Q: Are the pins and q-tips Quentin finds in the desk at the abandoned mall a reference to “Cotton” by the Mountain Goats?
I was conscious of the reference, yes.
Q: Was the reference to Moby Dick related to Q? Can you answer the English teacher’s question of whether Ahab (or Q) was tragically heroic or just an obsessed madman?
Yeah, I wanted Ahab’s obsession with the whale to mirror Q’s obsession with Margo, but I wanted to make that connection in part so that it would be very clear that Q’s obsession with Margo is inherently objectifying. He’s not seeing her as a person. He’s seeing her as Ahab saw the whale.
As for the English teacher’s question, I think Q finds a hero’s journey, but I don’t think he starts off on one.
I think Ahab is a tragic hero, but that’s easy for me to say, as I was not a sailor aboard the Pequod.