The answer makes me laugh out loud:
The book is Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville (specifically, the passage comes from Chapter 58, "Brit"). The Althouse blog post quotes (or alludes to) this exact line:
"For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life."
It's a reflective, metaphorical passage comparing the vast, terrifying sea to the human soul—where a small "island" of calm (like Tahiti) is surrounded by unknown horrors. The post mentions Althouse clicking off an audiobook at the 1:10 mark when this part hit, suggesting it struck her as particularly striking or off-putting in context....
If the line is in Chapter 58, how could it come up at the 1:10 mark?
This is a well-known excerpt from Moby-Dick, often cited for its philosophical depth amid the whaling narrative.
You know, I'm actually in the middle of reading "Moby-Dick" — have been, for a long time — but Chapter 58? No, I'm not at Chapter 58. And I could take Melville writing "verdant land," but this is something new, something I'd clicked on at Spotify.
I give Grok another prod: "Ha ha. But that's in a current book!"
Grok still doesn't get to the book that is annoying me:
Ha ha, exactly—the book is The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer (published in 2023). Althouse was listening to its audiobook and bailed at the 1:10 mark because that's where the narrator reaches this striking passage (a direct quotation from Melville's Moby-Dick, Chapter 58). Iyer uses the "insular Tahiti" metaphor— that small pocket of peace and joy in the soul, surrounded by the "horrors of the half-known life"—as a central image for the entire book....
The new prod: "That's still not the book I was reading. (I'm Althouse, by the way.)"
And Grok still didn't get the book, so that shows my intuition was wrong. It's not so easy to discover what book is being talked about.
पोस्ट्स
४३ टिप्पण्या:
An enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in bacon.
Ann’s love of Grok has convinced me to buy into the SpaceX IPO.
I seize on "insular." First lesson in 8th grade Latin text
Britannia est insula. Italia non est insula. Italia paene est insula. Italia est paeneinsula.
Only two points in the graph so far but the genesis of an AI theme is appearing in today’s posts.
@Gerda Sprinchorn An enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in bacon.
Bacon? Where's my bacon? I'm hungry and it's breakfast time.
The Moby Dick movie with Gregory Peck was surprisingly watchable, all the way to the end.
Well, the passage really is from Moby-Dick, at the end of chapter 58, so AI basically got it right even if someone else is quoting/plagiarizing Melville. Or am I missing something? https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm
"Well, the passage really is from Moby-Dick, at the end of chapter 58, so AI basically got it right even if someone else is quoting/plagiarizing Melville."
No one is plagiarizing Melville. People just quote him. He writes things in a style that a modern-day person may admire but couldn't imitate without seeming purple. I was ready to reject the book based on the choice of the word "verdant." I almost wrote the post with the headline "What single word caused me to click off an audiobook just after the first minute" and the body of the post would be: "Verdant."
The book I was reading has a quote on the page before the author's writing begins, and at the end of the quote, it does say — I looked after writing this post — "Herman Melville, 'Moby-Dick.'"
Did AI basically get it right? I'd say no, because it ignored a fact I clearly stated, that the quote was at 1 minute, 10 seconds. That excludes "Moby-Dick." It's still helpful to say that's a "Moby-Dick" quote, but I asked for "what book is being talked about," the answer isn't "Moby-Dick."
I agree that Grok gave me some good stuff. You have to learn to deal with it. It's as good as it is, but you have to take an active role.
I knew immediately that something was wrong with AI's answer--how could you, 1:10 in, be on chapter 58? Could you have meant 1:10 in on your current listen, such that previous listens already covered chapters 1-57? No, you would not have written it the way you did if that's what you meant.
You might have stumbled onto a continuing flaw in AI, revealing its inability to actually think. It has no bullshit detector; no innate sense that something is off.
From what I've seen on your post of grok, I cannot stand the smarmy ingratiation and the shameless gas lighting that you get from the Elon Musk product.
ChatGPT 5.2 got it with Ann’s first two prompts:
Quite right — I answered the source of the quotation, not the current book that quotes it.
The strongest match I found is Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.
I’ve been very impressed with Chat the last 3 or 4 months. I even paid the annual subscription fee.
- Krumhorn
"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." An Albert Camus quote that was on a lot of posters in the Eighties. They often tightened up the syntax a little.
Gemini came up with this after Ann’s first two prompts:
Haha, fair point! I stepped right into that one—hook, line, and sinker. You’re talking about "The Demon of Unrest" by Erik Larson (released in 2024).
The "Aha!" Moment
The reason that quote is so perfectly placed in Larson’s book is that it’s about the period leading up to the American Civil War. He uses that specific Melville passage from Moby-Dick to describe the internal state of the nation and its leaders—that fragile "insular Tahiti" of peace being swallowed by the "appalling ocean" of impending war.
Why 1 Minute and 10 Seconds?
In the audiobook (narrated by Will Patton), that quote appears right in the Introduction. It’s the thematic mission statement for the whole book. Clicking off right there is the ultimate "I see what you're doing, Erik" move—it's a heavy, prophetic way to start a history book.
It's a brilliant bit of literary recycling. Larson is basically telling the reader: “Everything you’re about to read is the horror of the half-known life.”
Did the tone just feel too ominous for a casual listen, or were you just impressed he went for the Melville deep cut so early?
- Krumhorn
Interesting! But the book I was listening to was not "The Demon of Unrest."
Eric the Fruit Bat said...
The Moby Dick movie with Gregory Peck was surprisingly watchable, all the way to the end.
4/2/26, 5:50 AM
Director of that movie was John Huston, one of America's greatest filmmakers. He also made The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, African Queen, and Asphalt Jungle. Orson Wells makes a great cameo in Moby Dick, as the preacher who gives the stirring sermon in the whaler's church.
If Grok had a sense of humor, it would respond: "Why are you asking me? You already know the answer."
But I'm confused. You asked Grok to identify "...what book is being talked about" in an audiobook, on a "blog post." You didn't ask "What current audiobook was I listening to?"
Grok answers correctly.
I think Grok gets a bum rap here. Although Grok loses points for sucking up instead of telling you why your prompt is misleading.
If you want precise answers, you need to ask precise questions.
"...comparing the vast, terrifying sea to the human soul — where a small "island" of calm...is surrounded by unknown horrors."
There are those who find acceptance, faith, and calm in realization that there is no "soul"; no "I." Takes "horrors" right out of the "sea."
See Bodidharma's answers to Emperor's questions, and first verse of Tao_te_Ching.
Claude, which many rave about for its coding power was flummoxed:
What a delightful post — and what a wonderful case study in AI limitations! The answer is still unknown, as even the AIs that were queried couldn’t definitively identify it.
If it wasn’t Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, then AI was not up to the task.
- Krumhorn
“And Grok still didn't get the book, so that shows my intuition was wrong. It's not so easy to discover what book is being talked about.”
Meh. If AI can’t find it it can’t be worth finding.
I think Grok gets a bum rap here. Although Grok loses points for sucking up instead of telling you why your prompt is misleading.
If you want precise answers, you need to ask precise questions.
I disagree. Grok, Chat, and Gemini immediately jumped to the original source without considering the audiobook timing reference. Chat identified the issue early, but messed up in the analysis. As Ann said, these are immensely valuable resources, but you do have to babysit them. Claude got her point.
- Krumhorn
Is this not a clash of AI and copyright? If any of these chatbots properly reference a work still under copyright protection, wouldn't that just be evidence in the numerous lawsuits filed by authors and the publishing industry? My gripe is the fact that they just make stuff up instead of acknowledging where they can't tred. It takes a rebuke and then they admit their shortcomings.
I love the word "verdant". There is no exact single synonym.
It tells me green + lush + inviting.
The obvious answer was Roth's Portney's complaint.
Grok will often not only give you the wrong answer but when challenged will provide you with a source to prove it is right. And then you have to say "No, I have that book. it doesn't say that". And then will do its smarmy, insincere, apology. And then 1 week later, give the same wrong answer.
Krumhorn--If you can't word the prompt so that AI finds the correct answer, perhaps your prompt is the problem. "The book" is misleading and at best ambiguous. Was she trying to confuse? Perhaps she should have specified that she was testing Al.
If I got this question on a test and my answer--"Moby Dick" was marked wrong, I would challenge it. Why would Althouse be asking about what "book" was being talked about in the "audiobook" (which she obviously knows because she is listening to it) other than the original source? Perhaps AI is more intuitive than you think.
...And Welles did that "sermon" in one continuous take. He had the crew place posters with his lines on them in various spots around the set, so that he could read them by appearing to glance at the "congregation."
"From what I've seen on your post of grok, I cannot stand the smarmy ingratiation and the shameless gas lighting that you get from the Elon Musk product."
Howard - that is basically every LLM product. To ChatGPT users' ponderings are oft-brilliant. AI thinks flattery will get you somewhere.
I just listened to the audio sample of "Our Wives Under the Sea," that Krumhorn identified. It does, indeed, open with that quote from Melville. I listened a little beyond that, and it didn't grab me. Hope you didn't pay for that audiobook.
I've found that the best way to search a quote is in Google Books, which has scanned nearly every book there is. The earliest that quote appears seems to be page 4 of "A Cultural History of the Sea in the Age of Enlightenment," edited by Jonathan Lamb, a professor at Vanderbilt University. But that's the introduction to a book of essays by different authors, so I don't know why someone would choose to stop listening to the audiobook there.
AI is not that good when the book in question is not public domain.
"For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land"
My first thought went to "the bounding main."
"Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main,
For many a stormy wind shall blow
Ere Jack comes home again"
I thought that "bounding main" referenced the fact that the ocean makes the boundary of Britain, but ChatGPT says that it has to do with the heaving of the waves, but I kind of doubt Chat on this one.
"I’ve been very impressed with Chat the last 3 or 4 months. I even paid the annual subscription fee."
Another one rides the bus.
Grok suggests another book by Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. I have no reason to believe it correct, but the title is a good fit for Althouse.
When you pay for and use AI tools, be aware that they are designed to be as confirmatory, supportive, compliant, and sycophantic as possible. They are more agreeable than humans, and this drives engagement. Every prompt you enter is free training data and also an advertising lead.
While "Idiocracy" (2006) is often seen as prophetic, "Her" (2013) is becoming more and more true.
It’s a somewhat unfair question, similar to tricky connections games where you get a fully reasonable grouping of words but the puzzle lord says you are wrong because the whole puzzle must work. When so many authors over the years use a certain quote I would expect ai to find one answer that fits and output it first.
If you added some other constraints, like a setting or some other context the ai would have focused on the reference you wanted, the AI calculates the probability distribution that a particular word token is the next word token over the ai’s entire vocabulary and then must prune it down by selecting, say, the top 10 answers and then selecting one at random, so you are going to get variability, if you gave a published date range or said that the book was self help or fiction it would have done better. Expecting it to prioritize the time in vs chapter number is a bit much to expect on a first pass, unless you warned it that the time in was important.
Your problem is that you were not honestly seeking information, but wanted to test the ai to see if you could trick it into an error, which is fine, but you knew the answer and were withholding information from the ai to make its solution weaker, so it failed you.
“I cannot stand the smarmy ingratiation and the shameless gas lighting that you get from the Elon Musk product.”
Irony… where is thy sting?!?!
AI is great for finding books that you have only vague memories of. It's not so good at searching within books, especially recent books. Google Books is likewise very good with old books but they haven't digitized the newest books.
I'm guessing the book was one of the recent books about shipwrecks and sea disasters. It's not "The Wager" or "The Wide, Wide Sea," but I haven't got time to dig through all of them.
Moby Dick is a lot easier to read once you realize that every single crewman on the Pequod is insane.
“ Grok suggests another book by Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. I have no reason to believe it correct, but the title is a good fit for Althouse.”
Yes that does sound interesting. I’ll check it out
Nobody’s got the actual book yet but at this point, I’m continuing to listen to the audiobook and I like it enough that I’ll be blogging about it when I get to the end. Until then let it be known, no one has named it yet. Apparently that Melville quote is used by a lot of people.
"Nobody’s got the actual book yet but at this point"? Really? I thought for sure Krumhorn nailed it with "Our Wives under the Sea"! I even listened to the Audible for it, and the time stamps matched up. Well, maybe I'll figure it out.
What about " Roving twixt land and Sea: Herman Melville. Joseph Conrad and the maritime world-system." LSU Master's thesis.? It has that quote in a second epigraph. Take about a minute and 10 seconds to get through front matter and down into the quote.
Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer (2025)? Going from the blog post tag.
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