3 ms·
I recently finished it for the first time after many false starts. It definitely shocks, hits, and roils you about the decks of that cursed ship. It’s exactly
by agentultra 3y ago
I recently finished it for the first time after many false starts.
It definitely shocks, hits, and roils you about the decks of that cursed ship.
It’s exactly the fact chapters that play such an interesting emotional trick on us. Almost like a wave of anxiety before the wild, unknown force of impending doom comes for us out of the depths of the sea. The narrator takes stock of every detail. Distracting themselves from what’s coming. What we know must come.
And given the the time in which Melville was writing. He and few others were plying new narrative structures and were sadly… mostly ignored.
If you liked Moby Dick be sure to give Figuring by Maria Popova a try. Ever wonder why there was such an illustrious dedication to Nathaniel Hawthorne? Who else Melville was connected to at the time? There’s that and more.
Parts of the story I’m sure haven’t aged well. Ismael’s inconsistent use of derogatory terms for non-Caucasian people in spite of the close relationship he has with Queegueg. There are a few passages where Ishmael seems to struggle with these thoughts. It doesn’t seem to me that this part of the story has aged well… or at least it’s hard for me to understand what Mellville was hoping to put light on (or perhaps was simply ignorant of like so many people were).
It’s a challenging book. Im not sure it deserves veneration these days. But it was these chapters that I found fascinating.
- timeon 3y ago> close relationship he has with Queegueg Nothing strange about that, but still, I was not expecting this book (and many of that era) to be gay romance.
- dekhn 3y agoEspecially "the squeeze of the hand"
- agentultra 3y agoIt was a heavily queer-coded book. And if you read Figuring by Maria Popova you'll learn the reason behind the illustrious dedication to Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is quite fascinating in this regard!
- whatshisface 3y ago>Ismael’s inconsistent use of derogatory terms for non-Caucasian people in spite of the close relationship he has with Queegueg. >it’s hard for me to understand what Mellville was hoping to put light on Like the part about the whaling, this is not a commentary, it's a description of what happens.
- agentultra 3y agoGiven how subversive Mellville was trying to be with other parts of the story, what he chooses to write and present is part of his license as an author and will show his biases and prejudices. I am not the first person to note the prejudices and racist undertones of the book. I don't think it's worth of praise for being a "classic, must read," book on this basis. I think it's worth reading for many reasons but it's a heavy work and folks should know, going in, that it has many challenging and problematic aspects among the good parts.