Moby-Dick in Macedonian
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 31 August 2017 21:45 (six years ago) link
started reading this on a plane last week and i'm totally absorbed. every sentence is an adventure. it totally speaks to that 7-year-old version of me that wanted to obsessively catalog every species of shark, or 5-year-old me who knew all the dinosaurs. i haven't reached the cetalogy chapter (only just met Ahab and the Pequod), but i think i'm prepared.
― voodoo chili, Thursday, 23 August 2018 18:58 (five years ago) link
happy 200th to H.M.!
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 1 August 2019 18:02 (four years ago) link
😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/t4j5Sg4SIL— Lee Rourke 🔰 (@LeeRourke) August 1, 2019
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 2 August 2019 09:55 (four years ago) link
Good meme. Good book. Good whale.RFI: academic work on Ahab as Shakespearean pastiche?
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Friday, 24 January 2020 20:31 (four years ago) link
yeah that meme is good. i have forgotten pretty much all the cetalogical facts i learned reading this book a decade ago
― bidenfan69420 (jim in vancouver), Friday, 24 January 2020 20:32 (four years ago) link
"facts" like "whales are fish"
― culture of mayordom (voodoo chili), Friday, 24 January 2020 20:33 (four years ago) link
best chapter imo is when Ishamel is talking about hanging out with his multiple boyfriends in Peru or something months after the end of the book
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Friday, 24 January 2020 20:36 (four years ago) link
melville's argument for "whales are fish" is lol scientists they have none of them been to sea, whalers know a LOT abt whales so they also get to say what they ARE
this argument is correct in all its reaches
― mark s, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:08 (four years ago) link
is a fish a sandwich?
― I have not yet begun to fart (rip van wanko), Friday, 24 January 2020 21:10 (four years ago) link
it's a hot dog
― Οὖτις, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:12 (four years ago) link
mark s otm and also getting at why the whale facts are not rly distractions: in general this is a book about interpretation and understanding
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:17 (four years ago) link
i love the section where he's asking "what actual shape is a whale ffs? can any of us know?"
― mark s, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:26 (four years ago) link
one grand hooded phantom
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:27 (four years ago) link
I just read this (for the first time) a couple years ago and I might already want to read it again
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Friday, 24 January 2020 21:29 (four years ago) link
https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/1*YRmtU6nrcbETqAhsOz1Aag.jpeg
whales... are fish
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:31 (four years ago) link
reading the chapter called "the cassock" for the first time and just never stopping saying WTF ever since
― mark s, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:35 (four years ago) link
Yeah yeah, I think the fact that so much of the ~whale science~ is wrong and/or presumptive is a large part of what makes those sections interesting. Deepens the sense of UNKNOWABLE that permeates the book. Also it’s just kinda neat.
― circa1916, Friday, 24 January 2020 21:39 (four years ago) link
post-mortemizing
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Friday, 24 January 2020 21:48 (four years ago) link
otm all around, i loved the whale facts chapters (whiteness of the whale otoh...), especially the part where he bids adieu to the sulphur bottom whale lol
― culture of mayordom (voodoo chili), Friday, 24 January 2020 22:02 (four years ago) link
Read it for a third time last year, the only book I’ve re-read in 20 or more years, gets more fun every time. The wrong science in the whale chapters never bothers me bc it always just ends up being in the service of teeing up some philosophical point in the last couple paragraphs anyhow, it’s never about actually teaching u about whales.
― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open), Friday, 24 January 2020 23:42 (four years ago) link
It was a good companion getting me through the dark weeks after USA Election Day 2016, I picked it up the morning after, thought it might be good to get a refresher on how to exist in a world filled with random disasters & unknowable evils
― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open), Friday, 24 January 2020 23:49 (four years ago) link
this time of year I always think about the passage early in the book where he talks about the special joy of looking out at cold winter night from a warm cozy indoor perch: it maketh a marvellous difference, whether thou lookest out at it from a glass window where the frost is all on the outside, or whether thou observest it from that sashless window, where the frost is on both sides... What a fine frosty night; how Orion glitters; what northern lights! Let them talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting conservatories; give me the privilege of making my own summer with my own coals.
Also the part slightly later where he talks about how you cant fully enjoy being under a warm blanket in a cold room unless some part of you is sticking out to feel the cold & remind you how good you have it.
― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open), Friday, 24 January 2020 23:56 (four years ago) link
Love the whole book, but I miss Ishmael’s narration/asides when the book becomes more plot/Ahab/Starbuck focused towards the end.
― culture of mayordom (voodoo chili), Saturday, 25 January 2020 00:17 (four years ago) link
i listened to e1 of talia levin's BIG MOBY DICK ENERGY podcast on stitcher: my conclusion is that the title and music have already palled but the discussion is engaging enough, bcz very enthusiastic (1st guest = ex-deadspin writer david roth) if not particularly deep so far*
*(viz they were both oddly stumped by what happens in the tale of lazarus and dives, possibly partly bcz this was a call forward to the next chapter which they hadn't reread with a view to discussing it, but still decided to discuss it anyway lol) (i mean i get not knowing much abt the new testament if you didn't grew up with it as an adjunct in yr education but it is probably going to be kind of an important element?)
― mark s, Saturday, 25 January 2020 15:42 (four years ago) link
anyway:
let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness— Moby Dick (@MobyDickatSea) January 25, 2020
― mark s, Saturday, 25 January 2020 15:52 (four years ago) link
I found critical biography among the most illuminating I've read about any novelist/poet in recent years.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:05 (four years ago) link
Is Ishmael a reference beyond the name? Not very familiar with lesser biblical figures.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:14 (four years ago) link
He was Abraham's son with his wife's handmaid Hagar.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:18 (four years ago) link
Ishmael was the child of Abraham and his wife’s servant Hagar, who was cast out from the family after Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac was born. God promised to make Ishmael a great nation as well, separate from the line of Abraham that became the tribes of the Hebrews. So Ishmael might be a name implying wanderings, being an outsider, heterodoxy…
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:18 (four years ago) link
patriach of Islam too
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:19 (four years ago) link
There is a big picture of Melville in the cafe at the South Street Seaport location of McNally-Jackson bookstore which is quite appropriate.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:33 (four years ago) link
It has that quality of the eyes seeming to follow you about, like the portrait or a certain patriarch of the family Flintstone.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:38 (four years ago) link
god this is the best book ever. the way the "whale facts" chapters either explained things that had just happened or foreshadowed things to come was intoxicating, i always felt i was like running through these alleyways of lowkey narrative that inextricably bound the "actual" narrative
― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:42 (four years ago) link
i have a moby-dick tattoo that i'm not embarrassed about, that is how much i love it
― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:44 (four years ago) link
Sick
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:45 (four years ago) link
I found Melville's poems harder going than Moby-Dick.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:47 (four years ago) link
I tried to read Confidence Man, wasn't happening
― I have not yet begun to fart (rip van wanko), Saturday, 25 January 2020 16:59 (four years ago) link
that's my least favorite of the novels I've read
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 January 2020 17:04 (four years ago) link
god this is the best book ever
literally true
i only know about lazarus+dives because they're a recurring symbol in MLK sermons
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 25 January 2020 18:27 (four years ago) link
I started trying to read Confidence Man cos Nick Cave was said to be a fan. Think I got a couple of chapters in. Must give it another go. This 30+years later.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 25 January 2020 18:29 (four years ago) link
i picked his book of civil war poems recently and it was really a chore, tough going indeed
― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open), Saturday, 25 January 2020 19:36 (four years ago) link
christ, this revive scared me, i thought maybe melville had died or something
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:31 (four years ago) link
No, but 🚨 SPOILER/TRIGGER ALERT 🚨 I believe Billy Budd, Sailor is now in the public domain.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:07 (four years ago) link
Confidence Man is great, you guys mad.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:14 (four years ago) link
It was a popular choice when I was in high school, don’t know if that’s a relevant data point.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:18 (four years ago) link
Confidence is really good. Better than his poems, surely.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 26 January 2020 11:12 (four years ago) link
Alfred not liking Confidence Man, liking Ad Astra, world is mad.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Tuesday, 4 February 2020 08:37 (four years ago) link
my curvy cetacean wife
This excerpt from a rejection letter to Melville re Moby Dick is just amazing.the more things change... pic.twitter.com/dRaelwdlaG— Andrey (@andreyp_ap) January 21, 2021
― mookieproof, Friday, 22 January 2021 20:07 (three years ago) link
i have a bookclub w my friend & we are currently reading “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea”. i had never read Verne til now & i think i may actively hate him. wtf at this goddamn book. but, my point is thus:i pitched to my friend that we absolutely HAVE to read Moby Dick next bc Melville is such an excellent & enjoyable writer (imo)& she agreeeeeeeeeeed ~snoopy dance~ i have 7 chapters left of Verne & at this point i dont care if the “mystery” of Nemo is that he sneaks onto land at night to steal children to power the submarine with human babies i really fucking hate it & cannot WAIT to read Moby Dick again. it’s been at least 25 years since i read it for American Lit class at Uni
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 01:00 (two years ago) link