Strange Sensations: Sex and Aesthetics in “The Counterpane”

Abstract

Moby-Dick’s fourth chapter, “The Counterpane,” in which Ishmael and Queequeg spend their famous first night in bed together—beneath the counterpane that gives the chapter its title—brings the categories of erotics and aesthetics into such intimate proximity that they can scarcely be told apart. In the brief disorienting morning moment when Ishmael cannot distinguish between Queequeg’s geometrically patterned arm and the patchwork quilt it lies upon, Melville poses a question (I will argue) about these categories and their relationship to one another—indeed, he asks whether they are different categories at all. Under the covers, so to speak, how can we tell the difference—Melville asks— between them?