how do I write like Melville? I want my writing to be hard to

>>8653369
>I'm too stupid to understand Moby-Dick so I'll take my frustrations out on /lit/ by way of asking passive-aggressive questions

>>8653379
true, I can't make it past the cetology chapter, his writing is horrible and grotesque

>>8653399
You're horrible and grotesque

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>>8653399
kek.I went through that chapter like a breeze. Hone up on your lit skills m8

>>8653405
and you're quoggy

melville loves using stupid meaningless words like this lol

>>8653369
It depends on what you mean by 'write like Melville'

If you're talking about the cetology, just add in random editorialized non-fiction about how ships work or what parts of whales belong to the Queen of England and which to the King.

Once you've done that, select some other random actions that your protagonist is doing, such as coiling rope or looking out at the horizon, and make them have a fever dream where they explain their own lot in life via that action.

Then, at the last possible second, get back to the story you were trying to tell and write some beautiful dialogue between a crazy man and a severed animal head and remind us all why we're still reading.

Melville's writing is whimsical, not difficult. If you had a problem understanding it then I'm afraid you'll have to repeat the third grade

>>8653475
or maybe his writing is just not that good?

>>8653466
I don't care about the cetology, I'm going to skip this chapter anyway

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>>8653369

99% certain this isn't a pic of Nietzsche (on the right) as is often claim.

The figure on the right DOES have a bend in their back that is almost identical to mine. Feels bad man.

>>8653466

Good post. How do I give gold here?

in melville's own time, he was celebrated as a writer of travel fiction. however, he blossomed as a writer by studying philosophy and fucktons of shakespeare. he wrote moby dick after this intense period of studying to little to no success; the public wasn't ready for it. critics loved moby dick, as posterity shows, while the public loved his trashy travel fiction.

maybe read some eat pray love instead of big boy novels? nobody's forcing you to read melville.

>>8653369
>wanting to mimic someone else's writing style
This is why your works don't get published.

>>8653369
Drown yourself in shakespeare. That's what Melville did, and it shows in the change of tone in Moby-Richard after the appearance of Ahab.

>>8653718
You can fix that with exercise and stretching

>>8653369
Just copy stuff he wrote by hand, over and over. Then just add your own flavor.

>>8653369
Do you think she's playing with their dicks?

>>8653706
Yes anon, everyone's wrong except for you. Face it, Melville's prose is almost universally considered great, and he is often considered one of the very top American writers ever.

>>8653369
You should read and reread again Shalespeare, Cervantes and Milton.

>>8653369
What is happening in this photo?

>>8655773
She's jerking off Nietzsche and the other guy at the same time. She's also jerked off Freud and Rilke. That's what she's known for.

>>8655773
shre preps her two bulls

I'd rather write like corncob desu

>>8655730
what makes his prose great then?

>>8653369
...what's the story behind this picture?

>>8653399
Really? It's like twelve pages long

>>8653399
Read it. And read the whole book multiple times. The whole book is much more coherent and cohesive the third time around.

>>8653369
"The wise man may act like a savage, but the savage cannot pretend to be wise."

>>8658219
are you saying that melville is the wise and I'm the savage?

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>>8653399
>>8657179
MELVILLE IS THE FUCKIN GOAT

IT was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure; only, the pensive air was transparently pure and soft, with a woman’s look, and the robust and man-like sea heaved with long, strong, lingering swells, as Samson’s chest in his sleep. 1
Hither, and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea.
But though thus contrasting within, the contrast was only in shades and shadows without; those two seemed one; it was only the sex, as it were, that distinguished them. 3
Aloft, like a royal czar and king, the sun seemed giving this gentle air to this bold and rolling sea; even as bride to groom. And at the girdling line of the horizon, a soft and tremulous motion—most seen here at the Equator—denoted the fond, throbbing trust, the loving alarms, with which the poor bride gave her bosom away. 4
Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; untottering Ahab stood forth in the clearness of the morn; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl’s forehead of heaven.

>>8659482
>IT

fucking dropped


In all seriousness, that was beautiful. I haven't read anything of his yet (I know, I know). I can easily see where Corncob got his inpiration from. Looking forward to consuming Dick. Would it make a comfy fall/winter read? Or should I wait for spring? My spring semester is light as fuck, so I'm tackling some bigger books then. What do you guys think?

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>>8659506
just read it, the beginning is set in a cold, cold nantucket village. incredibly warm and intimate narration by ishmael, who's funny and charming without losing any biting wit. read the first few chapters and it'll fly by.

imo, the majority who don't like moby dick (see: goodreads reviews) likely do not like shakespeare, either. just gloss over the book and take special care to see his collection of extracts about whales: from genesis to contemporary whaling accounts, melville has read the classics to the fuckin hilt, and knows how to spin them into something transcendent of travel literature. look up some excerpts and soliloquys, i like ahab's "40 long years" one. i think that's what it's called, anyways.

cheers

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>>8653369
>>8655176
>>8655773

That's not the full picture

>>8659542
Where is it?