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I think the the critic who said there is “abundant choice reading for those who can skip a page now and then, judiciously” nails it. This book is a journey, and

by firasd 9y ago

I think the the critic who said there is “abundant choice reading for those who can skip a page now and then, judiciously” nails it. This book is a journey, and is like many works mixed together. I like this Twitter profile that posts random quotes from the book: https://twitter.com/MobyDickatSea https://twitter.com/MobyDickatSea A couple quotes I like: 1) “I will have no man in my boat,” said Starbuck, “who is not afraid of a whale.” By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. 2) “How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market.”... “Vengeance on a dumb brute!” cried Starbuck, “that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.” 3) “In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.” 4) The narrator is also pretty open-minded and gracious towards different cultures. “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”

klenwell 9y ago
It contains multitudes, to be certain. The other aspect of the novel that people familiar with it only by its reputation often underestimate: it's humor. It's a sly often oblique humor, by turns Shakespearian, Victorian, and almost anachronistically postmodern. But it permeates the novel and is there right in the opening paragraph: Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. By the time I got through that sentence, the fourth in the novel, I was in. Finally, one additional quote from the novel that stuck with me: for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
- mabub24 9y ago
  The next sentences following your quote are also hilarious: > ...then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. The humor gives Ishmael an everyman quality. Unlike Cato's grand "philosophical flourish", Ishmael "quietly" takes to the sea. Simultaneously, Ishmael has the mind of a poet, such as when he refers to taking to sea as his response to wanting to shoot himself or someone with "pistol and ball." Melville is basically saying that men, like Ishmael, go to sea so they won't go postal.
icodestuff 9y ago
The narrative part of the novel is fine. It's about 80-100 pages of a good thriller at sea and morality tale of revenge. The problem is that the book is 500+ pages, not 100. The other 400 are a tome and treatise on whales, whaling, and whaling culture/philosophy, which are truly tedious. You don't have to skip pages judiciously, you have to skip whole chapters liberally. The criticism of Ahab having no method to his madness is on point as well.

by firasd 9y ago

klenwell 9y ago

It contains multitudes, to be certain. The other aspect of the novel that people familiar with it only by its reputation often underestimate: it's humor. It's a sly often oblique humor, by turns Shakespearian, Victorian, and almost anachronistically postmodern. But it permeates the novel and is there right in the opening paragraph: Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. By the time I got through that sentence, the fourth in the novel, I was in. Finally, one additional quote from the novel that stuck with me: for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

mabub24 9y ago
The next sentences following your quote are also hilarious: > ...then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. The humor gives Ishmael an everyman quality. Unlike Cato's grand "philosophical flourish", Ishmael "quietly" takes to the sea. Simultaneously, Ishmael has the mind of a poet, such as when he refers to taking to sea as his response to wanting to shoot himself or someone with "pistol and ball." Melville is basically saying that men, like Ishmael, go to sea so they won't go postal.

icodestuff 9y ago

The narrative part of the novel is fine. It's about 80-100 pages of a good thriller at sea and morality tale of revenge. The problem is that the book is 500+ pages, not 100. The other 400 are a tome and treatise on whales, whaling, and whaling culture/philosophy, which are truly tedious. You don't have to skip pages judiciously, you have to skip whole chapters liberally. The criticism of Ahab having no method to his madness is on point as well.