Moby Dick

So I realized that the last thing I've put up here was me saying that I was about to start re-reading Moby-Dick, and I got to thinking that I would really be dropping the ball if I didn't talk about it at all. I mean, it's my favorite book, perhaps the greatest thing written in the English language, and most people are scared of it. When you ask someone about Moby-Dick, they usually roll their eyes or come back with some comment about how long it is, or they complain about the chapter where Ishmael classifies whales. But these people miss the point, and it's sad.

I said in a comment the other day that the best way to approach reading Moby-Dick is to read it like you would read the Bible. The Bible is not a beach read. That doesn't mean it's a bad read. There are long sections of the Bible that are boring. That doesn't make IT boring. If you read the Bible, really read it, there are parts that can change your life. Moby-Dick is the same way.

There is a lot I could pull from to explain that last nearly blasphemous remark, but I'm not going to do that. What I want to do is, over the course of a few posts, try to convince you to read Moby-Dick if you've never read it before, or read it again if you had the cursory college reading experience.

I'll try to keep them short and to the point, and I'm not going to throw in a bunch of theory or analysis. I just want to point out certian things that I love about this wonderfully demanding book. But I won't start tonight: I'll save the first discussion for next time. I'll start with the beginning--the first chapter, and Ishmael.