Etymology, Extracts...Explain?

When I saw that Moby Dick was on the reading list, I began to dive right in with all of my "beginning of the semester" ambition.  Determined to get ahead before I fell behind I skipped over the random sentences that took up the first few pages and jumped right to chapter one.  I was surprised when Dr. Burton then specifically stated in class the need to have thoroughly read the extracts and etymology at the beginning of the novel.  As I went back and began reading through I tried to sort through all the whaling madness.  Why on earth would Melvile pull random references concerning whales from Genesis all the way to Hamlet?  My conclusion was, he was trying to create an environment for the foreign reader.  I don't believe Melville wrote Moby Dick as a thoughtful gesture to those who dutifully slaved away in the whaling industry. I'm sure he hoped, and intended that the readership would extend far beyond, to more "foreign" readers such as you and I.  In pulling together various verses, letters plays and novels, he has created an environment that we can become lost in. We can feel that we are part of the legend and community of whaling even though we lead very different lives. This led me to think about the digital culture that exists today.  Through movies, music, pictures, personal and professional posts and reports I can become equally immersed and lost in almost any other community or culture that exists.  Although I live in Provo, Utah I can have different experiences through the collection of extracts online.  So when I uploaded pictures from my study abroad in Rome, or wrote a blog post containing my thoughts on life in Virginia, I was in a way contributing to the extracts and contributing to the online environment that others can share in those experiences.  It's exciting to think that through even this blog, we're all contributing to collection of extracts so that others can also share in the experience (and confusion?) of Moby Dick.