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A review by sidharthvardhan
Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville
4.0
From very first line, Ishmail sounds like a salesperson selling you the idea how great a whaleman's job is. He praises in that order - water, sea, sailor's job, whale, the job of whaling and Mobi dick. He would manipulate the facts to suit himself - finding most lame parts of his jobs as divine; he details on all divine connections he could manipulate in showing how great an animal a whale is. He lectures you on whale's body parts, measurements, its habitations assuming that you are too interested to find that boring and these lectures have whole chapters devoted to them which either makes you doubt if you were reading non-fiction, or remember that geek who being fan of some particular animal (anaconda, sharks or diansaurs) is always sharing trivia regarding same. Think Ross Geller. At times one can't help feeling a bit bored when, for example the telling you about different types of ropes that whalemen use but still the uniqueness of the style of the book makes it worth the trouble.
He is strangest of all narrators. He regularly quotes Bible, is a teacher by profession but who also goes sailing routinely and also has obsession for whaling - he also ends up being a cast away and an author. You may find it hard to believe that one man would do that all but the author Herman Melville was in fact all these things with sole exception of being a cast away.
Ishmail uses language in his own style - uses sailor's words, uses existing words in his own way and creates some of his own.
His obssession could be compared to that of his captain Ahab who feels 'destined' to have a fight to death with Mobi dick - a single whale from whom he wished to take revenge from. Unlike Ishmail he is not calculting but fully commited. He is aware of what catastrophe he might be bringing and the very needlessness of it and yet he can't help it. Ahab reminds you of some Shakespearian character with a tragedy in store for him.
The story takes back seat in between these Ishqmail's ramblings and is mostly contained in first and last 1/6 th parts (rest is full of Ishmail's lectures on whales and whaling) - the few experiences of whaling life narrated in between these ramblings are mostly redundent.
It is big, boring and very simple story but with its writing style and narrations, it gives a unique reading experince.
He is strangest of all narrators. He regularly quotes Bible, is a teacher by profession but who also goes sailing routinely and also has obsession for whaling - he also ends up being a cast away and an author. You may find it hard to believe that one man would do that all but the author Herman Melville was in fact all these things with sole exception of being a cast away.
Ishmail uses language in his own style - uses sailor's words, uses existing words in his own way and creates some of his own.
His obssession could be compared to that of his captain Ahab who feels 'destined' to have a fight to death with Mobi dick - a single whale from whom he wished to take revenge from. Unlike Ishmail he is not calculting but fully commited. He is aware of what catastrophe he might be bringing and the very needlessness of it and yet he can't help it. Ahab reminds you of some Shakespearian character with a tragedy in store for him.
The story takes back seat in between these Ishqmail's ramblings and is mostly contained in first and last 1/6 th parts (rest is full of Ishmail's lectures on whales and whaling) - the few experiences of whaling life narrated in between these ramblings are mostly redundent.
It is big, boring and very simple story but with its writing style and narrations, it gives a unique reading experince.