Whales

I feel like Moby Dick would've been so awesome if it had been set in the present day and the whale was just such a badass that it could take like gunshots and shit and like all the world's militaries were like coming together to try and beat this one whale and they like nuke it but it just mutates and gets stronger like Godzilla or something. Obviously the original presents a far more ominous enemy, as (similar to Jaws) there is key element of plausible reality to the story. Before I go on, I must admit I haven't ever read Moby Dick, but I think I know enough about the premise to continue with this analysis. Anyways, the original book is able to connect with the reader on a deeper level because of the thought that an animal like this may actually exist somewhere in the unexplored reaches of the ocean. That sense of plausible reality allows the reader to feel a slight bit of fear when reading, as they feel like, even though they know it definitely won't, the story may just come true for them someday. My version, however, would put far less emphasis on creating an interesting story. In fact, my version might just not have a story at all, because most of it will be entirely centered around how fucking sick whales are. Like, I feel like most people can't even conceptualize how big a whale is. I learned in kindergarten that a blue whale is the size of three school buses. Like, that's cool and all, but I really don't think that I've ever stopped to think about how fucking huge three whole school buses is for a living breathing animal. I saw this picture of these five guys who had captured this snake that was like 20ft long and 200lbs or something and I was like damn, when you look at this animal being held by five fully-grown men it looks massive. But like, I don't think anyone's ever even tried to hold up a whale. You just couldn't do it. Google just told me that a school bus can hold up to 90 kids, so that's 270 children plus three adult drivers plus all the other space for seats and engines and whatnot that are all fitting inside one single animal. There's not really a lot that you can observe in your daily life that can give you perspective on that kind of thing I feel like. I feel like that's why my version of Moby Dick works to some extent. Like, obviously the original is a classic and is certainly (with some level of objectivity) a great work of fiction. I just feel like there should be a greater appreciation for the fact that we (at least me, personally) really can't even imagine the enormity of whales. Of course, this may just be a me think, but frankly I think that most people would have more difficulty picturing a blue whale than they would admit (maybe not, maybe y'all are honest or maybe y'all are just really smart and simply can picture it, but I digress). I think that, especially in a world so focused on engineering concepts for the real world, giving Moby Dick godlike powers could be sweet simply because it's not like we could picture what he/she/they would look like to begin with. Probably a dumb idea, but like I feel like most of them are so it's whatever.