Give me your expert opinion on the book Moby Dick.

[LostInAnomie]

I'm thinking about reading it but I want to know if it's worth the investment of time and resources.

What do you think?

[ironflange]

1. I read it a long long time ago

But it was a good read. The story itself is a great yarn, and it's interspersed with long and detailed, and sometimes stomach-churning, descriptions of 19th Century whaling practices. As "old classics" go, I found it to be a surprisingly easy and entertaining read.

[Cabcere]

2. I've never read the book

but every single English teacher I've had said it was horribly boring. :shrug: I don't know, though.

[Kutjara]

3. There's really no better literary exposition on the corrosive effects...

...of obsession, monomania and revenge than Moby Dick. Ahab's ride into insanity on the back of his quest to kill the whale is emotionally harrowing.

That said, Melville was one of those writers who would never use a single word when a paragraph would do, so you'll need to be pretty patient in parts.

[triguy46]

4. Yes. It is a classic, though Melville never made a buck off it...

One approach that I've used is to read every other chapter once the Pequod leaves port. The 'sailing and whaling' chapters seem to alternate with some chapters that are drier, more ponderous in nature.

Regardless, it is a very good book.

If not Moby Dick, what would you read?

[cobalt1999]

5. If you are into symbolism...

you'll love it. Melville used tons of it throughout the book.

[rug]

6. It's wonderful.

In one of the many digressions, a whaler visits an island whose inhabitants worship inside an enormous whale skeleton. The whaler promptly prceeds to measure it.

"Cutting me a green measuring-rod, I once more dived within the skeleton. From their arrow-slit in the skull, the priests perceived me taking the altitude of the final rib, "How now!" they shouted; "Dar'st thou measure this our god! That's for us." "Aye, priests- well, how long do ye make him, then?" But hereupon a fierce contest rose among them, concerning feet and inches; they cracked each other's sconces with their yard-sticks- the great skull echoed- and seizing that lucky chance, I quickly concluded my own admeasurements."

http://www.americanliterature.com/MD/MD102.HTML

The whole book is available online. Dip in and see if you like the taste.

[RedCloud]

7. This belongs in the penis thread

:shrug:

[JTG of the PRB]

8. It is an amazingly brilliant piece of literature...

... and probably the most BORING book I have ever read. Don't get me wrong, it is a fantastic book, but oh. My. God. Booooorrrriiiinnnng.

[cobalt1999]

11. I disagree, it wasn't boring, just the opposite.

Granted it isn't a mindless, quick page turner, that's because the wording is designed to make you think as you go along and to catch all the double meanings. I found it a great read.

[JVS]

21. You have to have a lot of time to read it and be willing to go with it.

I bought it on a brief visit to England when I was living in a country where I couldn't buy English prose cheaply. It was a joy to read my native language for a change.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

9. It's a whale of a read.

:rofl:

[Critters2]

10. I love this book!

But, yes, some of Melville's descriptions get a bit long and he can wander. There's a collection of classics that has it in an edited form that will give you a real taste of the book, but with fewer of the distractions. I'll see if I can remember the name of the series.

Critters
puttin' on her thinking cap...

[Critters2]

12. I found it--"Great Books of the Western World"

Volume 48. Moby Dick in a more readable form. Not Cliff's Notes, but not 500 pages, either!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World

[sir_captain]

13. Most brilliant piece of fiction

ever written by an American, IMHO.

If you really decide to read it, I'd highly suggest reading Andrew Delbanco's recent biography of Melville first--it's an easy read and would really help place Moby Dick in context--or at least, it did for me. :-)

[cobalt1999]

15. In college, I took a class in American Fiction before 1900

Which pretty much limited us to Melville, Poe, and Henry James. :)

[Danger Mouse]

14. great book. one of many that i've been working on.

recommend it strongly. :hi:

[Redneck Socialist]

16. Absolutely

I read it once a year for several years. It was, and is one of the greatest works ever written by an American. The language is amazing, and you'll learn a lot about whaling. Sure as hell made me want to go out in a little boat and stab a whale, as horrifying as that seems. It was, for me at least, that powerful.

[hedgehog]

17. Some people think it's too long, but the meandering nature of the

narrative is an essential part of it. You just have to dive in and follow where it goes.








Spoiler alert:


















Moby Dick is the name of the whale.

[mark414]

18. the whale kills the man

there, i saved you a lot of time

really, it's a great book though...worth the read

[cemaphonic]

19. Yeah, it's great.

The core story is fascinating and exciting, and all of the diversions into whales and whaling are interesting because:

1) it was this huge industry that combined 19th century industrial expertise (the ships were floating factories capable of processing the whales they killed) and personal heroism and danger (you had to go out in these little tiny boats to actually harpoon the whales), and it completely vanished once petroleum took off.

2) Melville often uses some facet of whaling as the basis for a little essay on a wide range of subjects; religion, fate, economics and politics, etc.

Plus, for a moldy old classic, there is a pretty wry sense of humor buried under the Old Testament prose.

I've been thinking about rereading it myself.

[JVS]

20. I liked it. It was like listening to Grampa tell a great tale

[BrotherBuzz]

22. I read and enjoyed it. I might suggest a companion book:

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the whaleship Essex

Melville's story was based partly on the mishap of the whaleship ship, Essex.

On November 20, 1820, the Essex was struck and pushed multiple times by a sperm whale. The ship sank 2,000 miles (3,700 km) off South America. The twenty sailors set out in three small whaleboats, with wholly inadequate supplies of food and water, and landed on uninhabited Henderson Island, within the modern-day British territory of the Pitcairn Islands.