Book 1: Moby Dick

When EM announced in disgust that he had to read Moby Dick for his American Lit class, I decided it was time for me to knuckle down and read it myself.

I expected to hate it.

Michael expected me to hate it, and braced himself for more ranting. (I ranted to him all the way through Les Miserables and The Brothers Karamozov, so there was some basis for his assumption.)

Imagine my surprise on discovering that I like Moby Dick. Ishmael is a delightful and funny narrator, the look at whaling life is interesting, and the last three chapters are gripping.

To give you a taste of Ishmael's wry voice:

There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. (chapter 49)

I had heard that Melville's information about whales is famously erroneous, but having read the book, I don't think we are meant to take Ishmael's science or history as reliable. No way, for example, are we supposed to believe that the narwhale uses his horn to fold pamphlets (chapter 32) or that St. George fought a whale instead of dragon (chapter 82) or that the whale's spout is mist caused by deep thinking (chapter 85).

The only drawback to the book is that it is about the killing of whales, which is more sickening, not less, the more you know about it.

The reading of Moby Dick became somewhat of a family affair. In addition to Michael being forced to listen to passages I found particularly amusing, LW got interested when I pulled out his illustrated book on whales. (I thought Ishmael was exaggerating his description of how ugly the right whale's head was compared to the sperm whale's, so I wanted to see pictures of both whales. I was forced to admit Ishmael was telling the truth.)

And so I offer up LW's contribution to this blog post: a whale, hunter, and harpoon made of sculpy clay. As you can see, he hasn't yet gotten scale down.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that EM does not share my love of Moby Dick and has begun to question my sanity.