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Posted: |
Dec 14, 2018 - 2:58 AM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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Thus begins a book that I read for the first time recently. I found a new copy for £3 and took the risk. Everything I’d ever read about it indicated that it was a challenge; long, impenetrable, boring even. I was looking for a book to take on holiday and chose this and The Girl in the Spider’s Web. I didn’t even open the latter until we got back, because Moby Dick took up all of my holiday reading time and then some.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how much I loved it. Sure, there are a lot of words, and to keep track you have to read every single one, so my usual speedy reading went out of the window. Much of the enjoyment (similar to the Patrick O’Brian “Master and Commander” series) is in the beauty of the language, so lingering on the text is a delight rather than a chore. It means that when Melville digresses into the detail of being on a whaling ship it had the same level of enjoyment as reading about the action.
Cleverly, the chapters are generally very short so there are many natural opportunities for a break and I like that in a book. Len Deighton’s Horse Under Water is similar, only more so, with two or three page chapters the norm, although it’s a less weighty book.
The language Melville uses is of course authentic, and while O’Brian’s world is glorious, it’s a recreation whereas the actual discourse and description of the mid-1800s is fascinating and beautiful. It’s also hilarious in places - the description of Ishmael’s first nights in his lodging are as funny as anything you could wish for.
It was sometimes hard to read the description of the whaling methods and the consequences for the animals (or fish, as Ishmael insists!) with modern eyes, but Melville even has an insight into that aspect which staggered me with its perspicacity: one of the main products of whaling was tallow for candles, and the whale “must die the death and be murdered, in order to light the gay bridals and other merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to all”.
I’m glad that I got around to reading it, and will no doubt do so again. It’d be great to get the thoughts of others who have persisted (or not!) with this classic of American literature.
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Posted: |
Dec 14, 2018 - 4:53 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Glad that there are still intellectuals on the FSM board, Ishmael. I'm not one of them. I did read another novel by... no wait, I'm thinking of Joseph Conrad.
My mother-in-law is, shall we say, somewhat "religious" (Shhhhh!), and many moons ago, as a test to see if I was suitable for her daughter, she asked me if I'd read the Bible. I said, "Nah, saw the film". I still passed the test.
In the film version of "Moby Dick", I quite like the screenplay by Ray Bradbury, if it was him. I'm not checking Wikileaks or anything here, just going on sheer (bad) memory. I always liked Gregory Peck, although my wife says that as Captain Ahab, one of his legs is rather wooden.
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I read it about 15 years ago and saw a play of it in Greenwich about 13 years ago. I enjoyed it, probably because like TG and actually because of him I read all the Master and Commander books and became interested in naval history. TG read In the Heart of the Sea and the two books written by survivors (avoid the film).
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I'd like just a bit more information please Tall Guy. What I'd like to know is WHY you'd take a book, (as well as a back-up book), along with you on holiday? Did you go alone, or with Mrs. T.G. and children? If you went to Capri or The Amalfi Coast south of Naples, no book should ever come with you, except maybe a guide to bars, nightclubs and restaurants. However, if you went to Blackpool or Swansea then, well, you chose the appropriate title!
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Posted: |
Dec 14, 2018 - 2:10 PM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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I'd like just a bit more information please Tall Guy. What I'd like to know is WHY you'd take a book, (as well as a back-up book), along with you on holiday? Did you go alone, or with Mrs. T.G. and children? If you went to Capri or The Amalfi Coast south of Naples, no book should ever come with you, except maybe a guide to bars, nightclubs and restaurants. However, if you went to Blackpool or Swansea then, well, you chose the appropriate title!
This was to Fuerteventura, Dave, just the two of us. We’re both voracious readers but don’t go thinking that reading was all we did, no sirree!
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No.
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I started reading this book, two times, about 100 pages in. I'm sure I'll get through it (I started Middlemarch THREE times, same number of pages.)
I did skip the chapter about all the whaling equipment, I'll admit.
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the description of Ishmael’s first nights in his lodging are as funny as anything you could wish for.
And no surprise that all of it never made it into the Huston movie, eh?
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) ...
