Moby Dick

THE NOVELEverybody knows the story, so you might think there is no reason to actually read the novel. I just finally read it, and here are some things you don't know if you haven't read it. First, you don't know how funny it is! The first twenty chapters/100 pages, before Ishmael and Queequeg board the Pequod, is mainly a comedy, and there is humor laced throughout the rest of the book. Second, it is full of poetic passages. Melville was heavily influenced by the style of the King James Bible and Shakespeare. Third, Melville celebrates democracy, working men, and multi-cultural diversity. Yes, it is full of the mechanics of whaling, which was a deterrent to me when I first tried to read it in the Fall of 1976, but there is so much more!THE EDITIONThere are countless different editions of Moby-Dick as the copyright long since expired, and many are found here at one listing, making selection difficult. The one I read is one I recommend as a reading copy: the  Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition , which is 625 pages of text with a quite readable typeface. I'm sure the paperback binding could be cracked, which I hate, but I managed to hold it open easily and avoided cracking.WHALES AND WHALINGMelville was overoptimistic about the ability of whales to survive despite whaling. Moby Dick, of course, wins in the end, but as for non-fictional whales it is a different story. Many species were in serious trouble before the IWC (International Whaling Commission) finally announced a moratorium on whaling in 1982, which is still in effect. Japan left the IWC and resumed whaling in 2019. Norway engages in limited whaling. Native Alaskans continue to hunt, though obviously the numbers are small. But with those exceptions, whaling is no more, and so whales, though still at risk from human activity, are no longer being ruthlessly hunted to extinction, and will hopefully survive the climate change now underway.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville, accompanied by King Lear by W. Shakespeare and the Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag, was a monthly reading for a book club. Obviously, Moby Dick was the centerpiece of the dining, with its sheer volume compared to the others, and a myriad of topics it unraveled. Chapter 96, the Try-Works was one of the most intense chapters. While describing oil-extraction operation from sperm, Ismael observed that "Like a plethoric burning martyr, or a self-consuming misanthrope, once ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body", which reminded me the "Seven Steps Verse or Quatrain of Seven Steps 七步詩 allegedly ciphered by 曹植, Cao Zhi, i.e., "People burn the beanstalk to boil beans, / The beans in the pot cry out. / We are born of the selfsame root, / Why should we hound each other to death with such impatience?" Ismael also ascertained that "the truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53), ..., and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. "All is vanity." ALL.", which followed "But that night, in particular, a strange (and ever since inexplicable) thing occurred to me... Uppermost was the impression, that whatever swift, rushing thing I stood on was not so much bound to any haven ahead as rushing from all havens astern. A stark, bewildered feeling, as of DEATH, came over me." Alas, Ahab should have heeded that.Shakespearean influences can be found everywhere in the book. As can be noted, the Parsee's self-fulfilling prophecies sounded like those weird ones by the witches in Macbeth. Another interesting part of the book was Chapter 54, The Town-Ho's Story, which seemed to be the most absorbing chapter. As a story within a story; or another layer of stories under such stories, probably this chapter may have many twists, tricks, and/or plots for this specific story. That is, I doubted that such an arguably good one happened to become the head of a mutiny, I held that he was meant to be the one who led such mutiny, a rebellious one in his nature. How about the bad guy who happened to trigger the feud led to the mutiny? He probably was a bad one, but it would be absurd to move the whole burden of such mutiny to an insolent one, not onto the desperado.When I told one of my senior friends during mountain tracking last month that I was reading the Moby Dick, he suggested that the book should be read as a good business novel. He observed that the characters could be better understood if we put the characters and situations in the book into a corporate setting or business context. Indeed the book itself is about crews in whaling business - risky, profitable, and overly-exploited -, hence business perspectives underlying in the story. How about the intense politics by and between Ahab and Starbuck? Ahab seemed to be worried about the possibility of a mutiny led by Starbuck should he had gone too far. In Chapter 109, Ahab showed his unexpected self-restraint when he was confronted with Starbuck about how to deal with leaking barrels. At the end of the day, he was just an executive hired by principal owners, i.e. Captain Bildad and Captain Peleg, of the ship. How about Captain Ahab's elite whaling troupe, led by the Parsee? We have seen secret elite groups or standing task forces within large corporations. Even their phone numbers are not listed on the company directory, those groups do jobs directly mandated by the highest executives behind the scene. Having gained confidence after a series of tugs-of-war with Starbuck and his crews, or just out of nervous impatience, Ahab went all out, with Pip as his sidekick. As Ahab seized initiatives, Starbuck yielded to Ahab's authority. Chapter 132 was the most hilarious one: As Ahab exhibited a kind of "When I was young" tirade, or "Latte is Horse..", a pun in Korean, Starbuck just came down to give Ahab flattery: "Oh, my captain! my Captain! noble soul! grand old heart, after all!" Although he knew what would come to him and his crew, he just followed his Fate, not stood against her, which is common in failling corporations.

I have read this book five times and still find things in it that didn't register with me on earlier readings. Great descriptions of life at sea, the dangers of the whaling profession, the hierarchy of the ship and the stories told by the whaling men with a hint of existentialism.

I felt a kind of necessity to read this book because of it being a classic and a required text for academic classes of American literature. I thought there were some exceptional scenes from the book and the brooding monologues had a kind of Shakespearean quality, which made them the best parts of the book. The extended studies of whales and whaling took some work to wade through but with the grim descriptions of how whales are processed made me think, no wonder Moby Dick was vengeful as Ahab in the three attacks on him and finally the ship. I also found interesting the parallels between Ahab and Moby Dick. The conflict was complex by both of their psychologies. Who really was the Leviathan? There was a discussion almost glossed about the whale population of that time, and it became an underlying issue and reared its head occasionally. The graphic explanations of processing the carcass, the value of the whale's body make the book quite relevant to today. I almost want to ask where are the Moby Dicks of today fighting back. This brings up another question: Who is the hero? I'm not sure Melville was too interested in answering these questions; just raise them and that intention is more provocative and intriguing to me.

Quick delivery, packaged well, product as expected.

Recomendo

I held off reading this book until I was well in adulthood as I was traumatised by the film and the whale killing. To be fair it haunts me in the book as well. That aside this is a book of startling brilliance. Melville shows his deep knowledge of the western canon, including the Bible and it requires you to take a deep dive into other literature if you haven’t already - read alongside King Lear, Wuthering Heights, Blood Meridian, The Odyssey, Job and Kings II.The book is about a person’s monomania and just how far they’ll go to acquire the object of their obsession, which in itself is reflected by Melville’s/Ishmael’s obsession with the whale throughout history, hence the sections on cetology, etc. While some may see those as unnecessary because they punctuate the main story throughout the book and force you out of it, but I view them as vital to the monomania theme running throughout.However, I don’t see this book as merely an exercise in obsession. The book is beautifully written and I adore Melville’s prose. It’s sad that there’s rarely anything of his calibre today. I highly recommend.

The packaging was good as requested and quality of book was excellent

The Chiltern Classics editions of some of the greatest works of literature are simply the best! These editions are superbly crafted and are a pleasure to look at, to hold and to read. The quality is exceptional and the gold leaf edging stunning. The print, too is perfectly set to make reading it a pleasure where some so-called “special editions” use a font so small as to make them unusable. Highly recommended for all who love high quality collectors quality editions and at a super price.

Not reviewing the text here, obviously a well known classic.The binding and printing were good. I think the extra money spent on a good quality edition such as this is well worth it if you plan to read through. Has extra maps and glossary of naval terms.