Roberta (luvamystery65) sets sail on the Pequod!
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1luvamystery65
MOBY-DICK
Last year I decided to tackle Moby-Dick by Herman Melville as my big, intimidating read of the year. Since there isn't really a group read going on, I've created this thread to keep my thoughts all in one place. There are 135 chapters after all! I'm reading the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with the forward by Nathanial Philbrick. I will also be following along the audio from The Moby Dick Big Read project.
Join me if you are reading, have read or want to read Moby-Dick.
WARNING: There will be spoilers
Last year I decided to tackle Moby-Dick by Herman Melville as my big, intimidating read of the year. Since there isn't really a group read going on, I've created this thread to keep my thoughts all in one place. There are 135 chapters after all! I'm reading the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with the forward by Nathanial Philbrick. I will also be following along the audio from The Moby Dick Big Read project.
Join me if you are reading, have read or want to read Moby-Dick.
WARNING: There will be spoilers
2luvamystery65
Here are some links to reading Moby-Dick and the Moby Dick Big Read Project.
http://www.mobydickbigread.com/
http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/?s=moby+dick
1-10 http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/page/13/?s=moby+dick
11-
a 2012 group read of Moby-Dick on LT with links to a blog scattered throughout the thread.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/129793
I've also read Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathanial Philbrick and The Whale: A Love Story by Mark Beauregard. I'm ready to sight the white whale.
http://www.mobydickbigread.com/
http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/?s=moby+dick
1-10 http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/page/13/?s=moby+dick
11-
a 2012 group read of Moby-Dick on LT with links to a blog scattered throughout the thread.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/129793
I've also read Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathanial Philbrick and The Whale: A Love Story by Mark Beauregard. I'm ready to sight the white whale.
3MissWatson
Hi Roberta! I started the book once and got sidetracked, but I'm still determined to tackle it again some time. I'll be happy to sail along with you for now.
ETC
ETC
4luvamystery65
>3 MissWatson: Birgit I'm so happy you will be joining me on the journey. I'm on vacation so I'm typing on the Kindle. I'll update more once I'm on the iPad or I get home on Sunday.
ETA I have more links to helpful blogs but its difficult on the Kindle. I'll update post 2 on Sunday or Monday
ETA I have more links to helpful blogs but its difficult on the Kindle. I'll update post 2 on Sunday or Monday
6luvamystery65
>5 lkernagh: Lori welcome! I was actually inspired by your musings on Clarissa by Samuel Richardson to jot down my thoughts after each chapter. I loved following along on your journey. I thought it might be too much for my thread so I decided to dedicate a thread just for this.
7luvamystery65
So I chose the Penguin Deluxe Classics Edition of Moby-Dick specifically because it had the Etymology and Extractions in it. Not all the editions do. I don't know how much it matters but I say lets go on the journey the way Melville intended. Here we go.
8luvamystery65
Etymology
I don't recall reading anything specific by Melville, but I do remember we read some short stories by him in high school. I do remember liking them, but I don't recall any specific details. Not sure how well that bodes for Mr. Melville, but it can't be bad because I seem to like the fella.
Etymology is a short section on the origins of where the word whale begins. The section is supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher of a Grammar School. There is the origins of the word whale and the name in many languages including the Polynesian languages of Fegee and Erromangoan. Melville was very familiar with these islands.
Short but with a bit of humor infused. Hacklyut and Richardson seem to disagree with the importance of the H!
I don't recall reading anything specific by Melville, but I do remember we read some short stories by him in high school. I do remember liking them, but I don't recall any specific details. Not sure how well that bodes for Mr. Melville, but it can't be bad because I seem to like the fella.
Etymology is a short section on the origins of where the word whale begins. The section is supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher of a Grammar School. There is the origins of the word whale and the name in many languages including the Polynesian languages of Fegee and Erromangoan. Melville was very familiar with these islands.
Short but with a bit of humor infused. Hacklyut and Richardson seem to disagree with the importance of the H!
9luvamystery65
Extracts
"Supplied by a Sub-Sub Librarian" (again more humor)
There are numerous quotes concerning the whale from the Bible, literature, memoirs and whaling accounts. It seems a glimpse into the grand scale of the tale coming to us.
"Supplied by a Sub-Sub Librarian" (again more humor)
There are numerous quotes concerning the whale from the Bible, literature, memoirs and whaling accounts. It seems a glimpse into the grand scale of the tale coming to us.
10luvamystery65
Chapter 1 Loomings
In Loomings we are introduced to the narrator. He tells us "Call me Ishmael." Unlike the Bible's Ishmael, this guy has a compulsion to head to the sea. He tells us he has sailed before and he must head to see again before he wants to "knock people's hats off". He talks about the type of people who are happy to live their whole life on land. He doesn't understand them.
Ishmael also talks about Fate and Providence in this chapter. He says that he thought it was his free will that lead him to try a whaling ship for the first time, but now he places the call on the great program of Providence and the stage management of the Fates.
In Loomings we are introduced to the narrator. He tells us "Call me Ishmael." Unlike the Bible's Ishmael, this guy has a compulsion to head to the sea. He tells us he has sailed before and he must head to see again before he wants to "knock people's hats off". He talks about the type of people who are happy to live their whole life on land. He doesn't understand them.
Ishmael also talks about Fate and Providence in this chapter. He says that he thought it was his free will that lead him to try a whaling ship for the first time, but now he places the call on the great program of Providence and the stage management of the Fates.
11jnwelch
Just wanted to wish you good luck, Roberta! You'll know a lot more about whales afore you're finished.
12luvamystery65
>11 jnwelch: Indeed Joe and welcome.
13luvamystery65
Chapter 2 The Carpet-Bag
Not much to say here. Ishamel searches for lodgings in New Bedford.
Not much to say here. Ishamel searches for lodgings in New Bedford.
14luvamystery65
Chapter 3 The Spouter-Inn
This chapter is funny. Ishmael arrives at the Spouter-Inn and spends a great deal of time trying to decipher a painting. After consulting the aged persons he decides its a ship in the midst of a great hurricane with a whale impaled on the masts. We also meet Peter Coffin, the landlord, who tells Ishmael he will have to share a bed for the night as the inn is full. He tells him his roommate will be a harpooner and goes on and on about the shrunken heads that he carries with him. Once Ishamel reaches the room Queequeg the harpooner is going through all his motions with an idol and then a tomahawk. Ishmael is frightened to death and hails the landlord. The landlord sure does come quickly. Ha ha!!! He's probably snooping and waiting for Ishmael to be scared. A comedy of misunderstanding is settled and Ishmael decides “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”
I loved the narrator, Nigel Williams, for this chapter.
This chapter is funny. Ishmael arrives at the Spouter-Inn and spends a great deal of time trying to decipher a painting. After consulting the aged persons he decides its a ship in the midst of a great hurricane with a whale impaled on the masts. We also meet Peter Coffin, the landlord, who tells Ishmael he will have to share a bed for the night as the inn is full. He tells him his roommate will be a harpooner and goes on and on about the shrunken heads that he carries with him. Once Ishamel reaches the room Queequeg the harpooner is going through all his motions with an idol and then a tomahawk. Ishmael is frightened to death and hails the landlord. The landlord sure does come quickly. Ha ha!!! He's probably snooping and waiting for Ishmael to be scared. A comedy of misunderstanding is settled and Ishmael decides “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”
I loved the narrator, Nigel Williams, for this chapter.
15countrylife
You had me at 'New Bedford'! Wish I had time to fit Moby Dick into my reading plan this year. But I just had to pop in and show you a few pictures of my visit to New Bedford.
Just around the corner from New Bedford's wonderful whaling museum, this is the Seamen's Bethel (with Herman Melville's pew). I could just picture him seated here next the window, listening to the water, there on the sea-side of the building.
Just around the corner from New Bedford's wonderful whaling museum, this is the Seamen's Bethel (with Herman Melville's pew). I could just picture him seated here next the window, listening to the water, there on the sea-side of the building.
16luvamystery65
I have stalled this month on Moby Dick due to joining the group read of Bleak House. Then I needed a break from Victorian literature. I'll be ready to set sail again on Saturday!
>15 countrylife: So lovely! Thank you for sharing.
>15 countrylife: So lovely! Thank you for sharing.
17luvamystery65
Well last night I got back to Moby-Dick!
I read three chapters so I left off at chapter 10.
Chapter 6 was a very short chapter but I found the description of how international New Bedford was to be absolutely charming. Since it is a huge whaling port there are people from all around the world there catching whaling ships. There is also young men from farming communities there to try there hand at whaling.
I read three chapters so I left off at chapter 10.
Chapter 6 was a very short chapter but I found the description of how international New Bedford was to be absolutely charming. Since it is a huge whaling port there are people from all around the world there catching whaling ships. There is also young men from farming communities there to try there hand at whaling.
18luvamystery65
I've read up to Chapter 19 now. I am ever so grateful that I took old testament courses in high school and university. So far the old testament is weaved throughout the book and it is done in such a way that the foreshadowing is giving me the serious creeps.
Not to make it all seem serious. It is Melville and there is some hilarious stuff in here.
Not to make it all seem serious. It is Melville and there is some hilarious stuff in here.
19luvamystery65
Currently I have made it to Chapter 28. Finally, Captain Ahab is sighted and what a sight with his whalebone leg and strange scar. Ishmael is not at ease right now.
20luvamystery65
I read Chapter 32 Cetology and I thought it was a hoot. The chapter takes us back to the nonsense prefaces Etymology and Extracts. The last paragraph finished the chapter off perfectly.
Some quotes I enjoyed.
For we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included.
Nevertheless, though of real knowledge there be little, yet of books there are a plenty; and so in some small degree, with cetology, or the science of whales.
This whole book is but a draught--nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash and Patience!
I know a lot of people don't like this chapter. I think partly because Etymology and Extracts isn't in many versions of MD and also, they don't get the tongue in cheek of it. If you read it as if it were strictly a chapter on whale biology you would think that Melville lost his mind. Perhaps he did, but I think his digressions are delightful. It's all the little commentary that makes these pieces so funny.
Some quotes I enjoyed.
For we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included.
Nevertheless, though of real knowledge there be little, yet of books there are a plenty; and so in some small degree, with cetology, or the science of whales.
This whole book is but a draught--nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash and Patience!
I know a lot of people don't like this chapter. I think partly because Etymology and Extracts isn't in many versions of MD and also, they don't get the tongue in cheek of it. If you read it as if it were strictly a chapter on whale biology you would think that Melville lost his mind. Perhaps he did, but I think his digressions are delightful. It's all the little commentary that makes these pieces so funny.
21luvamystery65
I've read up to chapter 43 now. After Captain Ahab reveals his true mission is to find the white whale and kill him, we get everyone's reactions. Then Ishmael discusses Moby Dick and the Whiteness of the Whale.
22luvamystery65
I have really made headway into Moby-Dick. I'm on Chapter 90 now! It's mostly about the whaling which can seem so boring, but there is always a small bit of plot thrown in and lots of little commentary from Melville. If you take it at face value and only see this as a tutorial about whaling, you truly miss all the shade that Melville is throwing out there.
23luvamystery65
I am up to chapter 113 now! Ahab is really moody and obsessed now. His whale bone leg cracked and a new one had to made out of the jaw bone of a whale. Things get tense between Ahab and Starbuck.
24luvamystery65
The Pequod has arrived in the Pacific.
25luvamystery65
I have finished Moby-Dick!!!
I really loved it. It was very crazy pants and way more information than you ever wanted to know about whales and whaling, but in all that it was very humorous and way out there.
I really loved it. It was very crazy pants and way more information than you ever wanted to know about whales and whaling, but in all that it was very humorous and way out there.
26MissWatson
Congratulations! I am fully determined to sail in your wake. Some day next year.
27luvamystery65
>26 MissWatson: Thank you. It took me a lot longer to finish it than I had anticipated, but I have been reading a lot of big books this year. I didn't want to rush it, so I would put it aside when needed and picked it up again.
Good luck when you read it.
Good luck when you read it.
28DeltaQueen50
Congratulations, Ro!
29rabbitprincess
Woo hoo! Excellent work :)
30VivienneR
Well done, Ro! Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! I've enjoyed your postings about it.
