If Herman Melville lived today, would the MSM be interviewing him?
As you know, the murderer Cho had Ishmael Ax written on his arms, and that A. Ishmael was listed as the return address on the envelope he sent to NBC. We don’t pretend to know what that means, but it gives us an apt opportunity to contemplate again the beginning of one of the greatest works of American literature, Moby Dick, the 1851 novel by Herman Melville:
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.
Melville’s Ishmael seems to have something in common, perhaps quite a lot, with Cho’s Ishmael Ax, but we have seen very few explorations of the Ishmael theme in the MSM. Poor Herman Melville might never have made it to Oprah or the Today show if he were living now.
One possible explanation is that the name Ishmael has meaning for the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, and Cho’s parents lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years — a situation that may may mean nothing whatsoever, except that the MSM studiously avoid reporting deeply on anything that could possibly wind up being a story about Sudden Jihad Syndrome, whether at LAX or UNC, or in Seattle, San Francisco or the Beltway. Too bad for Melville, and America too.