Is the only way from here downwards
>>25255434Nah, because we got Raymond Chandler afterwards, and he was the greatest american writer. Better luck next time.
>>25255434You're starting to understandAhab is Christ on the cross, and Ishmael the Anti-Christ; he calls himself Ishmael, an outcast, an enemy to all of humanity and the heavens, an unsung hero who does not come to bring Good News but Bad News, he narrates the fate and demise of Ahab and the Pequod and thus the world: “I alone am escaped to tell thee”Though it ends with the death of all except Ishmael it is not without hope, the hope lies in the reader, in the rising of the Pequod from the bottom of the sea>“But Ahab, my Captain, still moves before me in all his Nantucket grimness and shagginess; and in this episode touching Emperors and Kings, I must not conceal that I have only to do with a poor old whale-hunter like him; and, therefore, all outward majestical trappings and housings are denied me. Oh, Ahab! What shall be grand in thee, it must needs be plucked at from the skies, and dived for in the deep, and featured in the unbodied air!”The reason Melville wrote the book and called it Moby Dick is because Moby Dick the whale CANNOT be slain but the book can be written Salvation is only found in the word, not in the world
More or less.
No because it's either a trade secret, a lengthy book, or expertiseif you read it as 1 then you live on the peakif you read it as 2 then there's more all the timeif it's 3 then you just want a burger and not to have to wait for it
>>25255434The first paragraph hooked me and I've tried reading it multiple times now. Each time I end up stopping because I feel like I'm missing or not understanding a bunch of stuff, the writing is dense and he makes a lot of references to things I don't recognize and I'm not a Literature major or anything so I went and bought a norton critical edition to attempt to fill in the gaps I feel like I'm missing out on.It's really good. The whale facts are hit or miss though
>>25255434Not really. But you wouldn't understand if you're a EOP
>>25255437Have you read The Long Goodbye? The Altman film is one of my favorite movies, didn't know it was a Chandler book, curious how it is. Altman often takes a lot of weird creative decisions with his adaptations so I wouldn't be surprised if they're nothing alike
>>25255488I have yet to read it, but I came across this at some pointhttp://www.powermobydick.com/Moby008.htmlseems like it could be useful to reference if it's feeling too dense or referential
>>25255434Americans are a truly stupid people. Moby-Dick isn't even the greatest novel, let alone comparable with the greatest achievements of poetry and drama.
>>25255488The Penguin edition is really good as well.
>>25255574It mogs poetry and drama since it contains them in itself, it's an endlessly protean work that shifts genres from chapter to chapter like the elusive whale itself
>>25255636>It mogs poetry and drama since it contains them in itselfYes, if you're an imbecile with an impoverished appreciation for both of these things.
>>25255434Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow are arguably greater achievements, but they're also way more cumbersome to read. MD is a great contender for the title of the GOAT.
>>25255434Nope, way too much filler. In fact, a book praised primarily because of its filler cannot be considered great, let alone the greatest of all time. That's why these two >>25255782must be excluded as well, if we're to concern ourselves with true art.
>>25255434Yes
The purpose of America's existence was to give us Moby Dick
>>25256030*Henry James
>highschool assigned reading general>everyone says its really hard to read This board is really something
>>25255434Poor man's Blood meridian
>>25255512So, what is the greatest piece of literature then?
>>25256058Bakemonogatari
>>25256058
>>25256058The manual for Lords of Magic (1997)
this board really is just /v/ for books. youre all such retards from the most basic fundamental conceptual levels of what literature is. i really can't understand what happened to you or what didn't happen to you to result in your current state. its so easy to just not be absolutely idiotic and you consistently fail at it
>>25256058Subarashiki Hibi: Furenzoku SonzaiHentai Prison
>>25255823Define “filler”
Of literature? No. Of the novel? Yes, but with the caveat Ulysses is on par with it.
>>25256058The Aeneid
>>25255782>gravity's rainbowLel
Ywn know enough about whaling to read Moby-Dick as the House of Leaves of its time. Ywn be a sea-wise city fella who knows what old Melville is on about. Ywn get the antebellum globalization subtext. Get WHALED
>>25255512>learn a whole new langue>only reads video games Go read some 舞城王太郎
>>25256154Yeah this I agree with. I’d probably give best piece of literature to something like Paradiſe Loſt or La Divina Commedia
>>25255437>raymond chandler>greatKek
>>25256333Yes, anon, you're so sophisticated and such an epic contrarian forchinz fit in>>A great author is actually...le bad!!! Wow, how i we will ever recover? Jesus, you should be the board owner.
>>25255434Wow another terrible Moby Dick thread, how wonderful
>>25255434>dicklmao
>>25256534>t. cant into subtext>t. doesnt understand the inter- and/or metatextual>t. cant define 'structure'>t. doesnt know what 'prose' actually is>t. plotfag
>>25256590>t. cant define 'structure'>t. doesnt know what 'prose' actually isWhat can I read to understand these?
>>25256538you are beginning to understand
>>25256632Literally any novel
>>25255532the altman movie is literally worthless the book is much better
>>25257213well I'm gonna read it anyway, but naw that's one of his best movies. He's definitely the type of director to piss off people who need accurate book adaptations, or anybody who just wants a normal straight forward movie desu. He often had the actors write their own lines etc, he's a weird dude full of flops but with a few gems in there
>>25256058Anna Karenina without question.
it's basically old infinite jest. it's not the next best thing that was way ahead of its time though
>>25255434It’s a great book but way overrated by some dudes for some reason.
>>25257955Mogged by W&P
>>25257955Almost the best Russian novel, but Petersburg exists.
>>25255488The whale facts are the best parts you absolute plebeian
>>25255574Fuck you faggot, what do you suggest is better, Don Quixote or some shit?
>>25258265NTA but Don Quixote is an acceptable book to argue for. Though, I wouldn’t call it better than Moby Dick
Man I want a copy with the Rockwell Kent illustrations so bad...
>>25257955>Madame Bovary but bloated due to the inclusion of Tolstoy's retarded self-insertLol
>>25257955
>>25257955This made the angloids seethe because they have never produced anything that comes close
>>25255434I actually just went out to purchase my copy of Moby Dick today. Can't wait to start reading it. I just started reading again this year. I began with the Iliad and Odyssey. Now on to this tail of obsession.
>>25258421Imagine actually believing this. I swear, you ESLs here make hating literature written in English your entire personality.
>>25258461It's how they cope with their inferiority.
>>25258461You only know one language hahaha. How can you call yourself a reader? Why larp as an intellectual?
>>25256058my diary desu
>>25256058Paradiſe Loſt
>>25255574People like you are why I threaten nearly every day to leave this shithole site. Moby Dick is nothing short of a miracle. Idiots like you don't understand it's not the plot or the characters that make a great book. It's the theme. It's the digestion. It's the seriousness.Moby Dick is Shakespearian (no, I won't explain what this actually means). It is Paradise Lost (no, I won't explain what this actually means). It is biblical (this one is pretty plain from the text desu he goes on about the bible A LOT).You are not worth my time. Maybe you should read Flashman, it might be more your speed.
>>25258421And yet they mentioned Petersburg, Madame Bovary and Tolstoy’s own War & Peace as examples of books they think are better. Retard.
>>25256058The Iliad
>>25258880Is this a pasta
My copy doesn't seem to have foot or endnotes with context for the continuous references. Does anyone have a good site that's worthwhile referencing while I read the book that can provide some of the context that the endnotes would have? I don't need it to be super long and detailed, just enough to provide some light information on anything obscure.
>>25259289>he doesnt read moby dick /lit/ editionMelville wouldve wanted that
>>25259121Yes. A boring one desu, no idea why that fag keeps spamming it.
>>25255434>>25255460Where the FUCK is the religious undertones in this book?
>>25259526
>>25259121It’s been around for a while now
>>25256150The stuff of life. Filler is what makes life great, Ahabs don't understand, crewmen do.
>>25258421This post also made the angloids seethe lol.
>>25255488>The whale facts are hit or miss thoughit's epistemology, retard. it's the fight between experiential and scientific understandings of the world. who knows more about whales, the whaler or the biologist, etc
>>25255574Moby-Dick is easily #2 greatest of all time in English after Ulysses and easily in the top 5 of all time in any language
>>25255434No. There is Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy and the Pickwick Papers.
