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Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

#106: Mar. - May 2012 (Fiction)
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Robert Tulip

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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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Chris27 wrote:I'm in an unusual position here, because I was 2/3rd (well, 66%) through the book when I came across the forum. So I'm starting again. I have no doubt it'll be worth it. Already reading again brings greater clarity.
I too had expected sombre meaningfulness and high drama, and a lot of boredom (recalled from a much earlier reading). The delight Ishmael gives me now is therefore doubly treasured. He's such an extraordinary narrator. So high-spirited, so devil-may-care, so funny, so philosophical in such an entertaining way.

BTW - I don't think it's the whole chapter posted up above?
Hello Chris, welcome, and thank you kindly for joining our quiet nook. I'm intrigued by your precision regarding how far you had ploughed through this whale of a book. Many would not quibble about a point repeater and would even accept that pi is three.

Melville is short, sharp and to the point, making one word do the work of ten. So it is hardly surprising that the length of a chapter would expand in the recollection, since so many vivid imaginaries tumble upon one another haphazard. Not for Melville the long chapter where the reader dreams of cheering up on seeing land in sight, as the cynic Diogenes once said. Rather like a Mystic clam chowder, something small and ordinary has a way of growing in the fondness of the mind's eye, and a sentence becomes fabled as a whole novel.
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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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My apparent precision was a shorthand for 'I'm reading on a Kindle', which is no substitute for a real book, though it handily gives the illusion that it might be possible to read or re-read a huge collection of classics.
I shall from now on think of Ishmael as a Mystic Clam.

(Now I've read the posts on Chapter 2 and discovered Mystic is a place!. My cultural referents are almost entirely British, so I have a lot to learn, just geographically.)
Last edited by Chris27 on Fri Mar 02, 2012 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Damifino
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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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This is my first attempt at reading Moby Dick and quite frankly I am a little nervous. I probably won't get all or even most of what it is trying to say.

I have the Wordsworth Classics paperback. This is what it says on the back cover:

The book is written in an extraordinary variety of styles, from sailors slang to biblical prophesy and Shakespearian rant. It can be read as an exciting sea story, a sociological critique of American class and racial prejudices, a repository of information about whaling and a philosophical inquiry into the structure of good and evil. Ignored for many years after its first publication Moby Dick is now recognised as one of the greatest novels of American literature.

I'll try not to sweat over it but try and enjoy it the best I can.
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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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Damifino - nice to be in a discussion with you again. I was a little dubious too, but now really enjoying it.
Life's a glitch and then you die - The Simpsons
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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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Robert Tulip wrote: Who ain't a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about—however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way—either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content.
This is my favorite passage in chapter 1
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Damifino
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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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heledd wrote:Damifino - nice to be in a discussion with you again. I was a little dubious too, but now really enjoying it.
I was happy to see you here as well Heledd.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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Reading this on my Kindle is wonderful because every time I come across a word I don't know or understand I can quickly put the cursor over it and get the definition. With print books the time and energy needed to look up words in a dictionary results in me just moving past many words I don't know.
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Penelope

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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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Chris O'Connor wrote:

Reading this on my Kindle is wonderful because every time I come across a word I don't know or understand I can quickly put the cursor over it and get the definition. With print books the time and energy needed to look up words in a dictionary results in me just moving past many words I don't know.
Boo! Boo! and thrice Boooooo! A Picture is worth a thousand words and you don't get wonderful color plates and other peoples' notes on Kindle! (Did you see what I did there? Color, not colour.) That's so's yous all will understand...NOT because I think your spelling is better'n ours.
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.

He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....

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DWill

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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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Chris OConnor wrote:Reading this on my Kindle is wonderful because every time I come across a word I don't know or understand I can quickly put the cursor over it and get the definition. With print books the time and energy needed to look up words in a dictionary results in me just moving past many words I don't know.
That is the kind of recommendation that will make me eventually join the 21st Century. I can already see the value of not having a pile of books by the bed which I manage to knock off every night.
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Re: Moby Dick Chapter 1 Loomings

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Piles of books look much more decorative than piles of electronic equipment.
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.

He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....

Rafael Sabatini
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