/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12452757]

Best book ever written?
Stupid bullshit with boring, pointless oceanographic details?

I'm about halfway through, what does /lit/ think?

[Anonymous No.12452980]

[Anonymous No.12453009]

It’s a deep book, like the ocean. Hahahahahah get it???????
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!.
For real though it’s very good and ahead of its time, a post modern classic written in a modern time period. So uh yeah. Hahah. *upvotes* BASED AND REDPILED! Yes yes yes yes. The culture HAS NO DRIVER. The whale represents literally value, the value of value is value. The whale is value okay? Whale, Whaleu. It basic logistics.

[Anonymous No.12453027]

>>12453009
You seem angered at someone

[Anonymous No.12453077]

>>12453027
I’m angered that my concussion suppressed traumatic memories for so long and other important personal developments. I’ve come to realize that I am only my own truth when it comes to ideal and everyone else are theirs, other than visible nature. Anything can be pornographic. Anything. I finished moby dick today.
>nice blogpost
You asked

[Anonymous No.12453558]

I'm going to tell you that you won't understand anything about the book until you've read the very last word

[Anonymous No.12453587]

>>12452757
>wants to discuss the greatest American novel
>hasnt even completed reading it
This place fucking sucks
Im goin back to /tv/, bye

[Anonymous No.12453678]

>>12452757
Best book ever written.

[Anonymous No.12453694]

>>12453678
That’s why I’m so weary to read it. It’s like saying dark side of the moon is the greatest album of all time

[Anonymous No.12453821]

New to /lit/. Is everything on here for autisttic people.

[Anonymous No.12453833]

>everyone on this board tells me to read Moby Dick
>buy it
>read the first couple of chapters
>it's literally just a gay erotic novel
wtf guys!!!!!!

[Anonymous No.12453843]

best book ever written, but it takes a solid month for that to sink in

[Anonymous No.12453860]

>tfw you will never have the best sleep of your life by sleeping in the same bed as Queequeg

[Anonymous No.12453863]

>>12452757
I haven't read anything better yet. But I haven't read Ulysses or Don Quixote. I think it's leagues ahead of any other American novel.

[Anonymous No.12453870]

>>12452757
>As they narrated to each other their unholy adventures, their tales of terror told in words of mirth; as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards out of them, like the flames from the furnace; as to and fro, in their front, the harpooneers wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers; as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander's soul.

[Anonymous No.12453892]

>>12453870
>the blackness of darkness

[Anonymous No.12453917]

>>12453870
that's metal

[Anonymous No.12454189]

>>12452757
>oceanographic details
>boring, pointless
get fucked landlover

[Anonymous No.12454294]

i think i'm in kinda the same boat
there's something intimidating about the book that my mind isn't able to get over in the opening chapters. am i expected to remember every single detail for some pay-off later, or can i let my mind relax and simply experience whats happening?

[Anonymous No.12454382]

>>12452757
>pointless oceanographic details?

its a pleb filter, and you got filtered

>>12454294
>can i let my mind relax and simply experience whats happening?

this. Just enjoy it. It's pretty funny and whimsical much of the time.

[Anonymous No.12454418]

>>12454382
>Just enjoy it.
Thanks, will do.

I find this is my main problem when reading the "classics". My mind defaults to autismo-remember-everything mode because its an "important" book and I really want to pay attention to every detail and nuance and sturcture and storytelling element, since I like to write. But that just tends to ruin my time. I essentially hurt the first 80% of my experience with Pnin this way. Gotta rein in it and let my mind just enjoy these things, I guess.

[Anonymous No.12454679]

>>12453833
Looks like someone didn't start with the greeks

[Anonymous No.12454693]

>>12452757
Best English prose ever written

[Anonymous No.12454711]

>>12452757

>several posts talking about how it's the greatest book ever
>nobody has anything intelligent to say about it

So.. it's a pseud status symbol?

[Anonymous No.12455155]

>>12454711
try reading it fag

[Anonymous No.12455159]

>>12453009
>>12453077
absolutely fucking based

[Anonymous No.12455399]

Legit best book I've ever read. Every chapter is a joy to read.

[Anonymous No.12456066]

>>12452757
>I'm about halfway through
That's farther than I've ever made it. And I usually finish a book, no matter what.

[Anonymous No.12456148]

>>12453833
now read this.

[Anonymous No.12456155]

>>12453870
Now read Hyperion.

[Anonymous No.12456162]

Some brilliant passages but a lot of it is a slog.

[Anonymous No.12456180]

>>12456066
>>12456066
I am formulating my opinion on the book before reading the end so I can search for my opinion to be validated in the text. I may refer to the distribution before and after the writers death. I may psychoanalysis the man. I may even see two men together outside of a sexual fantasy. Do I get made fun of now for an opinion?

[Anonymous No.12456436]

>>12453694
That must suck. I'm not Anglo and Moby-Dick isn't nearly as much of a meme here. It's only a couple of images in the public consciousness, it didn't influence any local writers, so actually picking up the text reveals a truly incredible, unknown world. I know only a few people here who have read it, but it's among the favourite books of all of them.

Btw, mentioning influence made me wonder - how important is Moby-Dick in the development of American literature, objectively? The fact that it was neglected for many decades surely put a dent on its ability to influence and direct the following generation of writers.

>>12454711
But nobody on /lit/ has anything intelligent to say about any book in general. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>>12454294
You can do either. It's a very rhapsodic text, you can delight in each chapter and paragraph as a little work of art, or you can waste months and years trying to connect all the various potential dots in an attempt to deduce the total meaning of the book.

[Anonymous No.12456809]

>>12452757
Get through the first 2/3 of the book and you get through most of the explainy book report part and you get to the really good shit. I’d say once you make it to the chapter either the boat towing old whale carcasses you have made it through the slogy bit. That being said, try recognizing all of the work that went into getting all of the knowledge to write a book like this, appreciate how well written it is, and internalize all of the sections on the symbolism of things (this will help you later in the story and in life in general, since there are so many popculture references made off of this book it’s insane).

[Anonymous No.12457564]

>>12454294
if it makes you feel any better, the opening chapters are mostly there to set up the premise of the rest of the drama (i.e. get ishmael on board the pequod). in general most of the "pay-off" of moby dick comes from understanding very basic principles of what's going on, there isn't too much to miss.

also in general for anyone struggling w too much "this is just a whale encyclopedia:" melville almost constantly makes comparisons between the very specific biological things he's talking about and a much more interesting topic (my personal favorites were architectural parallels, but the amount of references is honestly mind-boggling). try to focus on what melville is SAYING about the world via the more boring sections of the book and then it becomes like a bit of a puzzle to work out and much more entertaining