Major accomplishment: I am officially halfway through the novel, having reached page 200 yesterday. That seemed like a goodplace to pause, celebrate, nap, and start this blog. My intent with this medium is to capture some of my ideas about the books I read before they float away. I've already let slip all the ideas and questions I had about the previous 200 pages of Moby Dick, although I am really piqued by the shift in narrative voice. I'm back to Ishmael again, but I'm hoping to hear more from the other characters by the time I'm through. It would be interesting to see what critics have written about Melville's shift in perspective.
I do have to say that so far I am a little disappointed in the descriptions of harpooning. What exactly is happening here? How on earth do these humans in small wooden boats capture whole whales? My illustrated edition is not cutting it either. Whaling has been on the bean lately as I just got back from vacationing in Martha's Vineyard. I decided if there was any good time to start Moby Dick (again) it was now, since I can now picture the initial setting a bit better.
Okay back to reading...they've just approached a giant squid and killed the first whale. Things are heating up.
3 comments:
Is Neverneverland a term you learned in grad school?!?
We visited Melville's home in Western Massachusetts - a very dreary place much of the year. He looked out of a window and wrote this. How is that possible?We looked out of the same window and saw a mountain that is the same color as a whale.
Well, no. Not a grad school term. Of course not! But wouldn't a reference to neverneverland mean a place where thoughts or ideas never mature, grow up, etc? Not too far out in left field, really, when I think about it.
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