Do I have to read the greeks or the bible before I read this?

Do I have to read the greeks or the bible before I read this?

Depends on whether you want to understand the references to the Bible

I didn't and it still became my favourite book.

It's even better once you understand the references though.

You should absolutely be familiar with the Odyssey, Pauline epistles, Shakespeare and Milton to truly understand Melvilles vision

My dude the whole book is more or less a reference to the Bible

do I have to read the greeks before understanding this?

You need to start with the sumerians

>Shakespeare and Milton
But I'd have to read half of the most pertinent works of the western canon before I could appreciate these writers? It would take me at least a decade before I could read moby dick

>not starting with the indo-europeans
tsk tsk

I used to make fun of American literature and say Moby Dick was overrated before I read it. Now that I've read it I still make fun of American literature but I'm silent on Moby Dick, it's magnificent.

Why don't you just go fuckin read instead of making excuses for yourself?

Fuck the western canon. Just read.

And? Shits not easy, go hit the books

>not commencing with the cavemen
For fuck's sake

>people hype the shit out of Moby Dick
>they sound so serious and respectful of it
>I go read it
>"LMAO so THats how I ended up in bed with a CANNIBAL!!! LMAO"
>"After that we became fuckin BESTIES! he even gave me a shrunken head!!1"
>"he fuckin cuddled me at night HAHAHA!"
>"dude we get on this weird fuckin ship called the Pequod and everyone is crazy "
>"I only get a 300th lay and he gets a 90th! fuckin affirmative action bullshit"
>"the captain is obsessed with a fuckin whale"
>"dude woah people say the whale appears two places at once"
>"dude what if the whale is mystical"
>"dude what if white is like an evil colour"
>"lets fuckin gam it up with the lads"
>"whale steak"
>"dude right whales are John Locke and sperm whales are kantians, confirmed"
>"lmao bye pip"
>"oh shit there's moby dick"
>"the captain gives himself the doubloon wtf"
>"omg dude the destroyed ship was the prophecy the whole time!"

>effort posting just to be a contrarian

>Not beginning with the dinosaurs
>>/out/

my favourite thing about the book is melville's childlike enthusiasm and how fun it all is

If you haven't read Pythagoras you're going to miss the western canons best fart joke

Here's the quick and dirty Greek:
Ahab is a self castrating Zeus

Moby Dick is basically the literary equivalent of Evangelion in the way people treat the most shallow biblical references as essential to understanding the text when they're really just window dressing.
>In the Bible, Elijah is a prophet who fucks with King Ahab
>in the Moby Dick, Elijah is a guy who warns Ishmael about Captain Ahab
>wow, so deep and meaningful, truly the plebs who didn't slog through 2 Kings are really missing out

You're right that the references aren't essential but it's an immensely deep book for other reasons

This times a thousand

No, but it helps. I read it before the greeks and the bible and I loved it, but I intend to revisit it too once I've covered a good foundation of Greeks and the Bible.