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/lit/ - Literature

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15701202 No.15701202 [Reply] [Original]

Is Moby Dick supposed to be so repulsive to read? It started out fantastic and then the language just shifted into this tiresome prose. I'm not talking about the whale lore either.

>> No.15701251

>>15701202
one thing i never understood about this book is why the whale had to be white? why couldn’t he have been black?

>> No.15701263

>>15701202
Americans/Anglo-Saxons can't help themselves from being obnoxious.

>> No.15701266

>>15701202
maybe you're good at painting or music instead

>> No.15701271

>>15701251
BLACK HOLE SUN
WONT YOU COME
AND WASH AWAY THE RAIN

>> No.15701273

>>15701251

They really exist. Mocha Dick was an actual white whale that inspired Melville.

>> No.15701309

>>15701251
Someone clearly hasn't read the On The Whiteness of the Whale chapter.

>> No.15701480

>>15701202
what part did you fall off at? out of curiosity

>> No.15701677

>>15701273
>mocha dick

Almost laughed.

>> No.15701680

>>15701677
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocha_Dick?wprov=sfti1

>> No.15701713

>>15701680
He killed one of my great great great great grandpapi was a killed on the Essex sailing from nantucket.

>> No.15701724

>>15701713
Not mocha dick but the essex whale that is.

>> No.15701735

>>15701202
Moby-Dick is really two books in one. Melville originally wrote it as an adventure story, but then he started pumping it full of encyclopedic knowledge of whaling, which came from his first hand experiences at sea on a whaling ship. So it’s like Ulysses, but with whales.

>> No.15701883

>>15701480
After Ahab rants about Moby. I'm not quitting, just wondering if my sentiments are echoed.

>> No.15702129

>>15701202
No it’s just you, moby dick is a masterpiece from start to finish

>> No.15702150

>>15701735
They go hand-in-hand though
>>15701883
Man, that speech was incredible, not sure why you liked the earlier chapters but not that.

>> No.15702362
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15702362

>>15702129
>3 star rating on Goodreads
Hah- yeah I'm sure

>> No.15702376

>>15702150
No, I liked that part. Sorry I wasn't specific. The play-like part is where I currently stopped. Maybe it's also due to so much boat terms. It's hard to picture a lot of what they're doing and Melville is very descriptive in this

>> No.15702379

>>15702362
not even trying, 1/10

>> No.15702391
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15702391

>>15702379

>> No.15702395

>>15702391
nevermind, you're retarded

>> No.15702402

I think it's supposed to be exhaustive, on the business of hunting whales, that's the author's intention. hence that feeling of tiresomeness

>> No.15702406

>>15702376
Keep reading until you get to the Moby Dick and Whiteness of the Whale chapters and then tell us what you think

>> No.15702425

>>15701202
Honestly, filtered man. It really is a transcendent work of human achievement in nearly every part.

>> No.15702426

>>15702395
Not an argument

>> No.15702441

>>15702426
I would tell you what you did wrong but then you wouldn't learn anything

>> No.15702442

>>15702406
Thanks man. I'm not giving up I was just wondering if I was alone. The narrative parts are wonderful and I've laughed more than any other book in the first 100 pages alone

>> No.15702450
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15702450

>>15702376
you have to be in a nautical sort of mood to enjoy the encyclopedic chapters

browse the diagrams, drink some seawater, think really hard about boats

>> No.15702451
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15702451

>>15702441
Still not an argument

>> No.15702487

I liked the book well enough but the best part was before ishmael got on the boat
You’ll get some chapters at sea that kind of go back to that when they meet other ships or the narrative jumps to some anecdote, keep going anon its worth it

>> No.15702504
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15702504

>>15702487
>>15702450
Lit Bros

>> No.15702533

>>15701251

Something something Netflix adaptation

>> No.15702643

>>15702376
Ah, I gotcha. There’s a lot of great parts ahead, as others have said. A lot of people here are saying those more descriptive chapters are supposed to be about preserving the art of whaling as Melville witnessed it, and that is one way to think of it, but I prefer to think of it as a study of the narrator Ishmael and HIS (futile) attempt to capture all knowledge about whaling and whales.

>> No.15702759

>>15701251
The white whale represents God dude, this is Ahabs quarel with God

>> No.15702869

>>15702759

Ah yes surely the sea monster represents God instead of leviathan. Read Job nigger.

>> No.15702880

>>15701202
>tiresome
this word is a red flag for plotheads
soak in the prose a while anon, it's good for you

>> No.15702924

>>15701202
I highly recommend the Cyrus Patell lectures on Moby Dick from NYU on youtube. helped me digest the novel as I read it. in my retarded wisdom i failed to read it in undergrad as part of a class

>> No.15702937

>>15702869
Or does it represent America's manifest destiny of westward conquest? Which, of course, is a doomed venture and will inevitably lead to Civil War.

>> No.15702995

>>15702869
Reread the Whiteness of the Whale chapter

>> No.15703722

I recently listened to it via audiobook and was surprised by how funny it was.

>> No.15704144

>>15702129
Pseud.

>> No.15704467

I don't think so, the prose hold up untill the end.