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If you haven’t read Moby Dick, you really should. It’s impressive in a way that modern literature just misses entirely. It is simply an incredible piece of work
by keiferski 3y ago
If you haven’t read Moby Dick, you really should. It’s impressive in a way that modern literature just misses entirely. It is simply an incredible piece of work.
But – try to read it on a long trip, or during an airplane ride. It is not the kind of work you should rush through. Personally I read it on a series of 10+ hour airplane rides, which was the perfect environment IMO, perhaps only second to a weeks-long sailing trip.
- graemep 3y agoIt goes on a bit though. Lots of digressions, some boring - the one that sticks in my mind is the lengthy justification for calling a whale a "fish".
- keiferski 3y agoThat is kind of my point, though: don't read it if you're worried about "boring" digressions. You won't like it. Read it when you have enough time to slowly appreciate every chapter. You have to completely silence the part of your mind that wants action and progression of the storyline.
- troupo 3y agoThen I would prefer to read Too Like Lightning instead. I found Moby Dick to be interminably boring.
- moate 3y agoCounterpoint for anyone out there trying to decide if they should read it: Don't. Life is short, do things in a way you think makes sense, not because some dude on the internet said it <(Irony lives here). Fuck the classics. No seriously, that's my stance: Who cares? I know people who spend time and energy culturing themselves and many of them are absolutely boring at parties. The world has no purpose or meaning except what you conjure up yourself or subscribe to by choice. Never read another book again, ever. Only read classical Greek philosophy. Only read the side of cereal boxes. The rules are made up and the points don't matter.
- keiferski 3y agoI mean, you don't need to take my opinion for it. I am just a dude on the Internet, although I do have a little blog about the arts, so I guess I'm marginally more qualified than just a random person? I'll let you decide. But a whole lot of very intelligent people that know a lot about literature have very good things to say about Moby Dick. To disregard their collective opinions in favor of reading whatever makes you exciting at parties [0] doesn't seem like a wise choice to me. For example: - Hubert Dreyfus lecturing about MD for 8 hours: https://youtu.be/eq5LDSZDr2E?si=pBlpoHH14ByTlE5o https://youtu.be/eq5LDSZDr2E?si=pBlpoHH14ByTlE5o - Harold Bloom on MD: https://youtu.be/xFt59_E_g5s?si=oORJveHu2hs3cW8n https://youtu.be/xFt59_E_g5s?si=oORJveHu2hs3cW8n - EL Doctorow: https://youtu.be/rzFr5PNE5pE?si=PvPowjQPWbglayQH https://youtu.be/rzFr5PNE5pE?si=PvPowjQPWbglayQH 0. I'm curious what that is, actually. Do you have some suggestions?
- archagon 3y agoNot OP. I’ve personally never read Moby Dick — been meaning to at some point — but I don’t see any purpose in continuing to slog through a book that you find interminably boring. It’s just a cargo cult mentality of becoming “cultured”. My world expanded quite a bit when I realized that not all the classics were worth anything to me, and that some works that people turn their noses up at are far more valuable culturally.
- coldtea 3y ago>Counterpoint for anyone out there trying to decide if they should read it: Don't. Life is short, do things in a way you think makes sense, not because some dude on the internet said it <(Irony lives here). Counterpoint to the counterpoint: do it. Don't live life as an automaton. Broaden your horizons. Venture outside your comfort zone and expand your culture outside quick entertainment. Not convinced? Well, go binge watch the Nth streaming/cable series, watch the Nth MCU movie, and be content with what you're fed by cynical media moguls and assumed to like because that's your station in life as an average Joe. See if I care...
- lupire 3y agoIt's Harpoon Hacker News
- trelane 3y agoAvailable on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2701 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2701
- keiferski 3y agoI haven't compared the two, but I think Standard Ebooks' edition is probably better formatted. https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/herman-melville/moby-dick https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/herman-melville/moby-dick
- trelane 3y agoOh, nice. I didn't know about them. Thanks!
- jhbadger 3y agoYeah, that's kind of what Standard Ebook's whole deal is -- they have only a small fraction of the number of books Project Gutenberg has, but they spend a lot of time making the ones they have pretty -- often better than even commercial e-books.
- asimpletune 3y agoOne thing though that I really want to stress to people is stick through it until the end, but don't try to rush getting there either. 90% of the book is just learning about whaling, which necessarily involves learning about whales and also whalers. However, the end of the book takes on a completely different tone and is borderline modern literature.