Moby Dick

"I'm planning to start reading Moby-Dick," I messaged my wife.

"Is that supposed to cure your boredom??" she replied.

PART ONE: THE PRELUDE

Confession time: I studied English Education for four years, trained to be a high school English/Literature teacher, and yet never once cracked the cover on Moby-Dick. "Why bother?" I figured. "Somebody else has done the work already and everything that can be said must have been said by now." Yes, it was on some AP Literature "suggested reading" lists and it was offered as a class unto itself for seniors majoring in American Lit, but it never came up on a required course syllabus for me and I wasn't about to complain. If I did have to teach it to a class in the future, there would always be Cliff's Notes.

Confession continued: I do not like big books. Some readers love 'em, but not me. There are a handful of exceptions (obligatory plug for my personal white whale, Infinite Jest) but for the most part if a book goes past 350 pages I tend to lose interest. My feeling is, if you're going over that then you'd better have a darn good reason. I've always preferred minimalism, the Kurt Vonnegut approach, saying more with less. And Moby-Dick has the reputation of being just the opposite: the most overlong, overblown, overloaded novel of all. Critical consensus has it that Melville earns a pass on this, yet still every contemporary review cautions at some point: you will be bored.

Confession the third: I have grown into the smug literary hipster snob I used to mock as out-of-touch, trying too hard, and unbearable at parties. But now I'm a grown man, approaching middle age if not there already, and I find a lot of the dusty old "Classics" actually speak to me on a profound level. So maybe I won't have anything new to say about MD, but maybe that's OK. Maybe I don't need to say anything at all. Maybe I need to listen.

First things first: it's not as long as I thought. I always envisioned some thousand-plus page tome but my copy (W.W. Norton & Company's 1976 version, which I chose because it presents the full text with minimal commentary, limited to just a single chapter at the very end penned by one Howard Mumford Jones—now THERE'S a stodgy old literature critic name if I've ever heard one!) runs a total of 585 pages, glossary included. Sure, it'll make one hell of a thump if you drop it from any distance to your desktop. But it's not the forearm workout I feared. And as the last book of my 2018 reading challenge, I've got over a month to get through it. (50 days, a quick calendar consultation confirms. 12 pages a day? Seems do-able.)

Second things second: I already know the gist of it. It seems like it's about a whale but the whale is a symbol and it's really about obsession. The color white is important to pay attention to. I'm supposed to call him Ishmael, and he alone survives to tell the tale, and Ahab stabs at thee from Hell's heart but gets himself killed in the endeavor. I don't think anyone can cry foul over spoilers more than a hundred and sixty years old, and this sucker's so far intertwined into the popular culture that it'd be a miracle if I didn't already know how it ends. But this is about the journey, not the destination.

So I'll set sail on waters that have been charted and recharted already, and I'll keep my little reading log here so I can feel brainy for taking up this undertaking, here on the Internet haven for other brainy folks who love books so much we tell strangers what we think about them, where reading Moby-Dick is the norm and not the exception and joining your voice to the chorus of other reviewers is practically a rite of passage.


PART TWO: THE READ-THROUGH

This part took 32 days. That's a good long while for any avid reader.

Listen. Anybody can write a book, technically speaking. A much smaller set of people can write an interesting, entertaining, or at least coherent book. But very few people can write a Great Book, a.k.a. Literature. Moby-Dick more or less sets the bar, in my estimation, for what we all mean when we say "Great Book" or "Classic Literature," which is to say: big lofty ideas, conveyed via dense but memorable text, reproducing human drama of grave thematic import. As others have already noted, it's not difficult to read, per se. But I honestly would have loathed reading this as an assignment, working against a deadline. Because the further we move into modernity and the more removed we get from Melville's world, the more antiquated his dialect becomes and thus the true challenge arises: can you focus your attention long enough to read this? Will you? And do you want to? That's the difficulty of Moby-Dick, more so than the plot or the imagery or any of the thematic grandeur. Anybody can "get" Moby-Dick. Many(/most) people probably already have, without even actually reading it for themselves, since it's been around long enough to work its way into popular culture of all forms.

And so, if Mark Twain is the American Oscar Wilde then Melville is the American Charles Dickens. Has anybody written a term paper on that yet? I think I found my thesis.


PART THREE: THE REFLECTION

So, I read Moby-Dick.

It was worth it.

It was worth it the way that eating leafy green vegetables is worth it. You might not enjoy every bite while you're doing it, but someday down the road you'll be glad you did.

Moby-Dick is a cultural icon, a touchstone for bookworms, an American legacy, and a darn fine book. It is surprisingly entertaining despite its lulls and its length and its reputation as a chore to get through, and it is well-deserving of its status as a work of literary art. In fact, knowing the book's reputation and other readers' aspersions against it beforehand somehow made reading it much more tolerable. Every time it grew tedious, the knowledge that I was participating in a shared experience with all the readers and reviewers who'd come before me helped to carry me through. And the critical analysis comes easily, as Melville never obscures his message. Most of the theme is all but stated outright in plain language, and the sumptuous writing reinforces through tone what we are to take away from it all: from Ishmael's openness, from Queequeg's dual dignity, from Ahab's dark obsession.

5 stars out of 5. It couldn't possibly be any less.

This book is:

25% nature guide
25% footnotes
25% adventure story
25% waffle

It took me a year to get through it. Literally a year.

Ugh. I'm off for a lie down. I feel like I've been beaten over the head with a dictionary.

A Moby Dictionary.

(sigh) okay i'll read it

Hast Seen The White Whale?

Melville's sixth novel, "Moby-Dick" received mixed reviews when published in 1851 and was nearly forgotten after the author's death in 1891. In the early 1920's, the book was rediscovered and quickly achieved the stature of an American classic. The book is inexhaustible. I have recently returned to it. In his 2005 study, "Melville", Andrew Delbanco discusses some of the ways "Moby-Dick" has been read over the years. Delbanco writes:

"Moby-Dick was not a book for a particular moment. It is a book for the ages. What gives it its psychological and moral power is that, freakish as he is, Ahab seems more part of us than apart from us. Like all great literary representations of evil, he is attractive as well as repulsive. And so Melville emerged in the twentieth century as the American Dostoevsky -- a writer who, with terrible clairvoyance, had been waiting for the world to catch up with him."

"Moby-Dick" is long, difficult, and digressive. It is not a straighforward narrative. Melville pauses many times for extended chapters to explore matters seemingly tangential to the intense story he has to tell. The book is written in a baroque, large, blustery and exuberant prose that is worlds away from the tightness and concision favored by many 20th Century American writers. Melville also knows how to build tension. The work unfolds story and by indirection. A rather lengthy opening section of the book takes place on land in New York City, New Bedford, and Nantucket. Captain Ahab's monomaical character is revealed slowly through hints, offered by a shadowy character with the Biblical name of Elijah and by visions and foreshadowing. A sermon on the Book of Jonah by Father Mapple frames the book and it is quickly contrasted with Queequeg and his attitude towards his gods. When Ahab and many of the main characters appear, the book is already well underway.

The book is narrated in the first person by Ishmael -- a Biblical outcast -- with his famous opening line, "Call me Ishmael". As the story proceeds, however, Melville seemingly disregards the limits of first-person narration as the story describes closely scenes and events well beyond Ishmael's ability to know.

Ishmael denies that the story of Ahab and the great whale is an allegory, and his denial deserves to be thought about and taken seriously. Many readers have found meanings of all sorts in "Moby-Dick", ranging from the personal, through the religious, through the political. Melville was himself a seeker and largely an autodidact with the deepest doubts about religious faith combined with a need to believe. Understanding evil and suffering is at the heart of "Moby-Dick". Ahab fanatically and selfishly pursues the whale and destorys himself and his crew. Ishmael, in signing on to the Pequod and undertaking a voyage hazardous in the best of circumstances is also a seeker in the story. Through luck, prudence, and sense, Ishmael is a survivor.

The story moves between Ahab's quest for the whale and a welter of factual material on the biology of whales, the history of whaling, the techniques of the whale fishery and immeasurably more. These long sections, which puzzle many readers, seem to me integral to the work. Mellville wants the reader to see the difference between a symbol and an icon, taken for good or ill, and the vast being of the natural world. Ahab expands the whale to something metaphysical in his ravings. Melville understands this, and he also understands that the whale is simply a magnificent animal. The various factual chapters move in different ways. Most of them develop a theme at some length before offering philosophical or spiritual questions about the matter under discussion. The broad themes of the book seldom are absent from view.

During the course of the voyage, the Pequod encounters other whalers, some of which seek Ahab's help while others bring messages of the joys of life. Ahab dispenses with what are the overtures of common, shared life with his abrupt opening query to each of them: "Hast Seen the White Whale"? Readers can identify with Ahab to a greater or lesser degree as they try to understand the passions which tend to rule their own lives. There are many extraordinary scenes in this book, not the least of which is the climactic fight between Ahab and the whale at the end.

Reader reviews allow for many different perspectives on Melville's book from readers with different degrees of familiarity with the text. "Moby-Dick" invites many different readings in searching for the sources of one's demons and for the common life. I have tried to offer some of my own reactions from my recent reading of "Moby-Dick."

Robin Friedman

Many people warned me of this book so I ended up being quite apprehensive before starting. However, as is often the case (especially with classics as far as I can tell), I wasn‘t dismayed by the detailed descriptions of ships or whales.

But let‘s start at the beginning.

Moby Dick is one of THE American novels. It tells of Ishmael, the protagonist and narrator with one of the most famous opening lines in literature. Ishamel is a teacher but decides to go to sea so he enlists with the Pequod, a whaling ship from Nantucket. Captain of the ship is the famous Captain Ahab, a man driven half mad when a whale not only costs him one of his legs but also escapes afterwards.
Thus begins the journey of the Pequod‘s crew through the world oceans (not all of them but they are underway for quite a while) in search of the infamous white whale that someone, somehow, has named Moby Dick.
It is only natural that they do not come across the „right“ whale immediately and while they and we readers are waiting, Melville proceeds to describe life on board a whaling ship. These descriptions range from the ship itself, the crew living with one another, sailing, what whalers did with the carcasses of whales when they caught one, religion, race, history and so much more. It becomes clear fairly quickly that he was an accute observer and thought long and hard about all the topics he addressed in his writing. Moreover, for a man of his skin colour and time, he was relatively open and progressive.
There are some ridiculous instances where the openminded Ishmael describes his view that any religion has its place and that none is better than the other, seconds after which he details how this or that ritual of an „exotic“ religion is silly or unnecessary. So yes, the book had some comedic moments as well (whether on purpose or not is another matter).
Oh and let‘s not forget the homosexual encounter in the beginning! I did NOT expect that but I like that he put it in there (again: whether he was aware of its significance or not is another matter).

As for the writing itself, Melville was certainly very erudite. This combined with the research he must have conducted for this book results in all the details being accurate (for the time this was written in) and giving a 360-view on the world of whaling, be it on the construction and handling of a ship or the anatomy of whales (though I got aggressive whenever one of these whale-murderers called the animals „fish“).

The fascinating thing about the book’s form is that the author often wrote as if it was a stage play. That is to say there are actual stage directions. Moreover, Ishmael, while telling the story, sometimes „disappears“ inside his own narrative, being fully submerged in the events, only to resurface some time later as the narrator.

It‘s a story about obsession and revenge but also about other people letting themselves be drawn into other peoples‘ fights. It‘s about men who just want to earn a living in a period when several nations around the world committed horrible atrocities against the whale populations of this planet (and even commenting at one point how, just like elephants on the plains of Africa, there would always be enough of them because look at how much space they have to live in *doh*).

This might not be the best classic I‘ve ever read but it is in a class of its own (I could be more detailed with a 10-star rating system but we don‘t have that so ...).

I HATE whaling. It‘s one of the things that makes me positively despise certain Scandinavian countries as well as Japan (and nobody give me that silly excuse about „scientific research“). Reading about a whale being caught and what was subsequently done with it was therefore hard, but it‘s science/history and I had already read a non-fiction book about what inspired Melville to write this novel. Nevertheless, I wanted them all to die horribly. Just like the people who fin sharks.
All I can say is that the ending thus is very satisfying for someone like me. I‘ve read somewhere that the ending leaves the readers without any solace but I disagree: it offers solace aplenty for anyone who, like me, is #teamwhale. ;)

#bibliotecaafectivă

„Clătinîndu-și în chip ciudat capul fatidic, Moby-Dick înainta spre corabie printr-un brîu lat de spumă... Prin întreaga ei înfățișare, își trăda firea aprigă, răzbunătoare, dorința de a pedepsi, răutatea veșnică”.

Un roman pe care l-am citit pentru prima dată cu mult, mult timp în urmă. Probabil că sînt la a treia sau la a patra lectură. Nu mai contează. Mulți critici pretind că romanul e ilizibil și că nu poate fi dus pînă la capăt. John Sutherland, printre ei, ca să dau numai un singur exemplu. Sutherland publică destul de des în The Guardian, e o somitate ironică, a scris o carte despre Bestsellers (am recenzat-o nu de mult)...

În treacăt fie spus, a citi un roman de 4 ori nu este o ispravă nemaivăzută în univers, unii au citit Război și pace de 12 ori și tot nu s-au săturat. De vreme ce am ajuns cu lecturile atît de departe, înseamnă că Moby-Dick nu mi s-a părut nici ilizibil și nici imposibil de dus pînă la capăt. Vă mai amintiți cum se termină? Da, cu moartea căpitanului Ahab (care e obsedat de balena albă pînă la cea mai pură demență) și cu salvarea bietului Ishmael, singurul supraviețuitor de pe baleniera Pequod. În definitiv, dacă și Ishmael ar fi murit, nu ar mai fi fost nimeni care să ne relateze ce s-a întîmplat cu Pequod :)

Unii spun că singura semnificație a cărții e cea literală: „Moby-Dick se referă - nici mai mult, dar nici mai puțin - la vînătoarea unei balene. Punct” (E.M. Forster). Cei mai mulți au căutat, în schimb, simbolismul. Nu poate fi vorba doar de o vînătoare dramatică. Și au propus cele mai bizare interpretări. Iată una teologică: Moby-Dick ilustrează „inscrutabila tăcere” cu care Dumnezeu răspunde tuturor celor care Îl caută” (James Wood). Alții propun o interpretare mai laică: Moby-Dick prezintă căutarea unui adevăr de neatins, a unui adevăr care se retrage mereu din fața minții noastre. Această căutare sfîrșește în umilință și uluială (James McIntosh). Jorge Luis Borges a găsit în romanul lui Melville o „coborîre în infern”, o nekya. Mă opresc aici.

Adaug doar că primii critici (cei din 1851) au văzut în Moby-Dick un roman încîlcit, obscur, de o valoare îndoielnică, în nici un caz o capodoperă. Prea multe digresiuni abat atenția cititorului de la acțiunea cărții. În publicațiile britanice au apărut și cîteva cronici pozitive. Din păcate, Herman Melville nu le-a cunoscut. A murit ignorat de toți, dezamăgit, în dimineața zilei de 28 septembrie 1891.

Moby-Dick reprezintă, cu siguranță, cel mai zdrobitor exemplu de orbire critică.

I read this during the time I spent at a science conference in Cuba back in the last century.

I think if I hadn't been so lacking diversion - isolated in the hotel by the extortionate price of tourist taxis - I would never have made it through the book. There are certainly passages written with considerable literary power:

“He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.”

And the story is certainly not without interest: the 'mad' captain hunting his nemesis across the seas, his obsession driving his crew into extremis.

But none of that can expunge the memory of what felt like literally a hundred pages of dry, mechanical exposition about the mechanics of whaling and the minutiae of the whaling industry.

It was, I have to say, a slog that I wouldn't encourage anyone else to undertake without good reason. I have read many 19th century classics that I found far more appealing.


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I want to quickly say that I have not (yet) reread Moby Dick, but I read a review of this recently released edition of the book illustrated by the American painter Gilbert Wilson and I ordered it from the library. Here's the review so you can see examples of his artwork:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/column...

Moby Dick is a story of, among SO many other things, Captain Ahab's obsession with a great white whale. Not-quite-famous and mostly forgotten painter Wilson also had an obsession: Captain Ahab's obsession, which I read inspired John Huston's film version of the novel.

The book is a coffee table size production, produced for the occasion for the occasion of Melville's 200th birthday, and while I very much liked all the introductions from editor Robert K. Elder and others, and reading Wilson's own writings about Moby Dick, and while I was interested and impressed with the paintings, I really wish the publishers Hat and Beard had gone one more step and produced full page versions of ALL the accompanying paintings. But it's a great accomplishment, and worth checking out. Now I am committed to rereading the novel this year, as I read passages throughout as they were connected to certain paintings.