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Frank Hurley's Intellectual Discoveries

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Naturally varying from person to person, contexts and values can transform physical and intellectual discoveries into that of special significance to individuals, differentiating an individual’s experience and process of discovery. Simon Nasht’s documentary Frank Hurley, the Man Who Made History, and Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick express that for individuals in contexts where identity is inhibited, one’s physical discoveries can become self-discoveries by offering an escape from their context. An individual’s physical and intellectual discoveries, when driven by certain contexts and values, can become transformed into hazardous assertions of power. However, individuals across contexts and values can share an unvaried experience of a commodified …show more content…

In Frank Hurley, this individual is Hurley himself. Initially “a working class boy… [who wasn’t highly educated”, Hurley’s physical discoveries in the Shackleton expedition and his creative discovery regarding the creative treatment of actuality transformed his discoveries into “a means by which to escape the drudgery of an ordinary working-class life”. Nasht expresses that, by providing an escape from his restrictive social context, Hurley was able to construct and re-invent his identity as an “[Argonaut] whose quest had taken [him] to the world’s brim”. This is symbolised by Hurley’s “elaborately-constructed self-portraits”, and the necessity of physical discovery for this self-discovery is emphasised in a long shot of Hurley taking a self-portrait against a backdrop of ice. This process of self-discovery through physical discovery is in accordance with Martin Heidegger’s prescription of a retreat to nature, escaping ‘the chatter’ of one’s social context and confronting that which is infinitely more powerful, to locate the self. Appropriately, Ishmael’s social context in Moby-Dick, “insular Manhattan”, renders escape necessary to confront “the portentous and mysterious monster” that symbolises both the sea and his inner self. This is highlighted in an allusion to Narcissus, who …show more content…

Intratextually, Melville portrays the Pequod shipmates as swept away by Ahab’s romantic, neo-Shakespearean language: “to chase that White Whale… over all sides of the earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out… wilt thou not chase the white whale? Art not game for Moby-Dick?” thus creating a “deputation from all isles of the sea, and all ends of the earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod”, embarking on a shared experience and process of discovery. Metatextually, this same romantic, neo-Shakespearean language, as well as the sheer weight and volume of the novel awes audiences. As a marketable product itself, the novel allows for uniform creative discovery, as well as intellectual discovery (given the scientific chapters of the novel), for audiences across contexts. Thus, we can see that the emotional appeal of discoveries allows for its commodification and mass consumption creating unvaried rediscoveries by individuals across

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