I obviously didn’t get far enough. I just wanted give the whiny little shit a firm slap. I opted to spend no further time in his presence.
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It was required reading for an English class; I slogged through until the end.
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I think you are onto something. Someone once said that at my high school only 10% of the students understood the idea of popularity. I think an awful lot of people here don’t get whatever it is that GQ is selling, perhaps fashionability. (It isn’t style. That’s something else.)
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What’s that Phillip Jose Farmer book where Ishmael goes through some kind of dimensional warp and then hunts space whales? I liked that more than Moby Dick.
I know Victor Hugo also did it, but Moby Dick is the only novel I’ve read where the actual plot is a side-issue and almost a distraction from all the asides and rambling philosophizing the author is engaged in. It’s a very good book, but I’m not at all surprised that people find it impenetrable.
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I really do need to re-read Earthsea actually. For some reason I never have and I read it so long ago it’s only a vague memory at this point. I know there was a young wizard or similar and a boat and a scary as shit evil thing.
You should. It’s a really, really good book. Not really similar to LotR in any way, beyond both being classics of fantasy, but absolutely worth reading.
I’ve read it five or six times cover to cover, in differing translations, and I wouldn’t say it’s got more bad than good, I’d say it’s like the Library of Congress - it has just about everything. All extremes of behavior and thought are fairly well represented. You can find whatever you seek there; some very enlightened thinkers have drawn moral inspiration and strength from reading the Bible alone in the woods.
The reason I get my kids to study the Bible is the same reason I get them to study Shakespeare - these books are American cultural touchstones, if you can’t recognize “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” or “out, damned spot, out, I say!” you’ll miss a lot of subtexts, you’ll only be able to perceive the surfaces of much art and literature.
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Damn! Dostoevsky is brilliant!
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Damn, I have not thought of that series in forever! Loved it, reread it a couple of times. “Sword of the Lichtor” remains a favorite. Thank you for bringing that back to my mind!
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I recommend it enthusiastically. I think it’s clever, sure, because he’s clever. But it’s also smart and funny. I really liked his Andromeda Klein, too.
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Looking at what I wrote and the responses I think I didn’t phrase things quite right. I actually loved Notes from Underground. I think that was the way you were meant to feel about the character, he’s not likable and he doesn’t resolve or turn around. He’s an asshole through and through. I don’t think that was the way I was supposed to feel about Catcher in the Rye though but I sort of did. Sort of the same issue I have with Wes Anderson films… they’re great to look at but I just end up disliking the people in them but not enough to care.
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In high school we were cruelly forced to read and comprehend ‘Sartor Resartus’ (short… but not mercifully so). I can’t think of a single book that would have bettered it (if forced to stick with 19th century, satirical, tongue-in cheek themes… assuming anything else like that existed then).
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The best description of Moby Dick I ever heard is it is a fantastic 150 page story of Ahab and his battle with God and the whale, along with Starbuck’s feelings for his captain, surrounded by 500 pages of how to boil whale blubber. Still I love that book.
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I loved it. (Of course, it may depend on a strong like for the film, too, neither of which would even exist without the Melville book.)
But it is a case where the derivative art is more accessible than the original material, albeit in a pretty specific context.
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You just made me think of the Old Testament story of the poor schmuck who worked for 7 years in order to marry the love of his life (Rachel), only to have the dad switch the veiled bride for the older sister (Leah) on their wedding night, and then he was stuck working ANOTHER 7 years to get to finally marry the sister (Rachel) he wanted in the first place.
The moral: Caveat Emptor
…Wes Anderson films… they’re great to look at but I just end up disliking the people in them but not enough to care.
Oh, I thought it was just me!
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Agreed. Those who have only read the abridged versions that high school teachers were fond of assigning have missed out on the best parts. (Of course, I’m not sure a high school student should be assigned it to begin with)
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“Captures the absurdities and impossible conflicts of war” is probably written on the back cover of Catch 22.
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