Haven't even started yet desu edition, kek. But I've read it before and hope to get caught up by tonight/early tomorrow.
Anons that aren't giant faggots like OP should be finishing Chapter 33 today.
General question to maybe get discussion going: Moby Dick is obviously famous for being a dense work, and by this point in time we should probably have a good feel of Melville's prose. Are we starting to get a hang for it, or is it still pretty dense for you? Thoughts on Melville's style and approach thus far?
Of course, feel free to discuss plot, character, whatever else strikes your fancy.
first time reading it. the first 15~25 chapters were really great and I didn't think it was dense. the prose and characters were all marvelous too, specially our dear friend Queequeg. Now I just finished chapter 33 an, and the chapter 32, Cetology is probably the most dense so far, I understood the "what I read, expected and got" no, with the pics about whale types and whatnot.
get to us OP, come on. I started two days late and so I had to read the chapters of 3 days in one, and it was fine, just do that few days and you are good.
Parker Reyes
Its pretty easy to catch up, 50 pages per day is really easy.
I enjoyed Cetology honestly but I couldn't keep thinking if its outdated. The book started really amazing and I still enjoy it as much as I did in start.
Mason Reed
Yeah I'm not worried about catching up. Any lurking anons please feel free to jump on board to.
Rereading, I really love his prose. The opening chapter's ruminations perfectly capture the kind of book this will be on the whole. " Meditation and water are wedded forever", fantastic.
It's really easy for most people to put the book down once he gets to the highly technical chapters on whaling and sailing. Just word of advice, don't get disheartened. Try to push through, you'll end up appreciating those chapters later when you're done reading and thinking about the book as a whole.
Andrew Wilson
bumping for love
Owen Turner
I love Melville's prose. It almost feels like he makes everything, no matter how insignificant, as some grand and lofty thing. It's like he exaggerates, but in a way that is more interesting than annoying.
I also loved Cetology, but that's because I'm a sucker for faux-scientific material. If I found out that the book from Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius was real, I would buy it in a heartbeat. Still, I understand how the section, and other sections like it, could get on the nerves of some readers.
Either way, it really shows that whaling is an all-consuming action for the sailors. They live, eat, breathe, and sleep whaling. Though this can be seen early on in the form of Bulkington. After a number of years at sea, he spent a few days on land and immediately returned to whaling.
It's also funny to see how scientific Cetology tries to be when a lot of it is "I heard it from this one guy that..." Also, >implying whales are fish
Ethan Moore
Whales are fish, if fish just means something that lives in the ocean.
Fish having gils and such is modern usage of the word, and not even accurate.
Samuel King
They're just mammals to me. Though, I remember reading some years ago about the difficulty of classifying fish. I might be misremembering that, however.
Zachary Brooks
The biggest problem for me is the the long sentences that go like clause1, clause2, clause3, clause4, clause5, continuation of clause2... etc. Otherwise it's fine. I also don't think chapters like Cetology feel like a big break in style because even the chapters that continue the narrative are written quite essayistically.
Ayden Lee
>I'm a sucker for faux-scientific material me2. it's like novels are still to close to reality for me
