VICTORY IS MINE!

I'VE DONE IT! I finished it, everyone! Yes, after only six years of hit-and-miss effort, I can now say that I have read the unabridged version of Moby-Dick! Two previous attempts to read this book in my younger days failed -- but now I am victorious!

I know you're all deeply impressed, LOL.

But, despite all its challenges, Moby-Dick truly is the classic of literature that people say it is. The book's modern themes were far ahead of its time and even today, some of them are still denied or hard for people to accept.

And best of all, I'm now entitled to wear this cool t-shirt that proves I'm a --

This Year I MEAN It, Goddammit

Long-time readers of this blog know of my epic battle with the huge white whale of a book, Moby-Dick. I started reading it in 2009 and have slowly, oh so slowly, been making my way through it in fits and starts ever since. My 2013 New Year's Resolution was to finish it but alas, nothing resulted but failure, utter failure, that year. And in 2014 as well. But THIS year, by gawd, it will be different!

At the moment, I am at Chapter 123. There's only 13 more chapters to go! Queequeg has carved his tattoo replicas onto his custom-built coffin. Captain Ahab has finished making his special harpoon with which to kill the great white whale. The Pequod is hot on Moby-Dick's trail but is currently in the midst of a terrible typhoon. The action is finally starting!

[caption by Calvin's Canadian Cave of Coolness]

And I have a new incentive to finish the book quickly. There's a movie coming out in March called In the Heart of the Sea concerning the real-life whaling disaster in the early 1800s which inspired Melville to write Moby-Dick. I am not going to go to that movie unless I've finished Moby-Dick. And I lurves me some Chris Hemsworth who is starring in it so that is a powerful motivation to get my rear in gear and finish those last 13 chapters!



Happy New Year, everyone! Wish me luck. No, not luck -- perseverance.

Moby-Dick Update

I've had a couple of inquiries about whether I'm making headway with my New Year's Resolution to finish reading Moby-Dick. I'm pleased to say that yes, indeed, I have been applying myself to the task. I go whaling with the boys whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I started off at Chapter 87 where my reading had petered out in 2009. Now I'm up to Chapter 123! Queequeg has carved his tattoo replicas onto his custom-built coffin. Captain Ahab has finished making his special harpoon with which to kill the great white whale. The Pequod is hot on Moby-Dick's trail but is currently in the midst of a terrible typhoon.

Only 13 more chapters to go!

[Whaling in the bathroom art by Nadine Boughton]

My New Year's Resolution

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. As I hope My Rare One thinks, "why tamper with perfection?"

But this year, I am making a resolution. A firm and committed resolution. This time I swear to Gawd I'll do it.

Here's a clue . . . .

No, my resolution is not to join a local community theatre group and stage massive epics on an obvious shoestring. But the photo is relevant -- my resolution is to finally finish reading Moby-Dick.

I've tried and failed several times over the years to read that massive tome. I usually end up defeated by the book's teeny-tiny print, by Melville's dense prose and by his desperate need for a good editor. However, ebook editions of Moby-Dick have solved the first issue so now I can enlarge the font size to a comfortable level. Alas, only sheer endurance can overcome the remaining issues.

Very, very long-time readers of this blog may remember that in the summer of 2009, I started my latest attempt to read Moby-Dick. I posted my progress and thoughts about the book several times. I got all the way to Chapter 87! And then, well, you know how it goes. Life intervenes. Other things come up. One gets distracted. My reading stalled and progressed no further.

But now, a mere three and half years later, I am bound and determined to finish reading the remaining 59 chapters. I will NOT be defeated by the Great White Whale in 2013!

Wish me luck!

Moby-Dick in Haiku

Want a good laugh? Check out this hilarious satirical website that rewrites Moby-Dick in a mere 15 verses of haiku. Not only is it a short and pithy work compared to the original novel, but each haiku is accompanied by a fabulous collage illustration. To give you a taste, here's the opening haiku that goes with the above illustration:

Call me Ishmael

a white boy from Manhatto

I'm not really gay!

Moby-Dick Update # 3 (Continued)

What is the worst possible thing for humans to contemplate? That there is no meaning whatsoever to our existence, to our suffering, to our selves, that the universe is random and impersonal.

When Captain Ahab tries to explain to Starbuck why he hates Moby-Dick past all reason and good sense, he goes on and on about looking beyond life's pasteboard masks. Moby-Dick is a hated pasteboard mask disguising the truth. Then Ahab says, "Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough." He fearfully pulls back from the thought that there is nothing beyond life's surface. It is too unbearable to think that there might be no meaning to the life-shattering loss of his leg.

And in Melville's famously enigmatic chapter on symbolism called "The Whiteness of the Whale," Ishmael asserts that "some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher." The idea that there might be no meaning to life is presented as so ridiculous that it's not worth dwelling on. And to a mid-19th century mind with an absolute belief in the existence of God and His Divine Plan centred on humans, the idea that existence could be random and meaningless would indeed be too crazy to think about even for a second.

But that idea is not crazy to modern existential thought. And I don't think that idea was crazy to Melville. I think he was a hundred years before his time and dared to explore an awful possibility that others could not even imagine. Captain Ahab rages against Moby-Dick to the bitter end but in the last analysis, he is powerless against the awful truth of Moby-Dick.

Moby-Dick Update # 3

Bet you thought I'd abandoned Moby-Dick, didn't you? Nope, I'm up to Chapter 87 now. And I've diligently plowed through a seemingly endless number of "cetology chapters" as they're called. Chapters that contain more mind-numbing factual information about whales than anyone would ever want to know. But, in the exciting part of the book, the hunt for Moby-Dick is in full swing!

So I guess it's time for me to weigh in with my two cents worth on The Big Question -- what does the great white whale symbolize? Everyone agrees that Moby-Dick represents something huge and ultimately uncontrollable by humans -- Fate, God, Evil, Totalitarianism, etc. But I think that Moby-Dick represents something even more overwhelming, unthinkable or frightening than any of those things.

I take this as a clue. In a letter about Moby-Dick sent to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville said, "I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb."

[Tomorrow -- all is revealed!]

Moby-Dick Update #2

So I'm up to Chapter 52 now. Captain Ahab has nailed a gold coin to the mast as a reward for the first man who spots Moby-Dick and they're officially off to hunt the great white whale. Woo hoo! Let the mayhem begin!

But as I read chapter after chapter, my basic reaction to Melville's writing style is -- WTF? First, this book is a novel. Then it's a textbook (and a darn dry one, at that). Next it turns into a play, with stage directions and scripted dialogue, including lengthy soliloquies and asides. Just when you think it can't get any stranger, a musical breaks out, featuring singing and dancing sailors from around the world. Then it goes back to being a novel again. I mentioned previously that, in my opinion, Melville could have used a good editor. His erratic style confirms it. But hey, who am I to argue with genius?

When Moby-Dick was first published in 1851, it received "decidedly mixed reviews" (as stated by Wikipedia). In fact, a British critic at the time said that the book was "an ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition." Hmmm, precisely.

[Lego Moby-Dick crew by the Brothers Brick]

Gone Fishin' with the Boys

Be back tomorrow, I promise! . . . Dear God, what's that big white leviathan over there?

Moby-Dick Update # 1

I can well imagine that everyone is all agog to know how goes my reading of Moby-Dick. Be advised that I am now up to Chapter 36 -- woo hoo! Only 100 chapters more to go!

Ishmael, Queequeg and the other star-crossed men of the Pequod have now set sail for southern waters to hunt for whales. Moody Captain Ahab has finally emerged from his cabin and stumps around the deck with his ivory peg leg.

Not a lot of action so far, but there is much foreshadowing and many doom-laden omens. And one exceedingly long chapter about all the different types of whales in the world.

I'll keep you posted.

Moby-Dick in the 21st century

I'm currently reading Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (which makes my recent LOLcat post so fortuitous) and man, that book is frickin' HUGE. Sort of like the great white whale itself. Melville sure could have used a good editor, that's all I'm saying. I've tried to read this novel before, but have always been defeated by the teeny tiny print used by publishers to cram all that text into a single volume. The eye strain just wasn't worth it.

But now I have found the free website Literature Page which has full online texts of many classic works of literature in the public domain. It features novels (and some poetry) primarily by American, British, French and Russian authors. So now I'm attempting to read Moby-Dick again, but this time using zoom view to full advantage. It's so great to have a larger text version!

And my, my, my! Melville's coded homosexual imagery is a lot more obvious to a 21st century reader than it would have been to the average mid-19th century reader. It's clear, for example, that Ishmael and Queequeg were gettin' it on! Hey, this is my type of book!

Moby-Dick (Condensed LOLcat Version)