What’s so great about Moby Dick?
It’s a study in oceanography, cetology, aesthetics, psychology,
I’d known nothing about Herman Melville before I began reading it, but soon knew by intuitiveness that he knew his subject. I learned in the meantime that he had been a whaler, like Twain a river boat pilot, some time during his earlier life.
The book ranges over many different literary styles. From poetry especially in passages describing a Natural scene. A whale gone erect to the sunrise over the water. One chapter is written in character dialogue only. Some of it didactic. It’s main narrative action has me holding my breath with thrills. It picks the brains of it’s main characters.
I’ve learned more about whaling that I could’ve done without shipping out. I think the diversity may be what gives it a reputation by people that it’s tedious work. And some people mostly aren’t interested or drawn in by the subject. Whole chapters dedicated to the various usages in a whale boat. The first 23 pages of the books are devoted to whale quotations from different writers.
by ethylred