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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was not expecting to love this as much as I did, This may have been the best book I've read all year. All that + a bag of chips
I actually really liked the first quarter of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." In terms of actual story and plot this is a fun read and deserving of classic status.
That said, the book was really dragged down by Melville's efforts to include every single fact about whales at his disposal -- from descriptions of whale anatomy to the story of Jonah and the Whale. After a while, I just started skimming these parts.
So, a sort of middling rating. I enjoyed the story just not all of the junk surrounding it.
That said, the book was really dragged down by Melville's efforts to include every single fact about whales at his disposal -- from descriptions of whale anatomy to the story of Jonah and the Whale. After a while, I just started skimming these parts.
So, a sort of middling rating. I enjoyed the story just not all of the junk surrounding it.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh, it's awful in the end when everyone is begging Ahab to turn back, and he just keeps going... Ah, the anxiety!
On another note: this is a gay classic
On another note: this is a gay classic
A tricky read with thick prose.
I now know a lot about whaling
I now know a lot about whaling
this book is deadass the 19th century version of someone trying to put u on to some edgy soundcloud shit that makes beats only sampling the vietnam war or smtn this man could have written an actual book but instead wrote loosely veiled long winded whale poetry under the guise of a book
80% of the whale facts seem like bullshit and they compose like 40% of this book. Literally the only way i could get through this mf is because my job is to stare at dirt all day, still managed to tune out half of it but dont thibk i missed a thing, every chapter can be summed up in maybe two sentences
still hit tho 4 stars
80% of the whale facts seem like bullshit and they compose like 40% of this book. Literally the only way i could get through this mf is because my job is to stare at dirt all day, still managed to tune out half of it but dont thibk i missed a thing, every chapter can be summed up in maybe two sentences
still hit tho 4 stars
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Very boring in my opinion.
With growing older comes the realization that "it's now or never" for many classic books, so it was in this spirit that I tackled Moby Dick. Unfortunately, Herman Melville needed a better editor, for within the book's nearly 600 pages is a classic 200-page novel. The remainder is a non-fiction book in the voice of a fictional narrator on the state of whaling in the mid-1800s; before the Civil War and Canadian Confederation.
If I was the stereotypical American high school teacher assigning this bane of students for their reading, I would only specify the plot-related chapters. Every phase of the whaling operation is discussed in painful detail, from the functions of each part of the whaling ship and its boats, a general taxonomy of aquatic mammals, differences in anatomy between sperm whales (the high school students are giggling and nudging each other) and right whales, and details of the butchering of whales, harvesting their spermicetti, and rendering their blubber into whale oil.
The plot is well-known to anyone who has seen the classic movie with Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart, and I have no doubt that Peter Jackson (or even Baz Luhrmann) will one day tackle it for contemporary viewers. I believe Classics Illustrated comics also gave it a fair treatment years ago. Ahab's obsessive last words to the titular whale will also be familiar to viewers of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.
The world has changed much since the time of Melville's writing. We know much more about the intelligence of whales, and whaling has fallen out of favour. There is much racial stereotyping in the book, as was common for those times, except perhaps for Ishmael's companion Queequeg, who is given a rare degree of depth. The book is an historical curiosity, with refreshing playfulness in portions of Melville's writing style, and occasional soliloquies in blank verse with internal rhymes. Read it if you will, but as with S. Morgenstern's book-within-a-book of The Princess Bride, stick with the "good parts version".
If I was the stereotypical American high school teacher assigning this bane of students for their reading, I would only specify the plot-related chapters. Every phase of the whaling operation is discussed in painful detail, from the functions of each part of the whaling ship and its boats, a general taxonomy of aquatic mammals, differences in anatomy between sperm whales (the high school students are giggling and nudging each other) and right whales, and details of the butchering of whales, harvesting their spermicetti, and rendering their blubber into whale oil.
The plot is well-known to anyone who has seen the classic movie with Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart, and I have no doubt that Peter Jackson (or even Baz Luhrmann) will one day tackle it for contemporary viewers. I believe Classics Illustrated comics also gave it a fair treatment years ago. Ahab's obsessive last words to the titular whale will also be familiar to viewers of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.
The world has changed much since the time of Melville's writing. We know much more about the intelligence of whales, and whaling has fallen out of favour. There is much racial stereotyping in the book, as was common for those times, except perhaps for Ishmael's companion Queequeg, who is given a rare degree of depth. The book is an historical curiosity, with refreshing playfulness in portions of Melville's writing style, and occasional soliloquies in blank verse with internal rhymes. Read it if you will, but as with S. Morgenstern's book-within-a-book of The Princess Bride, stick with the "good parts version".