Entry tags:
"Hast seen the White Whale?"
Why does my mind go blank when anyone asks what I'm reading? I suppose another question might be what does it do when it's not blank?
I've just managed to get through Moby Dick by Herman Melville [1851]; a triumph of sorts, even if it did take me about five months during which I veered off to read lots of other books. Without the many and lengthy asides, philosophical and scientific, the story of the hunt for the white whale would have been a novella, I'm sure. Melville would have been aware that most of his readers would never have seen a whale, perhaps not even a picture, so he spends detailed chapters describing the physical attributes of Ahab's prey to the minutest degree. There's one chapter about the jaw structure of the sperm whale.
( where I go on for more nonspoilery detail about the book )
I've just managed to get through Moby Dick by Herman Melville [1851]; a triumph of sorts, even if it did take me about five months during which I veered off to read lots of other books. Without the many and lengthy asides, philosophical and scientific, the story of the hunt for the white whale would have been a novella, I'm sure. Melville would have been aware that most of his readers would never have seen a whale, perhaps not even a picture, so he spends detailed chapters describing the physical attributes of Ahab's prey to the minutest degree. There's one chapter about the jaw structure of the sperm whale.
( where I go on for more nonspoilery detail about the book )