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.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?
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.