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/lit/ - Literature


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23652582 No.23652582 [Reply] [Original]

>Melville was born in New York City, on August 1, 1819
What does /lit/ think of Herman Melville? Also why was he gay?

>> No.23652733
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23652733

>>23652582
Love Moby-Dick
Hate Clarel
Short stories are OK

>> No.23652794

One of the greats. Moby-Dick is a masterpiece, Pierre and Confidence-Man are underrated. Haven't read Clarel yet.
Encantadas is my favourite short story of his.

>> No.23652811

>>23652733
Would I like his mid-range works (like Typee) if I really liked Moby Dick and like his short stories?

>> No.23652817

>>23652582
>Also why was he gay
Now that's how to get a conversation going. Good on you, OP. But you're still a faggot.

>> No.23652830

>>23652582
Nothing gay about depicting two ugly men snuggling on a bed with legs overlapping

>> No.23652877

>>23652582
Melville in Love: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick by Michael Shelden

In Melville in Love Pulitzer Prize-finalist Michael Shelden sheds light on this literary mystery to tell a story of Melville’s passionate, obsessive, and clandestine affair with a married woman named Sarah Morewood. [This quote from Amazon].

I don't think he was "gay."

And Moby-Dick is a masterpiece, written about 100 years too soon.

>> No.23653008

>>23652877
>man who sleeps around with married women couldn’t possibly be fucking other men
I shiggy diggy

>> No.23653015

>>23652582
I just re-read Moby Dick for the first time in a decade. Holy shit, what an absolute masterpiece. May be my favourite book

>> No.23653109
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23653109

>> No.23653114
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23653114

>>23652877
>adulterous woman
>"Morewood"
who writes this shit?

>> No.23653115
File: 707 KB, 1156x1600, Herman-Melville.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23653115

Look let's settle the matter firmly:

Melville was bi.

That's the source of so much of his power. True bisexuals are almost always geniuses.

>> No.23653129

>>23652582
I read Bartleby recently, and didn't get it. Bartleby gets a job, works constantly to the point he ruins his eyes, and then rots to death when his eyes go bad. People talk about it as if it's super deep, but it seems very straightforward and simple.

Am I missing something?

>> No.23653214

>he hasn't read Moby-Dick for 24 hours straight at the annual New Bedford Whaling Museum Moby-Dick marathon
Fake Dickheads, the lot of you.

>> No.23653308

>>23652811
Typee and Omoo are straight up exotic travel lit, very enjoyable, as is White Jacket, more or less a Sea Adventure novel.
>>23652582
HBD, Old Salt

>> No.23653312

>>23653214
>Fake Dickheads
As opposed to the actual species? Yeah, ok boss

>> No.23653319

>>23652582
Typee: 6/10
Omoo: 6/10
Mardi: 7/10
Redburn: 6/10
White Jacket: 9/10
Moby Dick: 10/10 and all cope aside, one of the greatest works of literature.
Pierre: Haven't read
Isle of the Cross: Haven't read
The Confidence man: Haven't read
Billy Budd: 8/10
I haven't read much of his poetry.
He was probably bisexual, Ishmael was straight/asexual and autistic.

>> No.23653329

>>23652582
An all-time great

>> No.23653334

>>23652582
he was a sailor, that's just how those fellas are. I think it's a symptom of scurvy.

>> No.23653439

>>23653129
There are multiple different interpretations. One of them is that it depicts OT God (actively talking to Moses, performing miracles, appears directly in a form of a cloud) and post-NT God (silent). You can see it as a sociological piece, a proto-Stranger, talking about societal misunderstanding and neglect of mentally ill people despite the best of intentions. You can see it as autobiographical, Melville predicting his future course - stopping writing novels and just withering away (Bartleby was released after the failure of Moby-Dick and Pierre).

>> No.23653476

>>23652830
I don't know why people always call the bed scene gay, it was obviously 100% intentionally played for laughs. Ishmael was just trying to share a room because he was a cheap fuck and then a big scary polynesian nigger jumps into his bed with a tomahak in between his teeth. The fact that the Queequeg is so unfamiliar with western culture that he doesn't know that it's inappropriate to cuddle another man is even funnier.

>> No.23653710

>>23653476
Ishmael is also a bit of a naive dunce. This deliberately comes across in the depictions of him in the book. He's a great narrator, thus he is fit to narrate the tale and the fate of the Pequod and Ahab. But he, himself, is naive, gullible, vainglorious, and melodramatic. It especially contrasts with the grave grandeur of Ahab and his mates.

>> No.23653728

>>23653476
it's the part where they say they're married.

>> No.23653919

>>23653115
Based.

>> No.23655523

>>23652582
Just started Pierre.
Don't know what to think about it, it's harder than Moby-Dick

>> No.23655583

>>23652582
>I'm 3 years older than Melville when Moby-Dick came out
>I'm a useless NEET
time to rope

>> No.23655786

>>23655523
covers a lot of interestimg themes but i think you'll the prose gets obnoxious pretty quick. i had to drop it about halfway in.

>> No.23655835

>>23655523
I liked it; but read it as a kind of 'society' parody novel; Pierre's mother is really 'over-the-top'