As a non-native English speaker, this is really tough to read.

What do you find difficult about it? It's very straightforward, part of its appeal is that it can be validly taken at face value. Keep going bro, keep up with your English and come back to reread when you get a better understanding

>>8510788
It's not an easy book by any means, even for a native English speaker. It has that one sentence that takes up like an entire page without a full stop.

>>8510759
But did the beginning in the hotel meeting Queequeg not just fly by? I was audibly laughing for the first 80 or so pages.

As a non-native English speaker, I also think it is difficult to read. Its vocabulary is a bit outdated, and some parts are very slow. Loved the book, though. It actually helped me to improve my English comprehension.

Even as a native speaker I had to occasionally highlight a word on my kindle to check the definition.

>>8510802
Oh, I misunderstood. I think that the book is not so hard grammatically and the difficulty people have with it is
vocabulary.
>>8510759
The best option if you don't like dictionaries is a kindle which has an integrated dictionary system, you can also translate to your native language

As a native English speaker the vocabulary is tough at times, but more than anything it's just tedious. Sentences and thoughts go on forever.

As a non-native English speaker it's really not tough to read. Git gud.

>>8510802
More specific?? Can you copypasta that sentence

>>8511249
Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in marbles, japonicas, and pearls; and though various nations have in some way recognised a certain royal pre-eminence in this hue; even the barbaric, grand old kings of Pegu placing the title "Lord of the White Elephants" above all their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion; and the modern kings of Siam unfurling the same snow-white quadruped in the royal standard; and the Hanoverian flag bearing the one figure of a snow-white charger; and the great Austrian Empire, Caesarian, heir to overlording Rome, having for the imperial color the same imperial hue; and though this pre-eminence in it applies to the human race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe; and though, besides all this, whiteness has been even made significant of gladness, for among the Romans a white stone marked a joyful day; and though in other mortal sympathies and symbolizings, this same hue is made the emblem of many touching, noble things - the innocence of brides, the benignity of age; though among the Red Men of America the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge of honor; though in many climes, whiteness typifies the majesty of Justice in the ermine of the Judge, and contributes to the daily state of kings and queens drawn by milk-white steeds; though even in the higher mysteries of the most august religions it has been made the symbol of the divine spotlessness and power; by the Persian fire worshippers, the white forked flame being held the holiest on the altar; and in the Greek mythologies, Great Jove himself made incarnate in a snow-white bull; and though to the noble Iroquois, the midwinter sacrifice of the sacred White Dog was by far the holiest festival of their theology, that spotless, faithful creature being held the purest envoy they could send to the Great Spirit with the annual tidings of their own fidelity; and though directly from the Latin word for white, all Christian priests derive the name of one part of their sacred vesture, the alb or tunic, worn beneath the cassock; and though among the holy pomps of the Romish faith, white is specially employed in the celebration of the Passion of our Lord; though in the Vision of St. John, white robes are given to the redeemed, and the four- and-twenty elders stand clothed in white before the great white throne, and the Holy One that sitteth there white like wool; yet for all these accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and honorable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood.

>>8511268
>and though various nations have in some way recognised a certain royal pre-eminence in this hue;

How the fuck did Melville expect his readers to understand Brazilian idiom? What an ass.

>>8511268
>and though this pre-eminence in it applies to the human race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe;

>>8511278
The book can actually be read as a commentary on race relations in America. It was pretty progressive for its time

>>8511268
Is it really difficult to other people? 90% is just listing examples of whiteness, nothing special.

>>8511278
That part is really weird considering the fairly tolerant ideas Melville presents elsewhere in the book.

>>8511298
He probably meant literal mastership as opposed to earned or inherent mastership. Can't deny that white people were on top in the 19th century

>>8511278
he's taking the piss

the search/legitimacy for a white master race is as untenable as the search for the white whale, undermining his whole uptalking of whiteness

>>8511298
http://www.shmoop.com/moby-dick/race-quotes-3.html

>>8511305
He explicitly calls it "ideal mastership".

>>8511310
Your point is...?

>>8511307
>this is what revisionist left wing academia ACTUALLY believes