![]() As described by Koestler, momentous instances of bisociation, occasionally resulting in Night Journey experiences, begin variously: "as a sudden shock caused by some external catastrophe, or as the cumulative effect of a slow inner development, or through the trigger action of some apparently banal experience which assumes an unexpected significance." In the last of these cases, the hero "suffers a crisis which involves the very foundations of his being he embarks on the Night Journey, is suddenly transferred to the Tragic Plane-from which he emerges purified, enriched by new insight, regenerated on a higher level of integration" ( I, p. Koestler coined the term bisociation to refer "to any mental occurrence simultaneously associated with two habitually incompatible contexts." By extension, bisociation is the "bringing together of the hitherto unconnected" in the act and "character of discovery" across "the spectrum of creative processes" 3 spanning humor, science, and the arts. ![]() Beyond reclaiming Koestler's reading of Father Mapple for students and scholars of Melville, 2 I argue the significance of "The Castaway" for Koestler's "bisociated" reading of Father Mapple's sermon and for the oceanic wonder that Koestler believes to accompany bisociated consciousness. 1 In both works he sees Jonah's cowardice as an evasion of the "bisociative" challenge to pass from mundane to tragic planes of existence. ![]() Koestler expanded the work into The Act of Creation (1964). This study proposes that "The Castaway" ( Moby-Dick, chapter 93) helped shape Arthur Koestler's interpretation of "The Sermon" ( Moby-Dick, chapter 9), which figures prominently in Insight and Outlook: An Inquiry into the Common Foundations of Science, Art and Social Ethics (1949).
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