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Shame on you Yanks!
Taking the great Melville name in vain is like stamping on Homer's grave, if you could find it!
No, I understand all the justifiable criticism, but we mostly love it and 
respect it this side of the pond as one of your best.( if a bit tedious at 
times).
I was fortunate (or not!) to be educated by Irish Dominican priests during the 
60's. The English teacher was a leading Cambridge scholar,(with a touch of 
Ahab in him) expert on you know who.
Well he force fed this into us  15-16 year olds with predictable results. We 
vomited about page 25. However, he did tell us why it is so great in the 
context of the pre- civil war American scene. He re- invented the novel 
decades before Joyce and painted America in the greatness myth we now all 
follow.
  I did not manage the whole thing till age 25. Then again aged 55 as sailing 
took over my life again. I now read bits for pleasure. (met a few Ahabs in 
yachting, mostly commodores of prestigious sailing clubs. Pains all. Quite a 
few in medicine too.)
The "Call me Ishmael" intro page I have posted on the navigation station of my 
boat. He was a poet after all! After the blues of depression ("grim about the 
circulation"), it is still the best way I know of "driving off the spleen and 
regulating the circulation." Instead of ending it with pistol and ball, he 
quietly takes to ship. Me too. Saves many a life.
Ok Who has read War and Peace cover to cover? (be honest).
I know professional biologists who admit, guiltily, they have not managed the 
Origin of Species cover to cover .(I have, several times, highly recommended. 
Still modern). 
This cursed but brilliant priest also forced Joyce, Ulysses  on us, despite it 
being banned by the Catholic church at the time! (took me 3 attempts and a 
visit to the Dublin Joyce pub crawl, highly recommended, hangover lasts 2 
weeks).
I have a library of thousands of books. As the limbs no longer move well, I 
dig deep again. Saves my life anyway, as does CelNav. I have about 50 books 
there + the great navlist archive. Frank, please preserve whatever happens to 
Navlist. A treasure chest.
Mark Twain and Dickens are more fun and easier than Melville, , but read on. 
Moby Dick is worth the effort.
Francis


-----Original Message-----
From: NavList@navlist.net [mailto:NavList@navlist.net] On Behalf Of Bruce J. Pennino
Sent: 10 January 2019 16:16
To: francis@pharmout.co.uk
Subject: [NavList] Re: Moby Dick Tales

Well said!

From: Robert Eno 
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2019 1:15 AM
To: bpennino.ce---.net 
Subject: [NavList] Re: Moby Dick Tales

I feel liberated after reading these Moby Dick posts on the Nav List. I can 
finally come out of the closet. I am not alone! 

 

I read the book; nay, I fought, struggled, clawed my way through it in the 
1990s and after several months, finished it with the same level of mental and 
physical exhaustion as I would had I been forced to crawl one mile through 
rose bushes and broken glass. 

 

Why did I not give up when it became apparent that it was not to my liking? 
Because it is considered a “must-read” classic and I felt ignorant and 
backwards that I had not read it.  A buddy of mine warned me that it was 
painful, but I took it on, nonetheless, because my friend was a bit of a sour 
puss and generally gave negative reviews of most things.  But he was right 
about Moby Dick. Awful, painful, tedious book.  Russian novelists have 
nothing on Melville where tedium is concerned; or at least his Moby Dick 
work.

 

Taxes,  Death and Moby Dick.




: 
https://navlist.net/Moby-Dick-Tales-Pennino-jan-2019-g43885

   

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