It gets a bad rep for being hard to read (which it is because of the sea-faring and archaic vocabulary) but it’s surprisingly entertaining with even a casual/jovial tone at times. I haven’t finished it, but so far like 30% of the book is irrelevant to the plot and is just the authors random musings and philosophies on life. He dedicates entire pages to debating what the most comfortable room temperature and position to sleep in is, or his opinions on random countries like Japan or “Affghanistan”. It almost reads like blogposts or diary entries.
He also has surprisingly modern humor and opinions. He makes borderline gay jokes when he has to sleep in bed with an African man “Queequog”, and then describes how he respects him, saying “the man’s a human being just as I am; he has just as much reason to fear me…better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” and that “It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin”. The two develop this wholesome Rush Hour style partnership that’s pretty funny.
There’s also one part where he states that even though he’s Christian, he respects anyone’s beliefs as long as they hurt noone.
I also really liked how it occasionally shifts to the 1st person perspective of Captain Ahab or Starbuck for a chapter which adds good variety.
What do you make of Chapter 94, A Squeeze of the Hand?
https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/775/chapter-94-a-squeeze-of-the-hand/
One of the great things about Moby Dick is the way Melville interweaves the language of the King James version of the Bible with language that is nearly Shakespearean in its poetry. That’s a hint that Melville is doing a lot more than telling a story here. How you interpret his allegory is what it’s all about.
Moby Dick is your grandpa telling a really long, wild old war story, and you at rapt attention until he’s good and ready to stop. Great stuff.
Nice, glad you’re enjoying it! I wrote an essay in college about the humor in Moby Dick, I had no idea it be so funny.
From what I head mellville knew nothing about whaling, so be warned.
From what I can find out he spent 18 months on a whaling ship called the Acushnet.
https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/herman-melville-sails-from-new-bedford.html
Guess you didn’t know Dick.
I loved those lines, too! And I felt the same way.
10+ years after reading Moby Dick, I still catch myself remembering one of Melville’s descriptions of something as being “more strangely hideous than the ugliest abortion.”
It’s a pretty good book if you skip the parts about the whales.
🤣🎯✌️
Joke, guys! Jeez!
Bad rep?! Wtf planet are you living on?!
It absolutely has a bad rep.
Mentioning Moby Dick to most people, even prolific readers, will be met with responses about how they’d never want to read such a long heavy boring book.
I have been met with a lot of surprise from people when I mention I love it. They all assume it’s this overly deep and “full of itself” epic, which no regular reader would enjoy.
They honestly don’t believe me when I describe how funny it is.
It’s the same reason that this sub has a monthly post of someone discovering how good and funny this book is even though they thought they wouldn’t like it and just see it as a chore to read.
It’s literally one of the most acclaimed books of all time… You’re living far too much in the reddit bubble.
I would love to see a version abridged just to omit the whale encyclopedia. Or maybe to move it to end notes that are numbered in-line. Those sidetracks really break up the narrative.
In that case, you should totally read Tristram Shandy!
Keep going. The diversions and digressions fall away as the narrative tightens and focuses. It is an amazing book.
I was pleasantly surprised by the humor too. My favorite:
“Whether that mattress was stuffed with corn-cobs or broken crockery, there is no telling, but I rolled about a good deal, and could not sleep for a long time.”
I too have only made it like 30% thru, at least three times but enjoyed what I read, especially the opening with the vivid description of the warmth of the inn against the howling, spitting Nantucket winter.
I feel Ahab is the protagonist, reckless as he may be in his all-consuming need to destroy the white whale, he’s the only person who has refused to yield to god/nature. Long though the odds may be he refuses to give up the fight to avenge himself against his circumstance. I find that remarkable and too rarely celebrated.
I’m also aware he’s widely construed as the rage consumed fool, I suppose I prefer those who refuse to prostrate themselves before power than those who worship it only to be annihilated anyway.
It’s one of those books that is done a great disservice by being forced onto teenagers in high school.