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/lit/ - Literature

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1567867 No.1567867 [Reply] [Original]

Just finished this, and it was incredibly bad.

>> No.1567873
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1567873

THX FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

>> No.1567881

I remember really enjoying the first hundred or so pages of the novel. But then, much like Cormac McCarthy's work, the writing seemed to go on a tangent to describe the nuances/images of things I couldn't give two shits about. So I quit reading.

But whatevs.

>> No.1567882

It's a book best appreciated in a class or with a lot of secondary reading. It's really dense in symbolism, so a lot of it might have "gone over your head." I read it once in high school, hated it, read it again in a college class, loved it.

But yeah, the parts about the whale were a little long.

>> No.1567894

>>1567881
same i skipped majority of the whale encyclopedia and pirate song chapters then eventually gave up

>> No.1567914

>>1567881
McCarthy's digressions do not annoy me nearly as much as Melville's. I'd love to learn everything about whales and the way they were fished, and whatever; but please spare the relentless bombast, the permanent and frantic enthusiasm with which it is always described. Just annoying whale-geekery to me.

>>1567882
I'm not that much into symbolism; might have been the problem.

>> No.1567923

If you're attempting Moby-Dick, get an edition that has annotations and footnotes. It'll make the experience x100 easier.

It's an amazing fucking novel. Ahab is an amazing character and not a villain. This book owns, gnosticism owns, fuck all y'all high-schoolers.

>> No.1567934
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1567934

I bought this recently. It was like $10. I've yet to crack it open...

>> No.1567939

What happened to that guy who was gonna do a Moby Dick running commentary every Saturday? Like a book club kinda thing.

>> No.1567946

>>1567934

>no Bartleby

Gotta read that first, if you haven't (it's a novella, shouldn't take you long): http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11231

>> No.1567949
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1567949

>>1567882
>the parts about the whale

>> No.1567951

>>1567934
By all means don't.

>>1567923
>It's an amazing fucking novel. Ahab is an amazing character and not a villain. This book owns, gnosticism owns, fuck all y'all high-schoolers.
You see son, that is a cleverly crafted argument.

>> No.1567956

>>1567923
would you recommend a good edition that has annotations, I can find one online, but I'd rather have a book...

>> No.1567961

>I'm not that much into symbolism
>I'm not that much into symbolism
>I'm not that much into symbolism
>I'm not that much into symbolism
>I'm not that much into symbolism
>I'm not that much into symbolism
>I'm not that much into symbolism
>I'm not that much into symbolism

>> No.1567972

>>1567951
Here, let me rephrase.

Melville is playing with conventions of the epic. It explains why he goes on insane digressions about whaling but also resonates as an exploration of obsession and quest for knowledge. I'll have you not that a lot of the info Ishmael talks about is inaccurate.

Ahab, in my mind, is not a villain. He was fucked over by the malign evil(a fucking whale bit his leg, that's a kind of a bitch move) and refuses to submit. Ultimately, his quest must fail, because this evil in the world cannot be eliminated - the very fabric of the world is imperfect and evil - and cannot even be aware that it is being attacked. This is where gnosticism comes in.

Has anything awful happened to you for apparently no reason and your suffering has provided no benefit to anyone? Now you know how it feels to be Ahab.

>> No.1567975

>>1567961
Yes. I reiterate: I'm not that much into symbolism. Symbolism annoys me. As far as I know, it is only appreciated by plebes such as you.

>> No.1567980

>>1567956
I wish I could. The edition I have I picked up in a second hand bookstore, it's some sort of Yale print. Has a great introduction, awesome footnotes that explains a lot of the obscure sailing/whaling/religious references that Melville drops fairly often.

His short stories are great, too. Bartley, Benito and Billy Budd, all amazing.

>> No.1567982

>>1567975
>Symbolism annoys me. As far as I know, it is only appreciated by plebes such as you.
>Symbolism annoys me. As far as I know, it is only appreciated by plebes such as you.
>Symbolism annoys me. As far as I know, it is only appreciated by plebes such as you.

wutdafuckmireadin

>> No.1568006

>>1567972
>Melville is playing with conventions of the epic. It explains why he goes on insane digressions about whaling but also resonates as an exploration of obsession and quest for knowledge.
I may be wrong, but I don't think Melville is playing at all.

>I'll have you not that a lot of the info Ishmael talks about is inaccurate.
Sure but, first, I don't think any distinction between Melville and Ishmael should be made, and second, the inaccuracies which you are alluding to are to be matched with the sloppiness with which the whole story is constructed. I think the whole thing spun out of control out of Melville's hands.

>Ahab, in my mind, is not a villain. He was fucked over by the malign evil(a fucking whale bit his leg, that's a kind of a bitch move) and refuses to submit. Ultimately, his quest must fail, because this evil in the world cannot be eliminated - the very fabric of the world is imperfect and evil - and cannot even be aware that it is being attacked. This is where gnosticism comes in.
Weak.

>Has anything awful happened to you for apparently no reason and your suffering has provided no benefit to anyone? Now you know how it feels to be Ahab.
Weaker yet.

>> No.1568012

>>1567982
Try to paste just once so that the samefagging isn't so obvious.

>> No.1568030

I liked the book. I read it as an abridged version when I was a child. Then I associated it with the 'revenge themepack' where passion gets you killed. When I grew up, I got to read the Unabridged version. Its one of my favorite books.

Now I think (if I am not very far off) its about following your ambitions to no extent what cost it may exact. Without a such a passion life is meaningless.

>> No.1568064

>>1568006
Well, read some epics before you tell me he's not deliberately working with those conventions. You know that part in the Iliad where Homer lists every fucking solider in the world coming to battle at Troy? Yeah.

I think it's an oversimplification to say Melville = Ishmael. He's more Ishmael than he is Ahab, but still it's an oversimplification. If you think the story is sloppy or poorly constructed you haven't really read Moby-Dick.

Melville considered himself to be a gnostic. Ahab's gnosticism (zoroastrianism) is very different from Melville and Ishmael's strand of gnosticism.

>> No.1568109

>>1568064
>Well, read some epics before you tell me he's not deliberately working with those conventions. You know that part in the Iliad where Homer lists every fucking solider in the world coming to battle at Troy? Yeah.
I'm not saying Melville is not trying to build an epic novel, but that he fails to do just that. Moreover, he doesn't PLAY with this idea, as in toying with it, or try to subvert the genre.

>> No.1568175

>>1568109
How does he fail to do that? Is not epic or it's epic but he fails to add something new?

Anyway, I'd be lying if I said these were my original interpretations. Books have been written on Moby-Dick as an "American epic."