/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11521281]

I just started reading pic related. The prose is fucking atrocious. He completely violates "show don't tell" and the style is very juvenile. The characters so far are not believable at all, very strange behaviour.

Did I get a bad translation, or is this just a very overrated book?

[Anonymous No.11521289]

>>11521281
Bad translation. Consider getting the Penguin edition instead.

[Anonymous No.11521296]

>>11521281
Translation from which language ?
I'm thinking of buying it but it would be a French translation and it's not clear to me which is the best one.

[Anonymous No.11521299]

>>11521281
>that part where Melville thinks the reader wants an encyclopedia of outdated debunked science on whales
>then he does it again!
Absolute madman.

[Anonymous No.11521309]

>>11521281
Here's a (you)

[Anonymous No.11521310]

>>11521296
It's usually recommend to start with this one

[Anonymous No.11521339]

>>11521281
>"Call me Ishmael" he said, grinning from ear to ear. Some time long, long ago--never you mind precisely how long ago--having only a kroner or two in my purse, and nothing of particular specific interest to me on the land of illiterate plebians. As a matter of fact, it is a way I have of driving off the spleen (an organ found in virtually all vertebrates) and regulating the circulation (a process necessary for survival). "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth" he said and paused, with a grimness growing about his mouth. "Whenever it is damp, drizzly November in my soul" he said with a depressed tone. "whenever I find myself unironically ironically outside coffin warehouses" He said melancholically, with an exasperated face.

What the FUCK Melville?

[Anonymous No.11521400]

>>11521339
What a masterpiece

[Anonymous No.11521421]

>>11521281
>A screaming comes across the room in which I am surrounded by heads and stately, plump bodies, coming down the stairhead, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, I am a sick man... I am a spitefull man. Call me Ishmael.
Thats how I would have started Moby Dick. Melville went pretty half-effort imo desu

[Anonymous No.11521426]

>>11521421
Based

[Anonymous No.11521430]

>>11521421
Really draws you in. Opening with simply "Call me Ishmael" has almost zero impact.

[Anonymous No.11521439]

>>11521421
whole book deserves a rewrite in this style

[Anonymous No.11521508]

>>11521289
>pimping Penguin books and their acidic cheap paper
Shekels deposited

[Anonymous No.11521540]

>>11521281
Fuck this pasta

[Anonymous No.11521544]

>>11521540
she's out of your league bucko

[Anonymous No.11521599]

>>11521508
>mfw reading a book with beautiful, crisp, acid free paper

[Anonymous No.11521638]

It's badly written, the author clearly couldn't decide if he was writing a connected or a collected story. The whole thing is at times a mess; full of bad rhetoric, involved syntax, stilted sentiment and incoherent English. While sometimes good, the author has us endure a lot of carelessness and bad taste in his writing, as he is either unable to learn or disdainful of the craft of an artist. Also being an euphoric atheist against organised religion doesn't help.

Worst of all Melville is a master of making you think he's saying something profound, when in reality he's just hanging vague, idea shaped hints around the poor whale. It's clear that he's read up, but also clear that it's all just for show in the annoying pseud fashion. When you read him you might feel like you're thinking, like you're about to discover something important and profound; when in reality there is nothing.

Melville never writes naturally. His sentiment is forced, his wit is forced, and his enthusiasm is forced. It's hard to say what was the real intention of the author, but if you compare the first third of the book with the last, it's clear it's never even been carried out. There is a reason it didn't sell at all, and it should have remained forgotten.

[Anonymous No.11521652]

>>11521638
This but unironically.