/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18044822]

Would it be weird if I just read this as my first "/lit/" book? inb4 "start with the greeks" bullshit, but should I build up my literary brain to prepare for it, if so what else should I read?

[Anonymous No.18044832]

>>18044822
You can start with it. Nothing extra is needed.

[Anonymous No.18044886]

Its not that tough if u read good stuff and have an interest in whales.
I need to rereas this, i loved it so much

[Anonymous No.18044911]

>>18044822
Haven't read it yet, but kek, did that cover really just spoil the ending?

[Anonymous No.18044914]

>>18044822
If you begin with this book the phallic imagery will overpower you and turn you gay.

[Anonymous No.18044934]

What makes you think you have to build up to it? What have you been reading, if anything, before now?
If you have enough confidence in your attention span to consider this as a starting point for reading more than just go for it. When you start a book you aren't locked in to finishing it before you can start another, come back to it if you have to.
>>18044911
its not a spoiler. Its only a "spoiler" to people who already know the ending, specifically what immediately happens after that harpoon lands, something that is obviously not on this cover.

[Anonymous No.18044953]

>>18044934
I don't really know, I have just been reading the bare minimum of college literature course fare (though they're mainly short stories, not full novels), and there are a few that I've enjoyed. For example, Bartleby, the Scrivener by Melville was one I particularly liked. The Open Boat by Stephen Crane was another.

[Anonymous No.18044972]

>>18044822
if you love essays on whale anatomy then it's just the book for you

[Anonymous No.18045002]

>>18044953
I think you're going to be just fine with Moby Dick.

expect a lot of >>18044972 though.

[Anonymous No.18045049]

>>18044953
If experimentation with style is your thing you'll love most of it, but the prose is always so good and poetic that even if you arent a fan of the style shifts you'll still be sucked in.

[Anonymous No.18045146]

>>18044822
>but should I build up my literary brain to prepare for it
just get a version with good footnotes, norton critical edition is very good. i bought into that meme and read paradise lost, in the heart of the sea, as well as all of melville's prior works before reading moby dick. i enjoyed them but i don't think they really added to it. on the other hand clarel, a later work of melville's relies very heavily on intertextuality and if pretty much meaningless to everyone but the most well read. it filters me every time i pick it up.

[Anonymous No.18046296]

>>18044822
Dude, Moby Dick is incredibly dense and requires a lot of effort, patience and time from you. It's a phenomenal novel, one of my favorite books ever and I was hooked from the first page, but reading it as your first "/lit/" book is gonna be extremely difficult if your bases aren't covered, and chances are they're not. Work your way up, don't rush reading Moby DIck. It's one of those books that just gets better and better with age, and you should read it when the moment comes, no sooner and no later.

[Anonymous No.18046302]

>>18044911
The opening chapter hints at it, and there are numerous chapters that foreshadow the ending quite explicitly, most notably the 9th chapter titled "The Sermon". Besides, Ahab's quest for revenge is only a small fraction of Moby Dick, there's so, so much in it to digest, think about and ponder over, and it's one of those "the journey matters, not the destination" sort of stories. .

[Anonymous No.18046331]

>>18044822
It's not a bad start but you aren't going to get as much out of it as you could if you don't have at least a working understanding/appreciation of the King James Bible.

[Anonymous No.18046346]

>>18046296
>Dude, Moby Dick is incredibly dense and requires a lot of effort
one of those is certainly true
>reading it as your first "/lit/" book is gonna be extremely difficult if your bases aren't covered, and chances are they're not. Work your way up, don't rush reading Moby DIck.
I agree there though. Moby Dick isn't a hard read. Not structurally or stylistic at least. It's a long read and it has a long required reading list to properly enjoy it, but really just working your way up to it properly in the canon is the only genuinely tough part about it. Melville's prose is so smooth and stylistically effective that it makes it an enjoyably doable novel imo. It's not like trying to get through Faulkner and Joyce and having to do intense, scrutiny filled close reading on every page just to know what's happening.

[Anonymous No.18046355]

IDK OP, I heard that book is kind of difficult. Are you sure you don't want to start with something a little more user friendly and manageable first?

[Anonymous No.18046373]

>>18046346
It's not Faulkner or Joyce, but it's still difficult if you really want to grasp the contents of the novel. It's a book best read slowly, so that you get to absorb most of what you read and really give it some thought, because it asks as much. And there are all sorts of different references that it draws from, not just literary, that add to the complexity, density and the difficulty of reading it. I wouldn't give it to someone that is just starting to get into "real" literature, the same way I wouldn't give them Finnegan's Wake. Give it a few years and then read Moby Dick, don't rush for it because there's no need to. It's going to wait for you no matter how long that takes, so rest easy and read other books in the meantime.

[Anonymous No.18046397]

Why do Americans give high schoolers Moby Dick? Do they seriously think teenagers, particularly in this day and age, stand even the tinniest of chances against it?

[Anonymous No.18046410]

>>18046397
Because it's a big book, and in American big = better.

[Anonymous No.18046423]

>>18046397
It's not a hard read and you can still sink your teeth into it even if you aren't very well read. Better to start with a good book to develop taste.

[Anonymous No.18046427]

>>18046397
I enjoyed reading it as a teenager.

[Anonymous No.18046439]

>>18046427
I also liked it, but I was lubed into literature with 1984 and Crime and Punishment beforehand as entry level books.
Moby Dick might have been difficult to start with

[Anonymous No.18046488]

>>18046439
>1984
>in a Moby Dick thread
Ahab, this is Pequod, do you read me?

[Anonymous No.18047237]

>>18044822
Don't worry too much about the whale essays OP. They can drag a little bit, but they're a nice way of understanding what was known about whales in Melville's time.

A copy with good notes should be enough to understand most of the historical and biblical references (I like Oxford World Classics, you can get them quite cheap used), but you should definitely have a copy of the Bible to hand. Before you start, you should read Jonah, 1 Kings from 16:28 to the end, and Job 41 (Just read all of Job, its a great book)

>>18046397
I read it at 16. Was not my first /lit/ book though

[Anonymous No.18048033]

>>18044822
begin with the greeks is a meme unless you're a dedicated academic. read moby dick, it's a fantastic novel and will make you want to read other fantastic novels. try reading the referenced parts of the bible next (jonah, jeremiah etc)

[Anonymous No.18048720]

>>18046397
No high school is assigning Moby Dick as required reading unless you're in an honors class, lol. Most high schools just assign short more digestible books like The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in the Rye

[Anonymous No.18048732]

>>18044822
>should I start with-
JUST FUCKING READ

[Anonymous No.18048916]

>>18046488
based

[Anonymous No.18049984]

>>18044822
just pick up a book and read it you stupid illiterate nigger, just fucking read, put a book in your hands and open it you crass idiot, look at printed words and comprehend READ JUST FUCKING READ A BOOK YOU APE, YOU IMBECILE, YOU INGRATE, READREADREADREADREADREADREADREAD

[Anonymous No.18049992]

>>18046488
BOSS GET DOWN

[Anonymous No.18050009]

>>18044822
If you’re a legit new reader it’s better to begin with easy schlock to get used to actually reading and building good reading habits. After that jump into whatever besides very challenging stuff. Reading isn’t like a video game where you need to read certain things to unlock and progress to the next book. In the beginning, read what interests you

[Anonymous No.18050075]

Start with the NEETs

[Anonymous No.18050332]

Sure, why not?
My first /lit/ book was Crime and Punishment and it got me hooked on the classics for good

[Anonymous No.18050359]

>>18044822
Start reading it now and finish it soon

[Anonymous No.18050417]

>>18044822
There's no reason not to start with Moby Dick. It's not a beginner read though so if you get discouraged don't be embarassed to set it down while you read some other books and come back to it. Moby Dick has almost limitless depth to unravel packaged in some beautiful prose. It's not a trivial pastime read. If you enjoy beautiful language you will love it.

[Anonymous No.18051219]

>>18044822
This is the book that got me back into reading. You're going to get bored at a bit in the middle, but press on. You'll look back fondly at those sections and understand them in a whole new way.

[Anonymous No.18051241]

>>18044822
You could but it's very fucking LONG. You could read 7 shorter books that are just as relevant in the same time.

[Anonymous No.18051260]

>>18051241
You're a retard

[Anonymous No.18051423]

>>18044822
why this book is so highly rated here?

[Anonymous No.18051600]

Start with the greeks only applies to people who already read and want to start reading phil.
You should have already read the /lit/ starter pack in high school.

[Anonymous No.18052015]

>>18051423
It’s just really good. Maybe the best American novel.

[Anonymous No.18052086]

>>18044822
Nope. Great book.

[Anonymous No.18052091]

>>18046397
I read it when I was 16 and I loved it. It unironically got me into reading. That said, I don’t think they give it to high schoolers anymore but then again, they don’t give anything good to high schoolers anymore.

[Anonymous No.18052108]

>>18052015
I think it is. The only novels I’ve ever felt similarly to Moby Dick about were White Fang and Call of the Wild, who doesn’t get nearly enough love here but who didn’t write books half as canonically relevant as Moby Dick.

[Anonymous No.18052177]

>>18044886
>>18044822

What gives it such a big bad book reputation?

[Anonymous No.18053077]

>>18052177
its the morst difficult normies are willing to read. harder books don't have any reputation.

[Anonymous No.18053091]

>Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man’s and every being’s face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable. If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant’s face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale’s brow? I but put that brow before you. Read it if you can.

> What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties of the World but Loose-Fish? What all men’s minds and opinions but Loose-Fish? What is the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish? What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but Loose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?

> Are you a believer in ghosts, my friend? There are other ghosts than the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in them.

love how Melville consistently ends every chapter of Moby Dick with an absolute banger

[Anonymous No.18053139]

>>18044822
One of the shittier books I've read. Almost anything is better and worthwhile.

[Anonymous No.18053152]

>>18053139
Is it easier or harder than infinite jest? I read IJ and I now base all book difficult around it.

[Anonymous No.18053850]

>>18053152
Easier.

[Anonymous No.18053855]

>>18044914
>phallic imagery
The book is literally called Moby(meaning large, humongous) Dick(meaning a fucking dick)

[Anonymous No.18053906]

Where THE FUCK is the /lit/ annotated version of Moby Dick?

[Anonymous No.18054385]

>>18044822

I just finished reading this and honestly it's very overrated, it was a complete slog.

The parts where they are actually hunting Whales are great, but 80% of the book is about the anatomy of whales.

[Anonymous No.18054458]

>>18046373
Bring three examples of these "references"

[Anonymous No.18054766]

>>18054385
Filtered

[Anonymous No.18054840]

Call of the crocodile is better

[Anonymous No.18056293]

>>18054385

Absolute pleb-tier take. Go post your review on Amazon you faggot.

[Anonymous No.18056366]

>>18046346
>melvilles's prse is so smooth and stylistically effective
I second this. Once the story started to drag, as it is meant to, the words themselves become the joy, as I interpreted it was meant to. I felt like most of the novel was meant to feel like a bored seaman's wandering mind.

[Anonymous No.18056430]

>Amerisharts pretending like Moby Penis is difficult understand

Any other Europeans here getting a huge laugh out of this thread? Amerisharts are so retarded

>”Duh whale is da reference to da to byble u wud nevah uderstsnd it hurrrr”

[Anonymous No.18057505]

>>18054385
cant tell if bait

[Anonymous No.18057542]

>>18048720
This. In my high school, from what I can remember, we read To kill a mockingbird, the great gatsby, 1984, of mice and men, and lord of the flies. We also did Shakespeare and the divine comedy but almost none of us were mature enough to understand it or appreciate it fully.