Prophecies of Leviathan
Reading Past Melville

Argues that reading, beyond its apparent linearity, is essentially prophetic, not only because Moby-Dick, for example, may appear to be full of unexpected prophecies but also, and more deeply, because reading itself is a prophetic experience that Melville captured in a different way.

Reading Melville is not only reading. Reading Melville means being already engaged in the abyssal process of reading. Reading what reading is and what reading does. With Melville, "Prophecies of Leviathan" argues that reading, beyond its apparent linearity, is essentially prophetic, not only because Moby-Dick, for example, may appear to be full of unexpected prophecies (Ishmael seems to foretell a 'Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States' followed by a 'bloody battle in Afghanistan') but also, and more deeply, because reading itself is a prophetic experience that Melville captured in a unique way. In his brilliant and thorough afterword, Gil Anidjar situates "Prophecies of Leviathan" among Szendy's other works and shows how the seemingly tautological self-prophecy really announces a new 'ipsology', a 'pluralization of the self' through a 'narcissism of the other thing'.