“But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!”
that line from the chapter “The Advocate” always stuck with me as a modern day oil man. Everyone wants to hate us, disemploy us, and yet they don’t seem to want to live in darkness…
I have read it twice, and now listening to it. I have discovered that many chapters are astounding poetry. Audio books are interesting to me. I am aslo listening to James Joyce’s Ulysses. I had to read it in college and it didn’t make any emotional impression. But I decided to listen to it mainly as a result of the Odyssey movie. This time I feel that the “stream of consciousness” aspect is much more significant, and the character of Bloom’s wife is very beautifully written, when read aloud. IMO the book is much better heard than read. On another topic of interest to you, I attended the open rehearsal of the BSO Wednesday. Listening to Nelsons talk to us and to the orchestra as they worked on The Nutcracker was a revelation. What a huge blunder Hostetter has made. Instead of getting rid of him as if he has caused the empty seats she should address how to get creative in advertising the orchestra. Her lagacy will be what I fear is she single-handily destroyed a cultural icon because she could, with the silent support of a bunch of other wealthy people. I believe it will never recover. Perhaps I am foolish but I came home and wrote a check to the BSO. I wrote it because while I sat there in Row F learning how art is created, ther was a young black man, a employee, sitting off to the right who never took his eyes off the stage. He was soaking it up. That is what it is all about.
Kitten is a Christian, conservative, family-man. He loves Moby Dick, precisely because it is modern, or even post-modern. That is the evil of conservatives: loving the 1990s. The book is filled with anachronisms:
“[Melville is] describing another world we’ve never glimpsed or even much thought of, an intricately detailed profession and industry with a hundred specialized skills and terms that are now completely irrelevant, lost to time... Interleaved with these fascinating historical accounts are several almost post-modernist ramblings, long-winded treatises on tangentially related philosophical or spiritual matters that mostly left me cold... This inclination again struck me as quite modern, reminiscent of Neal Stephenson or David Foster Wallace.”
This sounds absolutely terrible. I have come to be entirely opposed to fiction, in absolute terms. The concept of writing or reading a fictional story is anathema to me. Maybe this is because I am a Platonist, or somehow, even more strictly traditional, or maybe I am a communist. Fiction strikes me as decadent.
I love myth, and history, and I don’t neglect old things, but fiction -- I believe all fiction should be burned. Movies are another matter, because they are an exercise in visualizing fiction, which is something else entirely.
Nice overview and review. I remember liking the harpooners who seemed like pro athletes. I imagined Ahab looking like Beethoven in a captain’s hat. I personally like “The Whiteness of the Whale” along with a chapter called “Symphony.” Infused epic meaning into something that was taken for granted and poorly understood. As you say, it’s surreal to think this was a real industry with real people making real money. There’s nothing close to something equivalent today except maybe being in space or fixing deep sea oil wells.
I beg to differ. There are cancer researchers doing incredible work, truly making wonderful progress. Cancer is a great white whale and it is being hunted down. Even Steven Miller can’t stop it.
“But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!”
that line from the chapter “The Advocate” always stuck with me as a modern day oil man. Everyone wants to hate us, disemploy us, and yet they don’t seem to want to live in darkness…
I'm going to rewrite Moby-Dick as a contemporary software startup led by a nut seeking AGI.
I have read it twice, and now listening to it. I have discovered that many chapters are astounding poetry. Audio books are interesting to me. I am aslo listening to James Joyce’s Ulysses. I had to read it in college and it didn’t make any emotional impression. But I decided to listen to it mainly as a result of the Odyssey movie. This time I feel that the “stream of consciousness” aspect is much more significant, and the character of Bloom’s wife is very beautifully written, when read aloud. IMO the book is much better heard than read. On another topic of interest to you, I attended the open rehearsal of the BSO Wednesday. Listening to Nelsons talk to us and to the orchestra as they worked on The Nutcracker was a revelation. What a huge blunder Hostetter has made. Instead of getting rid of him as if he has caused the empty seats she should address how to get creative in advertising the orchestra. Her lagacy will be what I fear is she single-handily destroyed a cultural icon because she could, with the silent support of a bunch of other wealthy people. I believe it will never recover. Perhaps I am foolish but I came home and wrote a check to the BSO. I wrote it because while I sat there in Row F learning how art is created, ther was a young black man, a employee, sitting off to the right who never took his eyes off the stage. He was soaking it up. That is what it is all about.
And without Moby Dick, we'd never have stoner-prog-metal masterpiece Leviathan by Mastodon, or any nautical doom metal from Ahab.
A great appreciation. I've been planning to reread this soon. Now I'm planning to reread it sooner.
Kitten as a reader at the Moby-Dick Marathon WHEN?
https://www.whalingmuseum.org/program/mdm/
Kitten is a Christian, conservative, family-man. He loves Moby Dick, precisely because it is modern, or even post-modern. That is the evil of conservatives: loving the 1990s. The book is filled with anachronisms:
“[Melville is] describing another world we’ve never glimpsed or even much thought of, an intricately detailed profession and industry with a hundred specialized skills and terms that are now completely irrelevant, lost to time... Interleaved with these fascinating historical accounts are several almost post-modernist ramblings, long-winded treatises on tangentially related philosophical or spiritual matters that mostly left me cold... This inclination again struck me as quite modern, reminiscent of Neal Stephenson or David Foster Wallace.”
This sounds absolutely terrible. I have come to be entirely opposed to fiction, in absolute terms. The concept of writing or reading a fictional story is anathema to me. Maybe this is because I am a Platonist, or somehow, even more strictly traditional, or maybe I am a communist. Fiction strikes me as decadent.
I love myth, and history, and I don’t neglect old things, but fiction -- I believe all fiction should be burned. Movies are another matter, because they are an exercise in visualizing fiction, which is something else entirely.
lol are you doing ok man
I think what I wrote is good
Lighten up, Francis
Ughhhh FIIINE
Nice overview and review. I remember liking the harpooners who seemed like pro athletes. I imagined Ahab looking like Beethoven in a captain’s hat. I personally like “The Whiteness of the Whale” along with a chapter called “Symphony.” Infused epic meaning into something that was taken for granted and poorly understood. As you say, it’s surreal to think this was a real industry with real people making real money. There’s nothing close to something equivalent today except maybe being in space or fixing deep sea oil wells.
I beg to differ. There are cancer researchers doing incredible work, truly making wonderful progress. Cancer is a great white whale and it is being hunted down. Even Steven Miller can’t stop it.
I was hoping this was a negative review so I wouldn't have to give it a shot. Alas