was Moby Dick actually a good book and not boring ?

[JI7]

after hearing all the reviews and comments about how difficult the whaling parts were i was surprised to find how much i enjoyed the book. a lot of the parts of whaling was interesting also .

was the author ahead of his time ? i kept going back to the dates of the book, the time the author lived etc because of the things involving religion, race , the relationship among male characters etc.

[MrScorpio]

1. It's very idiomatic

It may take some effort to absorb it.

[roody]

2. I read it in 4th grade and could not put it down.

[HiPointDem]

3. i think he was way ahead of his time. he's very modern. i love, love love bartleby the scrivener

as a commentary on capitalism and corporations. i can't imagine how an audience of the time would have taken it though.

[Deep13]

4. yes, very good. nt

[Union Scribe]

5. I read it about every three years

There are many parts that still dazzle me.

"Because I am scorched all over, Captain Ahab," answered Perth, resting for a moment on his hammer; "I am past scorching; not easily can'st thou scorch a scar."

"Well, well; no more. Thy shrunk voice sounds too calmly, sanely woeful to me. In no Paradise myself, I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?—What wert thou making there?"

From chapter 113

[bowens43]

6. It took me several attempts because of the detail about whaling

but when I finally decided to finish it, I was very glad that I did.

[eShirl]

7. it was written as an adventure story for older boys

[enough]

8. Try listening to it.

I find with long detail-dense books, the way to get into it is to listen to the audio-book. That way you relax and go with the author's own pace, get every word, never skip over a part because you think it's not interesting.

My friends and I read Moby Dick aloud to each other one summer. It's the least boring book imaginable. I still re-read it every few years.

Another example, I had a hard time getting into Infinite Jest. Finally listened to it last year in audio format. Totally fascinating, every word. Bought the print version to read again.

[Dorian Gray]

9. Considering it's in the canon

and beloved by many, including my husband, I'll state that it's one of the American greats.

[deutsey]

10. It has its dry spots but I loved the book

I finally read it a little while after I got out of college (I was an English major and was never required to read it).

It came into my life just at the time I think I could appreciate it most. The opening chapter is one of my favorite pieces of writing as is the scene when Ishmael is up in the crow's nest.

Incredible book, imo. One I plan to read in its entirety again.

[Orrex]

11. If you can get through the seven or eight hundred pages describing the sails, the book is great!

I've read it twice, once for school and once for myself.

[bemildred]

12. He was way the heck ahead of his time.

And very experimental, and very good at it, in a 19th century sort of way.

Try Typee too.

[Ligyron]

13. Hark ye then, the lower layer - all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks ...

I've read it three times at different periods in my life and each time it meant something different. the allegory and symbolism is world class.

Never encountered anything like it again until I read Cormac Mc Carthy. Red Meridian is a Moby Dick on the plains of the Old West.

[Javaman]

14. It was my dad's favorite book.

So I gave it a whirl about 10 years ago.

I liked it very much.

Having grown up in that area (Long Island) much of it hearkened back to the whaling lore that was taught to us in grade school.

[FSogol]

15. Read everything you can find from Joseph Conrad next.

You won't be disappointed.

[6000eliot]

16. It's a ripping yarn if you skip all of the whaling stuff.

Read "William Wilson" or Billy Budd for examples of even more overt homoeroticism.

[TuxedoKat]

17. I loved it

I had to read it for an English class. The professor had written his doctoral thesis and drew a great deal from Moby Dick for the course. Because of this professor I got a lot more out of the book than I would have had I just read it on my own. It is an amazing book and I think Melville was definitely ahead of his time as his book exhibited elements of Modernism to me, a genre that is supposed to have not started in the late 1900s, and Moby Dick was written in 1851.

[joeybee12]

18. Great book, however in many ways a product of its time...

The structure is dated, IMHO