Am reading Moby Dick

[oldandhappy]

I am surprised that I seem to have missed this one. But I am glad. I would not have appreciated it 50 years ago, smile. Amazing imagination. Only 200 pages in and still no sighting of the whale. But the descriptions of people and life on a whaler are fascinating.

[scarletwoman]

1. That's wonderful! I think there's never a bad time to look into a classic like Moby Dick.

I read it all the way through four times between when I was 14 to age 18 or so. I found it utterly fascinating!

I'm 64 now, so it's been several decades since I last read it. I've been thinking lately of getting it from the library and reading it again, just to see if I'd find it as compelling as I did when I was young.

[oldandhappy]

5. Do it!

As we get older we get more out of things. Last year I reread Anna Karenia (?spelling) and was almost shocked at how naive I had been back when I read it in college...and probably wrote a stupid paper!!

[yellowdogintexas]

14. maintaining my position as the only English Major in America who has not read it

I read a Melville short story in freshman lit and it bored me to death. I developed a serious distaste for Melville after that.

However a local theater group did an amazing interpretation of it a couple of years ago. That I liked but it was only 75 minutes long

[scarletwoman]

15. Oh well, since I am likely the only 60s hippie in America who has not read Tolkien,

I guess I can empathize.

Truth is, I've never read anything else by Melville - only Moby Dick. But I thoroughly loved it.

I may yet someday break down and crack open a copy of Lord of the Rings. Perhaps you, too, may someday break down and give Moby Dick a try.

[packman]

2. Obsession and destruction

Such a beautiful book about people buying into another's obsession which leads them all to destruction. This book has so many levels of philosophy and metaphors that it could take you a life time to appreciate it. A true masterpiece from the classic opening, "Call me Ishmael" where the author makes the Biblical connection to the second son of Abraham who was cast out and left to roam the desert with his mother, to the epic battle with the whale (no spoiler is going to be given). Enjoy.

By the way, the movie version with Gregory Peck is worth renting when you're done with the book.

[oldandhappy]

4. Thanks for the movie mention. Will do.

[ChazInAz]

3. Truly America's greatest book.

I first read it at about the age of 13, and reread it every few years. All of the characters, even the minor ones like the cook's helper, are vivid and human. The towering figure of Ahab, with his occasionally Shakespearean language and mighty hubris is made a real, breathing person by his many flaws and unexpected virtues.
(A little side note, your humble and his favorite director are planning on staging Tom Ammon's "Moby Dick" in the next few years. With my old leg injury, I was born to play the part of Ahab. )

[oldandhappy]

6. Post a video!

Have fun with the staging of this huge story.

[SheilaT]

7. Cool. I keep on thinking I should read it.

About 40 years ago I read the paper a young friend had written about some of the symbolism in the book, and I certainly found that fascinating.

[packman]

8. What I like about classics is -

how it is often retold in other forms. For example, one of the Star Trek classics stolen from Melville

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Doomsday_Machine_(episode)

[Fairgo]

12. Trivia trekkie

Khan quotes Melville, and the enterprise is the white whale!

[Curmudgeoness]

9. I have also missed that one.

But it is on my list of books to get to one of these days.....so many books, so little time!

[TuxedoKat]

10. It is an amazing book

I read it some years ago in an English class. The professor had written about it in his dissertation and he really did a great job helping me to appreciate Moby Dick. There is so much symbolism in the book; you could read it so many ways.

[Fairgo]

11. Just finished it on the train this evening

Started once before, years ago, and stopped after the sermon in the church. This time i wasn't looking for the chase and I just let it flow. It is a beautiful book. For all the brow furrowing literary criticism, Moby Dick is actually a simple pleasure. It is prose written for people who had the time and attention to linger on the page, let the atmosphere saturate your imagings. It ends in a magical moment, climax, and curtain. Boom. Over. I'm glad I finally read it...but I agree with the previous poster, I had to age into this book.

[TBF]

13. I read that one in high school for a class -

may be time to return to it and see if I enjoy it as an adult!

[closeupready]

16. I have the paperback at home (and the Kindle version, IIRC) -

maybe I should think about trying it - I've been looking for something new. So tired of reading schlock.

[FSogol]

17. Put "Lord Jim" by Joseph Conrad on your list next. n/t

[oldandhappy]

18. Thanks, will do.

[japple]

19. Mom read Moby Dick when she was in her 70s. She said that it was something she had always

wanted to read before she died. She made it through the book, but I don't think she really enjoyed it. I think she might have had a better connection to something like Willa Cather's books.

[OxQQme]

20. Ahab's Wife

Sena Jeter Naslund writes fictionalized lives of women from the past.

[oldandhappy]

21. Thanks! Appreciate the suggestion.

[jeffrey_pdx]

22. A few years ago I read The Grapes of Wrath

I had never read it before, but I think it's worthwhile to read the classics everyonce in a while.