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Do The Work! 27

What is the Eiffel Tower about?
What is the space shuttle about?

What is Nude Descending a
Staircase about?

Your movie, your album, your new startup ... what is it about?
When you know that, you’ll know the end state. And when you
know the end state, you’ll know the steps to take to get there.

Moby Dick on a Single Sheet, Working Back to Front

What is Moby Dick about?

It’s about the clash between human will and the elemental mal-
ice of nature, i.e. (in Melville’s dark 19th-century view), the Old
Testament God.

So ... a monster. A whale. A white whale (because white is even
weirder and scarier than whatever color whales normally are).

Next: a mortal to challenge the monster. He must be monstrous
himself. Obsessed, arrogant, monomaniacal. Ahab.

Knowing our theme (in other words, what Moby Dick is about),
we now know the climax: Ahab harpoons the white whale and
duels it to the death. No other climax is possible.

Now we have Act Three. We have our end.