It gets a bad rep for being hard to read (which it is because of the sea-faring and archaic vocabulary) but it’s surprisingly entertaining with even a casual/jovial tone at times, (the opening line is just “Call me ishamel”) I haven’t finished it, but so far like 30% of the book is irrelevant to the plot and is just the authors random musings and philosophies on life. He dedicates entire pages to debating what the most comfortable room temperature and position to sleep in is, or his opinions on random countries like Japan or “Affghanistan”. It almost reads like blogposts or diary entries.
He also has surprisingly modern humor and opinions. He makes borderline gay jokes when he has to sleep in bed with a Pacific Islander “Queequog”, and then describes how he respects him, saying “the man’s a human being just as I am; he has just as much reason to fear me…better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” and that “It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin”. The two develop this wholesome Rush Hour style partnership that’s pretty funny.
There’s also one part where he states that even though he’s Christian, he respects anyone’s beliefs as long as they hurt noone.
Edit: to add on about the humor, I found him saying Queequogs head reminded him of Washington and then calling him “George Washington cannibalistically developed” was hilarious.
Lastly, there’s two chapters I’ll mention. One is an entire chapter of the book where he presumes the reader is skeptical about the importance of whaling and detours from the story to talk about how important and badass whalers are. It was charming. Another is an entire chapter dedicated to arguing the color white is the most terrifying color.
by Imaginefliescumming
27 Comments
I read it a couple of years ago, and I agree 100%. The sea-faring chapters aren’t dry, boring textbook passages about how whaling works: they’re insightful, satirical, heartfelt, and occasionally hilarious explorations into humanity.
It’s a lot weirder than its reputation would imply for sure. It’s not some dry whale hunting adventure it’s just a bizarre and experimental take on writing. Easily one of my fav novels now.
I would be careful saying the digressions are the author, though. A lot of them are just Ishmael and part of his character, while others are actually probably Melville, and it’s both hard to tell sometimes and kind of important to the analysis of the novel. In theory Ishmael is always narrating but then there’s chapters that portray stuff he can’t possibly know.
We read this in a book group a few years back. Some books are worth the extra effort needed to get through, and this is definitely one of them.
“I stopped eating whale meat cuz of this book” – GoodReads review
Queeqeg isn’t African BTW, he’s from the South Sea islands.
Plus it teaches you how to make a coat out of a whale penis. What’s not to love?
Edit: Here’s the chapter in full:
> **CHAPTER 95. The Cassock.**
>
> Had you stepped on board the Pequod at a certain juncture of this post-mortemizing of the whale; and had you strolled forward nigh the windlass, pretty sure am I that you would have scanned with no small curiosity a very strange, enigmatical object, which you would have seen there, lying along lengthwise in the lee scuppers. Not the wondrous cistern in the whale’s huge head; not the prodigy of his unhinged lower jaw; not the miracle of his symmetrical tail; none of these would so surprise you, as half a glimpse of that unaccountable cone,—longer than a Kentuckian is tall, nigh a foot in diameter at the base, and jet-black as Yojo, the ebony idol of Queequeg. And an idol, indeed, it is; or, rather, in old times, its likeness was. Such an idol as that found in the secret groves of Queen Maachah in Judea; and for worshipping which, King Asa, her son, did depose her, and destroyed the idol, and burnt it for an abomination at the brook Kedron, as darkly set forth in the 15th chapter of the First Book of Kings.
>
> Look at the sailor, called the mincer, who now comes along, and assisted by two allies, heavily backs the grandissimus, as the mariners call it, and with bowed shoulders, staggers off with it as if he were a grenadier carrying a dead comrade from the field. Extending it upon the forecastle deck, he now proceeds cylindrically to remove its dark pelt, as an African hunter the pelt of a boa. This done he turns the pelt inside out, like a pantaloon leg; gives it a good stretching, so as almost to double its diameter; and at last hangs it, well spread, in the rigging, to dry. Ere long, it is taken down; when removing some three feet of it, towards the pointed extremity, and then cutting two slits for arm-holes at the other end, he lengthwise slips himself bodily into it. The mincer now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling. Immemorial to all his order, this investiture alone will adequately protect him, while employed in the peculiar functions of his office.
>
> That office consists in mincing the horse-pieces of blubber for the pots; an operation which is conducted at a curious wooden horse, planted endwise against the bulwarks, and with a capacious tub beneath it, into which the minced pieces drop, fast as the sheets from a rapt orator’s desk. Arrayed in decent black; occupying a conspicuous pulpit; intent on bible leaves; what a candidate for an archbishopric, what a lad for a Pope were this mincer!*
>
> —-
>
> ^(*Bible leaves! Bible leaves! This is the invariable cry from the mates to the mincer. It enjoins him to be careful, and cut his work into as thin slices as possible, inasmuch as by so doing the business of boiling out the oil is much accelerated, and its quantity considerably increased, besides perhaps improving it in quality.)
Yes! I’m about 2/3 of the way into it and have had very similar reactions. Sometimes i do find myself thinking “come on Ishmael, get to the damn point already” but most of the time his rambling digressions are quite amusing. The descriptive language is just stunning in some chapters (i’m thinking of the ghostly whale spout they spot at night which seems to be leading them on, and things like that). Of course, from a 21st-century perspective some of it makes one cringe — like the chapter where Stubb is harassing the ship’s old cook, Fleece. But even there, with the awful “yas suh, Massa Stubb” dialect, Melville clearly sympathizes with Fleece and characterizes Stubb as a racist a–hole. Overall the book is much wilder and more free-wheeling and “modern-feeling” than i’d expected.
I really don’t know how Moby Dick has a reputation for being “dry” – I know that term is most often applied to the more textbook-like chapters, but even those can be interesting and funny. Its style is just so *weird*, from the biblical references, to Ishmael going from the protagonist to more of a narrator, to a few random chapters in the middle being written like plays with stage directions and all, it’s honestly one of the most captivating books I’ve ever read.
My favorite is the middle where he just has fun with changing the writing style each chapter. 1st person, 3rd person, stage play, personal essay, instructional manual, all of it is just great!
Yeah, I read it thirty years ago when I was in my twenties, knowing very little about it other than its Great Book status (I’m British so my ignorance of it could hardly have been purer) and I was taken aback at how readable and entertaining it was.
I felt the same way about Les Miserables.
My favourite version of the easily distracted boyfriend meme showed “Herman Melville” as the boyfriend, “the plot of Moby Dick” as the annoyed gf and “facts about whales” as the attractive mystery girl.
Here you [go](https://imgur.com/a/X7YL1x0), one to share
May I recommend The Sea Wolf. Another excellent period pieces which actually makes some passing references to Melville’s work you mentioned in your post.
The first half is a comedy. It comes out more obvious when listening on audiobook.
This is an autistic Seinfeld/norm MacDonald commenting on everything and info dumping constantly in the 1800s. But veering into some of the most beautiful poetry ever written.
Many people and outlets have commented on how MD is secretly partly comedy. As all tragedy should be.
At first glance it can be a difficult read. Especially for those who are familiar with the tale ( and who isn’t). But plowing forward it becomes much more manageable and eventually magnificent.
I regularly think of the line where Ismael is in a bad mood and wants to flip people’s hats off their head as he walks by
Metaphors? I hate metaphors. That’s why my favorite book is Moby Dick. No froo-froo symbolism, just a good tale about a man who hates an animal.
-Ron Swanson
queequog isnt african. he is of the south seas races, Tahitian, Moari, etc.
There was a fascinating series of Freakonomics episodes about whaling (and Moby Dick) recently: https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/everything-you-never-knew-about-whaling/
I still can’t figure out if I totally buy into the literary critic’s analysis of the book. But wow, whaling sounds like a sh*tshow. I’ve never in my life thought so much about whaling as when these podcasts were released 🤣
The entire book is just footnotes for the last chapter. Sure, you could go ahead and read the last chapter if you want to, but you need a lot of the background material to understand the importance of what happens in the last chapter. That being said, it is ok to skim a bit if you realize your eyes are glazing over from boredom. Try to read 10 pages a day.
When researching what I wanted to read next I read some reviews of it. I kept waiting for the boring part that everyone else started saying happened half way through the book. I never was bored. I’m naturally inquisitive and was really curious about all the stuff in the book in how a whale was killed, skinned, boiled, and stowed. It’s like a prose version of How It’s Made for whale oil. I loved it.
The seatology sections aren’t as bad as I thought. The “whiteness of the whale” chapter was really cool. I also loved the sermon they hear before they go out to sea. The final chapter was so good, I read it twice. I don’t know if I’ve ever done that before.
The humor surprised me as well! My favorite part was one of the crew members politely telling off some sharks for chewing too loud 😆
> room temperature and position to sleep in is
Iirc he concludes that the best way to sleep is with one leg exposed and one under the covers, which is 100% based and true
EDIT:
Here it is, from Chapter 11: Nightgown
> The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more… But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm.
I don’t think it was “borderline gay jokes.” Melville was famously in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne and a lot of his writings have queer or homoerotic themes.
Some more observations I don’t already see here:
* The chapter that catalogs the types of whales is hilarious. I thought at one point that he was wrapping it up. Nope. He was wrapping up the preamble to the chapter. He had *soooo* much more to say about whales. Extraordinary Attorney Woo must’ve loved this.
* A whole chapter on sea law?! Cool! “How is ownership decided?” – this one trick will leave you speechless!
* Melville uses *ALL THE WORDS*. I am an old programmer. I am used to writing text that will parse correctly. It has shaped the way I use English. It is a huge failing if my English throws a parser error. I cannot abide when I’m reading or listening and encounter ambiguity. That’s not a problem with Melville. He takes no shortcuts. He uses every word that might maybe kinda sorta a little need to be used to clearly make his point.
* The actual telling of the climactic final battle with the whale is given short shrift. It felt like it was maybe a paragraph or two! (I listened to it as an audio book, and had to go back and re-listen to it several times to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything, that my player hadn’t skipped a section, or anything like that.) Was this his idea of a joke?
I listened to it on trips up and down the east coast of the US (Virginia to Vermont, Virginia to the Adirondacks, etc.). It’s perfect for that.
The Norton Critical Edition of Moby Dick is the one to read. Footnotes galore to explain it all, put it into context, etc. A scholarly edition worth owning.
Moby Dick is your grandpa telling a really long, wild old war story, and you at rapt attention until he’s good and ready to stop. Great stuff.
That book is 80% comedy, 15% sailing minutia, 4.9% psychological horror, .1% whale. I loved it.
I’m convinced the first half is social satire
Ishmael and Queequeg literally do everything except fuck