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2.85 AVERAGE
2.85 AVERAGE
A multifaceted satire. Feels like Melville reaching through history to comment on labor, the brutality of polite order and law, power in both status and beauty. A few laugh out loud funny lines. Many lines with twisting and turning profundity. Innuendo that probably only knowing readers can pick up.
For a book less than 100 pages, this took me forever to read but I liked it in the end! Very rich with gay subtext.
dark
reflective
sad
tense
This is sort of a condensed Moby Dick in many ways.
It's quite brilliant and powerful and full of hypocrisy, absurdity, paradox, and morality. For such a short story [and if you cut this down just to the things that happen in it, it would probably be ten pages long] it's given in hysterical extremes. The prose is not the constant poetry of Moby Dick, but is more that digressive and tangential musing of books more commonly written by the whole postmodern caste of writers.
It certainly won't be for everyone and it moves very slow at first, but the way this is wrapped up and the profound and complex critiques it makes on militarism and religion and humanity are well worth the read.
It's quite brilliant and powerful and full of hypocrisy, absurdity, paradox, and morality. For such a short story [and if you cut this down just to the things that happen in it, it would probably be ten pages long] it's given in hysterical extremes. The prose is not the constant poetry of Moby Dick, but is more that digressive and tangential musing of books more commonly written by the whole postmodern caste of writers.
It certainly won't be for everyone and it moves very slow at first, but the way this is wrapped up and the profound and complex critiques it makes on militarism and religion and humanity are well worth the read.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Sorry to everyone who was made to read this in highschool, that would definitely make me hate this book.
I love this long aside early in the book about the great mutiny, which sounded so cool that I definitely will be engrossing myself in those wikipedia pages. I didn't see where it was headed, but sure enough a few chapters later I saw land.
I love the way Melville tells a story, he's like an old man who has told the story so many times that each little part of it has been worked to perfection.
I love this long aside early in the book about the great mutiny, which sounded so cool that I definitely will be engrossing myself in those wikipedia pages. I didn't see where it was headed, but sure enough a few chapters later I saw land.
I love the way Melville tells a story, he's like an old man who has told the story so many times that each little part of it has been worked to perfection.
I'm sure it's a classic- but this was one of those reads in English during High School and oh- how I despised this book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
What If Jesus Was A Handsome Sailor, Pressed Into His Majesty's Service oooooooo