You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by koan2
Moby-Dick: A Library of America Paperback Classic by Herman Melville
1.0
I can only image three reasons why anyone would read Moby-Dick. 1) It's a classic, and you are the type of person that reads classics 2) someone has threatened to hurt you if you don't do it or 3) you really really really like whales. I fall into this first category. I thought to myself "Hey Mr. Smarty Pants, if you're so smarty, why haven't you read such a well known and well loved novel?" Well fuck you, inner criticism voice because you just made a huge mistake.
From what I had heard about Moby-Dick, I was under the impression that it was about Ahab, a crazy old sea captain hell-bent on getting revenge against the whale that took his leg. Let me assure you, that is not what this novel is about. Ahab is a very minor side character, and has very little to do with the bulk of the book. So if not Ahab, what could this be about? Answer: Whales. Whales, whale ships, whaling, harpoons, whale skulls, whale fins, whale tails, whale taxonomy, whale social habits, who makes the best pictures of whales, who makes the worst pictures of whales, how to harpoon a whale, all the instruments of harpooning a whale, what to do with whales after you catch them, parts of whaling ships, whale skeletons, phrenological musings concerning the whale, whales as featured in historical chronicles, and on and on and on and please kill me. Herman Melville must be a fucking blast at parties. Not only that, Melville absolutely tortures the English language while he does this. I know the book was written in the middle of the 19th century, but I've read a lot from that period and nobody I've ever seen can muck up a sentence like Melville. While most chapters are wrenched out in this language-be-damned prose, occasionally some chapters are written like a screenplay, with stage direction and all. What the hell? Am I missing something here?
So out of the 650 pages of my edition, I had about 100 left before I abandoned ship. I don't care what happens to the characters, because they are virtually non-existent when buried under Melville's encyclopedic whale obsession. I'm taking credit for reading the whole thing, basically because the parts that actually involve a narrative are only a few hundred pages long. Does Ahab get the whale? Does the whale get Ahab? I don't care. I also don't give a shit about whales.
From what I had heard about Moby-Dick, I was under the impression that it was about Ahab, a crazy old sea captain hell-bent on getting revenge against the whale that took his leg. Let me assure you, that is not what this novel is about. Ahab is a very minor side character, and has very little to do with the bulk of the book. So if not Ahab, what could this be about? Answer: Whales. Whales, whale ships, whaling, harpoons, whale skulls, whale fins, whale tails, whale taxonomy, whale social habits, who makes the best pictures of whales, who makes the worst pictures of whales, how to harpoon a whale, all the instruments of harpooning a whale, what to do with whales after you catch them, parts of whaling ships, whale skeletons, phrenological musings concerning the whale, whales as featured in historical chronicles, and on and on and on and please kill me. Herman Melville must be a fucking blast at parties. Not only that, Melville absolutely tortures the English language while he does this. I know the book was written in the middle of the 19th century, but I've read a lot from that period and nobody I've ever seen can muck up a sentence like Melville. While most chapters are wrenched out in this language-be-damned prose, occasionally some chapters are written like a screenplay, with stage direction and all. What the hell? Am I missing something here?
So out of the 650 pages of my edition, I had about 100 left before I abandoned ship. I don't care what happens to the characters, because they are virtually non-existent when buried under Melville's encyclopedic whale obsession. I'm taking credit for reading the whole thing, basically because the parts that actually involve a narrative are only a few hundred pages long. Does Ahab get the whale? Does the whale get Ahab? I don't care. I also don't give a shit about whales.