Hi! I'm Sabrina. I'm an early-career librarian and I have never read Moby Dick, even as an avid book reader and English major! I have been quite intimidated by it and have been told by many people to not read it because it is such a slog. I know we haven't gotten to the extensive whale anatomy sections yet, but so far I'm finding the writing surprisingly lovely.
Given it's prevalence in popular culture, I actually know very little about the plot and characters of the story. I knew nothing about the queer subtext before reading chapter 3 and I was absolutely delighted by it. They wake up spooning and don't get completely overwhelmed by no-homo energy. Amazing.
As a queer person, I feel like I am inclined to read queer subtext into a lot of things, but this was just so easy. Coming off the heels of watching Our Flag Means Death, I started picturing Ishmael as Rhys Darby's Stede Bonnet, which made the reading experience even more delightful. To me, Ishmael is quickly becoming a queer icon, only heightened by his intense melodramatic feelings about the ocean and wanting to hurl himself toward it.
Hi Sabrina! Absolutely love everything you shared here, from the Our Flag Means Death comparison (brilliant) to why melodramatically wanting to throw himself into the sea only makes Ishmael more of a queer icon (nearly spit my coffee reading that part, lol).
PS: I’m also nervous about the whale anatomy chapters and whether I’ll totally lose interest!
I subscribed awhile ago but didn't manage to keep up. These recaps are a lifesaver! Also: the Barnes & Noble version in the top left corner of your photo is the one I have, and it's pretty rad. Its typeface looks like it could be original! A real book nerd's choice.
Hi Kristen et al! Love the idea of a drip feed book club with a piece of classic lit. This is a book I feel like I’ve read, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t, so I’m grateful for the opportunity to revisit it with a virtual discussion group.
John!! So glad you're here! Carly and I have been texting about Moby-Dick non-stop. And I'm totally calling this a drip feed book club from now, lol I love that.
Hi I'm Kate! While professionally I'm about as far from being involved with classic literature as it's possible to be (I'm an integration engineer for s software company), personally I've been an avid reader my whole life and have spent most of it collecting beautiful copies of the classics (which makes for a great zoom background). I'm of the opinion that if a book is on your shelf you should either already have read it or be intending to read it, although like many readers I buy books faster than I read them, so my fancy looking copy of Moby Dick has been unread thus far. I was never assigned it in school and I've never watched an adaptation, but as you mentioned it's referenced everywhere so I thought I had a handle on the story and I'm pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong. I stumbled across this while impatiently waiting for the next Dracula Daily email, but that's a reread for me so this is actually more exciting.
I had been intimidated because I heard Moby Dick was a slog, but a couple weeks ago I read Hunchback if Notre Dame and this feels much easier to get through. I suppose part of that is I'm reading this in it's original form and not a translation, but I'm also really enjoying Melville's turns of phrase. My favorite from this set of chapters is this quote from ch 3: "... bedarned and ragged, and their beards stiff with icicles, they seemed an eruption of bears from Labrador." Is it just me, or is Eruption of Bears a great name for a band or trivia team? Looking forward to the rest of the story!
Hi Kate! Welcome! I work in tech as well, so I'm pretty removed from classic literature and academia myself. I hope this can be a place where folks can chat with each other about the book in a fun and approachable way. And yes, I'm also loving Melville's turns of phrase! The "eruptions of bears" is a great one, his wordplay in general is unmatched.
Greetings, mariners! Star Trek lured me into Moby-Dick. I remember taping the Patrick Stewart TV miniseries of Moby-Dick back in '98. But like many of us, I've never read the book. I find myself reading these portions aloud -- if you haven't tried this yet, I recommend it! Melville's prose has rhythm and alliteration that I didn't recognize from reading it silently...
re: Queequeg, I really appreciate that Lethem quote you shared in the recap! "...dreaming of things greater than its author can even know." Seeing this story as a foundation that future writers were able to build more progressive visions upon is a relief. Reading Ch 3, I felt pleased that Ishmael so quickly recognized Queequeg's humanity... But then I also felt a surge of guilt about that pleasure, because it's all framed from Ishamel's (Melville's??) perspective: Queequeg is the Other, and Ish can't see his bedmate as a person without also enumerating his many peculiarities. And while I'm relishing those differences in culture -- it makes for some great characterization and storytelling -- it's just some uncomfortable politics in the year of our gourd twenty-twenty-two. I hope as we go, I can relax and sorta meet this in the time/place it was written.
Greetings from mile 25 of a zone 2 spin ride. I’m J. I’ve never read Moby-Dick, sadly, so I’m making up for lost time this summer. I really appreciate the idea of serialization in reading. The opportunity to slow down, read, digest and move forward. I read Dracula daily this way last year and enjoyed the heck out of it. Thanks for doing this!
I'm Jacob and this is my first time attempting to read any part of Moby-Dick. I did learn about the Big Read podcast a few years ago, but it got put in my queue of things and never really emerged, like so many books and book-adjacents. Now Moby-Dick is one of several significant reads I'm attempting (another shout-out to Dracula Daily) and I'm expecting the pacing to help me actually finish the novel. The fact that there's so much humor mixed into the prose helps a lot, too.
Queequeg is, so far, the most surreal figure introduced: Melville used lots of visual language to describe him but I failed to get a clear picture. Part of that might be Melville's (or Ishmael's? Haven't figured out who to assign the voice to yet.) density: Every chapter was fun to read but clearly had unexplored layers. So I'm excited to get a fuller picture as Ishmael's journey continues, especially of the mentioned male friendship. (It's a personal lack always rewarding to explore.)
Not sure precisely what to expect from the sermon. Given the nautical iconography present at the outset, I expect the setting to be the sea but the theme to be somewhat counter to Ishmael's direction: Leaving civilization to hunt the whale is necessary for the former, but keep one's mind on (eternal) home penitently, etc. etc. I suppose we'll see next week.
Hi Jacob! Can't give enough shoutouts to Dracula Daily, they've really set off a serialization movement. I was also delighted to discover how funny the book is so far. Some of the humor feels really contemporary as well.
omg hi i’m grace and i’m a college freshman (just finished yayy) and i’ve always been super intimidated by classic lit until i started reading dracula daily also on substack! i saw moby dick was on here and was also broken up into manageable chunks, so i figured why not! it’s really fun so far! thank you for doing this, super excited to keep up with it :)
Hi! I’m Carly, owner of the world’s cutest copy of Moby-Dick (the reason my 3 year old knows what a harpoon is).
I have never read Monty-Dick before- somehow the opportunity never presented itself to me. The only Melville had I read before was “Bartley the Scrivener,” about a guy who succumbs to his ennui instead of escaping it at sea.
I recently decided I wanted to be more well-read, so I dove in with Dune last summer, and then debated chasing that high with Moby-Dick before switching gears and reading a ton of rom-coms instead. I am very excited to finally read this piece of American literature and more fully understand all of the many references out there- everything from some silly sketches on a cartoon I worked on, to a pretty great summary on the last season of Outlander, to Conan O’Brien referring to Robert Caro as his white whale.
Thanks to Kristen for the great idea and for putting this giant whale of a book into bite-size pieces!
Hi! I’m Nate. First read it in high school English, last reread was about 5 yrs ago. Really enjoying the book club/discussion vibe of this so far! This book is such a wildly different experience every time I read it.
Hi! I'm Sabrina. I'm an early-career librarian and I have never read Moby Dick, even as an avid book reader and English major! I have been quite intimidated by it and have been told by many people to not read it because it is such a slog. I know we haven't gotten to the extensive whale anatomy sections yet, but so far I'm finding the writing surprisingly lovely.
Given it's prevalence in popular culture, I actually know very little about the plot and characters of the story. I knew nothing about the queer subtext before reading chapter 3 and I was absolutely delighted by it. They wake up spooning and don't get completely overwhelmed by no-homo energy. Amazing.
As a queer person, I feel like I am inclined to read queer subtext into a lot of things, but this was just so easy. Coming off the heels of watching Our Flag Means Death, I started picturing Ishmael as Rhys Darby's Stede Bonnet, which made the reading experience even more delightful. To me, Ishmael is quickly becoming a queer icon, only heightened by his intense melodramatic feelings about the ocean and wanting to hurl himself toward it.
I'm having a blast so far.
Hi Sabrina! Absolutely love everything you shared here, from the Our Flag Means Death comparison (brilliant) to why melodramatically wanting to throw himself into the sea only makes Ishmael more of a queer icon (nearly spit my coffee reading that part, lol).
PS: I’m also nervous about the whale anatomy chapters and whether I’ll totally lose interest!
I subscribed awhile ago but didn't manage to keep up. These recaps are a lifesaver! Also: the Barnes & Noble version in the top left corner of your photo is the one I have, and it's pretty rad. Its typeface looks like it could be original! A real book nerd's choice.
thanks for the kind words about the recaps, glad they're helping out!
Hi Kristen et al! Love the idea of a drip feed book club with a piece of classic lit. This is a book I feel like I’ve read, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t, so I’m grateful for the opportunity to revisit it with a virtual discussion group.
John!! So glad you're here! Carly and I have been texting about Moby-Dick non-stop. And I'm totally calling this a drip feed book club from now, lol I love that.
Hi I'm Kate! While professionally I'm about as far from being involved with classic literature as it's possible to be (I'm an integration engineer for s software company), personally I've been an avid reader my whole life and have spent most of it collecting beautiful copies of the classics (which makes for a great zoom background). I'm of the opinion that if a book is on your shelf you should either already have read it or be intending to read it, although like many readers I buy books faster than I read them, so my fancy looking copy of Moby Dick has been unread thus far. I was never assigned it in school and I've never watched an adaptation, but as you mentioned it's referenced everywhere so I thought I had a handle on the story and I'm pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong. I stumbled across this while impatiently waiting for the next Dracula Daily email, but that's a reread for me so this is actually more exciting.
I had been intimidated because I heard Moby Dick was a slog, but a couple weeks ago I read Hunchback if Notre Dame and this feels much easier to get through. I suppose part of that is I'm reading this in it's original form and not a translation, but I'm also really enjoying Melville's turns of phrase. My favorite from this set of chapters is this quote from ch 3: "... bedarned and ragged, and their beards stiff with icicles, they seemed an eruption of bears from Labrador." Is it just me, or is Eruption of Bears a great name for a band or trivia team? Looking forward to the rest of the story!
Hi Kate! Welcome! I work in tech as well, so I'm pretty removed from classic literature and academia myself. I hope this can be a place where folks can chat with each other about the book in a fun and approachable way. And yes, I'm also loving Melville's turns of phrase! The "eruptions of bears" is a great one, his wordplay in general is unmatched.
Greetings, mariners! Star Trek lured me into Moby-Dick. I remember taping the Patrick Stewart TV miniseries of Moby-Dick back in '98. But like many of us, I've never read the book. I find myself reading these portions aloud -- if you haven't tried this yet, I recommend it! Melville's prose has rhythm and alliteration that I didn't recognize from reading it silently...
re: Queequeg, I really appreciate that Lethem quote you shared in the recap! "...dreaming of things greater than its author can even know." Seeing this story as a foundation that future writers were able to build more progressive visions upon is a relief. Reading Ch 3, I felt pleased that Ishmael so quickly recognized Queequeg's humanity... But then I also felt a surge of guilt about that pleasure, because it's all framed from Ishamel's (Melville's??) perspective: Queequeg is the Other, and Ish can't see his bedmate as a person without also enumerating his many peculiarities. And while I'm relishing those differences in culture -- it makes for some great characterization and storytelling -- it's just some uncomfortable politics in the year of our gourd twenty-twenty-two. I hope as we go, I can relax and sorta meet this in the time/place it was written.
Welcome, friend! I might have guessed that Star Trek lured you into Moby-Dick. And I've gotta start reading portions aloud myself!
Greetings from mile 25 of a zone 2 spin ride. I’m J. I’ve never read Moby-Dick, sadly, so I’m making up for lost time this summer. I really appreciate the idea of serialization in reading. The opportunity to slow down, read, digest and move forward. I read Dracula daily this way last year and enjoyed the heck out of it. Thanks for doing this!
thanks jeremy! love that you do slow reading while on long spin rides.
I'm Jacob and this is my first time attempting to read any part of Moby-Dick. I did learn about the Big Read podcast a few years ago, but it got put in my queue of things and never really emerged, like so many books and book-adjacents. Now Moby-Dick is one of several significant reads I'm attempting (another shout-out to Dracula Daily) and I'm expecting the pacing to help me actually finish the novel. The fact that there's so much humor mixed into the prose helps a lot, too.
Queequeg is, so far, the most surreal figure introduced: Melville used lots of visual language to describe him but I failed to get a clear picture. Part of that might be Melville's (or Ishmael's? Haven't figured out who to assign the voice to yet.) density: Every chapter was fun to read but clearly had unexplored layers. So I'm excited to get a fuller picture as Ishmael's journey continues, especially of the mentioned male friendship. (It's a personal lack always rewarding to explore.)
Not sure precisely what to expect from the sermon. Given the nautical iconography present at the outset, I expect the setting to be the sea but the theme to be somewhat counter to Ishmael's direction: Leaving civilization to hunt the whale is necessary for the former, but keep one's mind on (eternal) home penitently, etc. etc. I suppose we'll see next week.
Hi Jacob! Can't give enough shoutouts to Dracula Daily, they've really set off a serialization movement. I was also delighted to discover how funny the book is so far. Some of the humor feels really contemporary as well.
omg hi i’m grace and i’m a college freshman (just finished yayy) and i’ve always been super intimidated by classic lit until i started reading dracula daily also on substack! i saw moby dick was on here and was also broken up into manageable chunks, so i figured why not! it’s really fun so far! thank you for doing this, super excited to keep up with it :)
hi grace!! thank you so much, i'm glad you're having fun reading so far. and congratulations on finishing your first year of college!
Hi! I’m Carly, owner of the world’s cutest copy of Moby-Dick (the reason my 3 year old knows what a harpoon is).
I have never read Monty-Dick before- somehow the opportunity never presented itself to me. The only Melville had I read before was “Bartley the Scrivener,” about a guy who succumbs to his ennui instead of escaping it at sea.
I recently decided I wanted to be more well-read, so I dove in with Dune last summer, and then debated chasing that high with Moby-Dick before switching gears and reading a ton of rom-coms instead. I am very excited to finally read this piece of American literature and more fully understand all of the many references out there- everything from some silly sketches on a cartoon I worked on, to a pretty great summary on the last season of Outlander, to Conan O’Brien referring to Robert Caro as his white whale.
Thanks to Kristen for the great idea and for putting this giant whale of a book into bite-size pieces!
oh hi Carly 💙 you know I’m a huge Bartleby fan and now I’m going to forever call him “a guy who succumbs to his ennui instead of escaping it at sea.”
Hi! I’m Nate. First read it in high school English, last reread was about 5 yrs ago. Really enjoying the book club/discussion vibe of this so far! This book is such a wildly different experience every time I read it.
Hi Nate, thank you so much! I love how each read of the book has been a different experience for you.