Moby Dick

>>8833252
>Also what's with Ishmael's passivity as a character as soon as he stepped onto the boat and his instant obsession with whales and whaling
dude he's writing this YEARS after the fact, having done an ass ton of research and been on subsequent expeditions.

if you gloss over the fictive non-fiction sections you're a dumbass and you're going to miss half of the point of the book, which evidently you already have.

I never understood people who didn't enjoy the whaling chapters, I found them fascinating

No you can't skip them, and you shouldn't say you're enjoying it if you don't like the cetalogy, which makes up like a third of the book, you asshat

>>8833252
Melville didn't put that shit in for a laugh, if you skip the whaling information you make as well just skip the book and go back to John Greene

>>8833252
Here baby anon, let me spoon-feed u. A word about Ishmael's passivity:

Ishmael and Ahab are foils. Ahab is focused completely on Moby Dick, and he uses the rest of the crew as pawns to fulfill his purpose. He does not care if his quest kills everyone on the ship as long as he can have his revenge. Ahab is alone with his "monomania," and without love

Ishmael, on the other hand, represents fraternal love. He experiences a bond of brotherhood with Queequeg despite his "savage" appearance. Upon stepping foot on the boat, he loses his concrete form and becomes almost a presence on the ship. In effect, he has become one with the crew, contrasting how Ahab is isolated from everyone else on the ship by his obsession. This also serves as a narrative boon, as now Melville can transcend the restrictions of a first-person narrator by having the Ishmael-presence explore sections of the boat which, realistically, would be sealed off to him (private meetings in the captain's office, personal thoughts of the crew members, etc.).

The cetology are important for several reasons, such as exploring the symbolic import of the whale, but mainly by illustrating a detailed portrait of the animal in the reader's mind, so by the last three chapters you can fully appreciate the immensity of Moby Dick. They use biology as a springboard to discuss the cultural/philosophical mythology humans have constructed concerning the whale. They're also well written, and either meditative, humorous, or both, so skipping them would be a mistake. Pay attention more while you read them, don't skim, and try to understand the double meaning, even though he's pretty overt with it most of the time.

>>8834302
do Ishmael and Queequeg ever actually bang?

>>8834683
No

>>8834683
>>8834688
Arguable both ways, there's a lot of subtle homoerotic imagery. Just saying, they're staying in the SPOUTER Inn ;^)

>>8834302
I think it's wrong to say that Ahab is separated from the crew. After Ahab makes his first big speech to the men about Moby Dick, Starbuck himself (or rather Ishmael through Starbuck) complains that at that point he felt that every man in the crew was metaphysically tied to a rope with Ahab on the other end. He even says explicitly, "We are all Ahabs" or "All men Ahab" or something very close to that. Starbuck has gone too long unnoticed as a narrative voice of MD.

Cmon, the cetology chapters are really not that bad. Even if your eyes glaze over, the absolutely longest info chapter is like 10 pages. I mean none of the chapters are long enough to be unable to get through them. Have you guys never had to read a section out of a textbook?.,..

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>>8834683
NO THEY WERE JUST FRIENDS WHY DOES EVERYBODY THINK EVERY CHARACTER IN BOOKS IS A FHEAG THESE DAYS?!

>>8834782
This only shows the charisma and the level of command Ahab has over the men, that he could get them excited about the doomed quest of a mad man. It speaks more to his ability as a leader than as a human capable of fellow feeling and love. Again, he's only using them as pawns to serve his own ends, so it's a fake bond.
Starbucks is actually the character that best illustrates this, and I think he's the only one that really sees through the charade of glory that Ahab is offering. Numerous times he tells Ahab he can still give up his revenge in favor of the lives of the crew, and obviously Ahab refuses. But Starbucks almost convinced him near the end, so that says a lot about his character that he could break Ahab's focus on the whale, even momentarily.

>>8834867
What of Ahab's wife and child? Does this not at least create a shared bond between Ahab and his first mate, who also had a family? Or at the very least prove that Ahab is capable of human emotion, despite any claims he might have to being some sort of higher power?
Anyone can recognize Starbuck's distress with Ahab's proposition, but I'm not sure how much you could say he "almost convinces" Ahab to give up the chase. Ahab has his doubts at moments sure, but by the end of the novel Starbuck is tied to Ahab the same as anyone else might be. He is the first to extend a hand when Ahab needs help getting back on the Pequod and at times seems to have become the most obedient shipmate aboard the ship.

>>8834887
A fleeting bond that lasted for that one moment but Ahab forsakes his family for a delusional quest against a whale and gets everyone on the ship killed in the process. to me that doesn't show any consideration for life, which is kind of important in genuine bonds. and again, Starbucks being obedient shows how Ahab's power as a commander, not as a human.

But i guess we can agree to disagree, great literature can be read in multiple ways

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>>8834804
Gary Cooper was a fag?

>>8834943
whoops didn't really edit that, sorry for the horrific grammar lol

I skipped parts of that one chapter which details the different subspecies of whale and you fuckers are making me doubt the very real enjoyment I have of the book. That's the chapter I initially thought everyone to be referring to. Does he really want to skip through all those descriptions of whale attitudes and physiology? That's pretty much all of the book, its best parts. It's like the dissolution of ishmael previously pointed at becomes at times, one with the ocean and then one with being.

>>8834302
>Upon stepping foot on the boat, he loses his concrete form and becomes almost a presence on the ship.
does anyone else fucking love the chapter where everyone is talking to the gold piece?