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Moby Dick probably would have sold more early on if it weren't interleaved with chapters from a whaling ship operating handbook.

josephorjoe 6y ago
lol. but the third time you read Moby Dick those are the best parts. loose fish vs fast fish is top of the line 19th century humor. i admit i was bored to tears by those sections on the first read. honestly i think it just isn’t a great read for people in their teens/20s as the world weariness, fatalism, and obsession with an imperfect understanding of an obscure expertise is something better appreciated as one ages.
- allturtles 6y ago
  There are so many great parts to Moby Dick. It has a reputation for tedium, so I was surprised the first time I read it at how much humor is in it, often mingled with deep insight, e.g.: > Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship’s decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them; and though, while the valiant butchers over the deck-table are thus cannibally carving each other’s live meat with carving-knives all gilded and tasselled, the sharks, also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat; and though, were you to turn the whole affair upside down, it would still be pretty much the same thing, that is to say, a shocking sharkish business enough for all parties; and though sharks also are the invariable outriders of all slave ships crossing the Atlantic, systematically trotting alongside, to be handy in case a parcel is to be carried anywhere, or a dead slave to be decently buried; and though one or two other like instances might be set down, touching the set terms, places, and occasions, when sharks do most socially congregate, and most hilariously feast; yet is there no conceivable time or occasion when you will find them in such countless numbers, and in gayer or more jovial spirits, than around a dead sperm whale, moored by night to a whaleship at sea. If you have never seen that sight, then suspend your decision about the propriety of devil-worship, and the expediency of conciliating the devil.
  - gabagool 6y ago
    Fun fact: while Moby Dick has an overall Flesh-Kincaid reading-ease score of 57.9 ("10th to 12th grade" by the US scale), this particular sentence's score is −146.77. On the scale, 90-100 is at the 5th grade level and 0-10 is the "Professional" level, characterized as "Extremely difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests#Flesch_reading_ease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readabi...
  - quercusa 6y ago
    I think Chapter 96, The Try-Works, is an amazing piece of writing: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/777/chapter-96-the-try-works/ https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/777/chapter-96-the-t...
- lupire 6y ago
  Hey, it had the "accidentally gay" whale blubber scene for the teens to enjoy

josephorjoe 6y ago

lol. but the third time you read Moby Dick those are the best parts. loose fish vs fast fish is top of the line 19th century humor. i admit i was bored to tears by those sections on the first read. honestly i think it just isn’t a great read for people in their teens/20s as the world weariness, fatalism, and obsession with an imperfect understanding of an obscure expertise is something better appreciated as one ages.

allturtles 6y ago
There are so many great parts to Moby Dick. It has a reputation for tedium, so I was surprised the first time I read it at how much humor is in it, often mingled with deep insight, e.g.: > Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship’s decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them; and though, while the valiant butchers over the deck-table are thus cannibally carving each other’s live meat with carving-knives all gilded and tasselled, the sharks, also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat; and though, were you to turn the whole affair upside down, it would still be pretty much the same thing, that is to say, a shocking sharkish business enough for all parties; and though sharks also are the invariable outriders of all slave ships crossing the Atlantic, systematically trotting alongside, to be handy in case a parcel is to be carried anywhere, or a dead slave to be decently buried; and though one or two other like instances might be set down, touching the set terms, places, and occasions, when sharks do most socially congregate, and most hilariously feast; yet is there no conceivable time or occasion when you will find them in such countless numbers, and in gayer or more jovial spirits, than around a dead sperm whale, moored by night to a whaleship at sea. If you have never seen that sight, then suspend your decision about the propriety of devil-worship, and the expediency of conciliating the devil.
- gabagool 6y ago
  Fun fact: while Moby Dick has an overall Flesh-Kincaid reading-ease score of 57.9 ("10th to 12th grade" by the US scale), this particular sentence's score is −146.77. On the scale, 90-100 is at the 5th grade level and 0-10 is the "Professional" level, characterized as "Extremely difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests#Flesch_reading_ease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readabi...
- quercusa 6y ago
  I think Chapter 96, The Try-Works, is an amazing piece of writing: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/777/chapter-96-the-try-works/ https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/777/chapter-96-the-t...
lupire 6y ago
Hey, it had the "accidentally gay" whale blubber scene for the teens to enjoy