Okay, Moby Dick is probably the most terrific book I've ever read, without a doubt...

>probably the most terrific book I've ever read
im gonna second this

its as good as any yuropoor national epic.

Really? You didn't think a story about a giant white whale would be about God?

Don't ever reply to my posts again

The character of Ishmael is very blurry already. His purpose is to comment on the events in a beautiful manner. Otherwise, he does nearly nothing, in many chapters he is completely neglected and the writing is practically in 3rd person, sometimes it's entirely impossible for him to witness certain events (in the commanders' dining room and Ahab's internal monologues). Ishmael and a narrator of 3rd person writing are blurred together, and treating him as a normal human being is pointless. (Same could be said for pretty much everything else in the book - everything is just a metaphor.)

>its as good as any yuropoor national epic.
As a yuropoor who doesn't think high of american literature, I agree with this. It is my favourite book.

Ishmael completely disappears from the narrative after the Pequod sets sail.

ok

It's because "Ishmael" is lying

What I always found weird about Moby-Dick is how the first sentence is translated to "Nennt mich meinethalber Ismael.", which has a different connotation than just "Nennt mich Ismael.", which would be a literal translation of "Call me Ishmael." "Meinethalber" means something along the lines of "for my sake" or "for all I care". So I find it very weird that it was thrown into the first sentence in the translation I read. It casts a shadow over the complete (rest of the) book, as if the reader was supposed to doubt wether he was a reliable narrator.

It's trying to capture the tone.

Just read it in English, my kraut friend.

I liked the book up to the pequod leaving for sail. Then each chapter becomes Melville talking about classification of whales, rope used for whaling, etc... The editor should have cut this shit out. It was a strong book until Melville wanted to share everything he's learned about whaling. He even thinks whales are fish when they are clearly mammals.

No shit. That doesn't answer my question at all though.

Is this bait? Have you just stopped reading at the one longer chapter about cetiology? Chapters like "White" or "Crow's Nest" are great. The book isn't nearly as much about whaling as average goodread reviews want to make you believe.

Also, people back then weren't that familiar with biological systematics, so no shit there would be mistakes.

Edit your life out my guy

"Call me Ishmael" doesn't necessarily mean "my name is Ishmael", like it does in parts of Europe where they say "I am called Ishmael" or "he's called Ishmael" in regards to a person's name.
We don't speak like that in America, so him saying "Call me Ishmael" bring an air of suspicion or inauthenticity.

I think your translator was trying to subtly incorporate that context

That is a better explanation, thank you.

Have we come to a conclusion if Hercules was a whaler or not?

Not every post which you disagree with is bait. I quit reading after chapter 60 "The Line". Melville preaching to me for 100 pages became boring quite fast. I enjoyed it more when Ishmael was scared of having Queepeg as his bunk mate than a chapter dedicated to a harpooner spotting a jellyfish in the sea.

He must have been!

I did not call your post bait for disagreeing with me. It just had a very bait-like essence to it. The last sentence had the style of intentional stupidity that is often thrown in on bait posts that are reasonable for the most part. Just try to avoid something like that in the future.

Also, to adress the content of your posts, many of these chapters are about their themes more than anything. Do not just take them at face-value, because if you do it is clear that you wouldn't enjoy Moby-Dick.

>Book is about a whale
>Gets annoyed at chapters about whales.

>reading through Moby Dick for the first time back in school
>guy comes up to me and notices I'm reading Moby Dick
>"oh yeah, I liked that book, but I dropped it when he started talking about whales"
>mfw

is there anything more plebian?

How so?

Why are the chapters of cetology, the line, the jellyfish, etc.. critical to the story of Moby Dick? A lot of Moby Dick threads just make fun of us readers who question their importance, but make no claim on why those chapters add value to Moby Dick.

There are parts when Ishmael goes off on some spiel, and I'm completely at a loss in understanding what he's saying. It's normally when he praises something or talks about God. Ugh.

t. Brainlet

why does something have to be critical to the story of a novel to be worthwhile?

The whale story is just a vessel for Melville to philosophize about life and whaling in beautiful prose.

Because in every analysis of the mundane we find something of ourselves. This is the nature of literature itself.

Your post sounded like review ripped straight from goodreads.

Well first of all I find it interesting to see how science evolved, the cetology chapters can be pretty interesting as historical artifacts. Then, they function as scenery. A Balzac or a Tolstoy describes a room in extreme detail to convey it as truthfully as possible, or a Verne spends chapters on discussing science related to the story, so Melville describes whales and whaling. And, most importantly, they are in the aesthetic and philosophical regards (ie, the ones that matter to Melville) equal to the chapters with "plot". Melville's plot in fact is practically nonexistent, it is an excuse for the walking metaphors that are his characters to reflect with metaphors upon metaphors served to them by the plot. Wether something actually "happens" or "doesn't happen" is incidental to the writing, and the "plot" and "cetology" chapters are equally important. They are all always insanely beautiful and deep.
Being bothered by the "cetology" chapters shows that you only saw a story about people hunting a whale, and Moby Dick is indeed a shitty story, no wonder it bored you.

pleb

>mfw pleb co-workers try to talk to me about Game of Thrones
>mfw they think aSoIaF is a literary masterpiece
>mfw i tell them to read REAL literature and to forget about that pleb trash
>mfw a 8/10 girl tries talking to me about Breaking Bad
>mfw I laugh in her face to mock her plebery
>mfw Veeky Forums is truly the only place I can be with other patricians

I know this is a really memey post but honestly it's also very true. People I know IRL are ultraplebs, especially people at work.

top kek

get yourselves to a better school/work/life my lads

Unfortunately I can't choose the people I work with. I have one friend who isn't a pleb when it comes to literature (although he status as patrician can be tenuous sometimes), and one who isn't a pleb when it comes to music, but I so rarely see them given how far apart we live that I mostly consider them online friends now. My fiance is also ultrapleb. Bless her heart I love her to pieces but when it comes to literature, film, music etc. she's hopeless.

Instead of making fun of the plebs on Veeky Forums, why don't you try to introduce them to patrician literature? They aren't going to read Cervantes overnight, but small nudges can go a long way.

Thank you for these responses. I'll give Moby Dick another try and approach it a different way than before. I was focusing too much on the whale story and not realizing Melville was trying to share his experiences and philosophies through the book.

Faggot

Good luck, I hope you'll enjoy it.