man on a whaling ship. He soon finds himself at sea with a curious crew of misfits, a best friend cannibal and a maniacal captain (Ahab), who is hell bent and obsessed with revenge on Moby Dick, the great white whale. He soon understands that if he doesn't maintain an "outside perspective" on the chase, he may end up at the bottom of the sea along with the rest of the crew.

Ishmael's beautiful bond with an unlikely friend, Queequeg, the cannibal, builds to a crescendo from their first encounter to their last. Listen as Ishmael negotiates his fears and anxieties and leans on his friend for support. This short story stays true to Herman Melville's original story. It is not a substitute for reading Moby Dick, but the average recreational reader is likely to understand more of the story by listening this book, then by attempting to pick up the weighty original.

The novel Stoner, by John Williams, follows William Stoner, who was raised on a Missouri farm in a religious Methodist household but loses his strong religious beliefs as he enters academia and becomes engrossed in his scholarly work. Stoner is portrayed as having an internal "religion of the heart," guided more by his personal values than formal doctrine. As a professor, he finds meaning through teaching literature and experiences a "faith in learning." There are suggestions of a vague spirituality in his reflections on nature and the cosmos. As Stoner nears death, there is a sense of letting go and merging with something larger through the power of literature, beyond his own earthly life. The book seems to fall into "silence" just as Stoner's life ends, carrying a symbolic sense of release and legacy.

Blake’s contemporaries and modern critics may have regarded him as a heretic or satirist when it came to matters of religion. Some might even consider him irreverent and radical in his views on institutionalized religion, emphasizing the importance of freedom of expression and thought while critiquing the constraints imposed by religion. However, when it comes to unconventional depictions of the divine, Blake pales in comparison to the prophet Ezekiel.

While Blake’s portrayal of God can be enigmatic and unsettling to some at times, the God described by Ezekiel seems like a blend of the Greek deity Zeus, the conqueror Genghis Khan, and the whimsical Angela Lansbury from “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” Ezekiel’s account involves the creation of an army of skeletal beings, a far cry from Blake’s harmless question: “Did he who made the lamb make thee?

For those who insist on the strictest interpretation of the Bible, it can be challenging. It’s a reminder that reconciling a Bible believed to be divinely authored by a God who doesn’t always conform to idealized expectations can be a complex endeavor.

Let’s not crucify Blake for his minor heresy, relegating him to a lesser heaven or even hell while at the same time praising Ezekiel simply because he has a role as a prophet in the bible.

The renowned American novelist Herman Melville is best known for literary classics like Moby Dick. Yet throughout his life, Melville privately wrestled with profound questions of faith, belief and doubt.

As his friend and contemporary Nathaniel Hawthorne observed, Melville relentlessly grappled with matters of “Providence and futurity” that extend beyond human understanding. Melville doubted divine providence, frankly acknowledging to Hawthorne that he “had ‘pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated’” upon death.

William Blake's poem "The Garden of Love" may subtly allude to the biblical Genesis account of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The combination of these works, "The Garden of Love" by William Blake and excerpts from the biblical book of Genesis. grapple with themes of lost innocence and the consequences of gained knowledge and disobedience. By relating these two works, we gain insight into a layered commentary on purity and corruption, freedom and control.

Blake's poem depicts a garden that once offered joy and freedom, but is now a closed-off churchyard with restricting rules like "Thou shalt not." As the analysis notes, this symbolizes how organized religion and institutions tend to restrain natural human desires and impose order. The spontaneity and delight of the garden have been lost.

The Genesis passages describe God commanding Adam and Eve not to eat forbidden fruit in Eden, or else they will die. However, they disobey and are expelled from the perfect garden into a world of pain and toil. The biblical account shows consequences for moral transgression.