Moby Dick and Critics

>>9368164
I think the beauty of the work is that it's told through the eyes of a more or less passive observer. Simply a working man watching obsession turn to folly.

>>9368180
It's sad that most people don't seem to realize this and instead do high school analysis.

You cocksuckers really are gonna meme me into reading this aren't you?

>>9368164
Moby Dick is genre fiction, retard. It's a boy's adventure story. Get off my board, pleb.

>>9368468
Lo>>9368468
w quality vait

>>9368461
It's actually good

>>9368164
>Ishmael was the protagonist
I thought it agreed upon that Ahab was the protag

>>9368492
Ahab is the protag if you're edgy.

>>9368498
Ahab was a true hero and was the furthest thing from an edgelord

>>9368492
Queequeg was the protag. Fedallah the antag.

>>9368558
Queequeg was irrelevant

>>9368492
the whale is the protagonist

>>9368597
The only objectively good guy, who shirked a life of lazy wealth and politics, who works hard, saves lives, acts heroically and enables the destiny of his captain?

Irrelevant? Nah.

>>9368646
he's a nigger, so he's irrelevant by default. Only white males mattered in literature before the advent of feminism, anon.

>>9368657
I r8 this b8 8/8, m8

None of them are traditional heroes.

I think an idea you can take from the book is that you cannot take revenge on an animal/nature

So in that sense Ahab's monomaniac efforts are futile.

Ishmael could be seen as a tragic hero, yet he is the only one who survives.

>>9368721

Ishmael is what Melville thinks we should aspire to be. He takes what life gives him and makes the best of it instead of trying to spite in the face of God like Ahab.

>>9368721
Moby Dick died too so Ahab got his wish

>>9368721
>I think an idea you can take from the book is that you cannot take revenge on an animal/nature. So in that sense Ahab's monomaniac efforts are futile.
Shit when I read it I wanted to go whaling

So tell me if I got this right? When Moby Dick was published people thought it was shit and it destroyed Melville's reputation but a couple of decades later they realized they had shit taste

>>9368771
Yes, it was met with negative reception. All of Melville's publications before that were basic sea voyaging stories, basically commercial work. He had a large following of readers. These same readers were obviously not receptive to this new difficult literary endeavor.

>>9368461
do it cunt. it's great

>>9368468
t. pleb

>>9368461
If it doesn't grab you 40 pages in just put the book down entirely. However, Moby Dick is great.

>>9368751
n-no he didn't..

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You guys are all fucking idiots.

High School students and people who don't read much think Ishmael is the protagonist.

Pseuds & undergrads think that Ahab is the protagonists.

Fucking assholes think that Elijah or Starbuck or fucking Daggoo is the protagonist.

The Sub-Sub-Librarian who gathers the Etymology & Extracts is the real protagonist. The Extracts contain the most important lines of the book.
e.g.:

"Here ye strike but splintered hearts together—there, ye shall strike unsplinterable glasses!"

>>9369208
>Pseuds & undergrads think that Ahab is the protagonist
Fuck you

>>9369218
Undergrad?

Nice defense, by the way.

>>9369230
>undergrad
yeah

>>9369208
Pseuds think this>>9368558

>>9369208
Poor simple minded anon, the protagonist is the ethernal substance which is expressed by its will in the conflicts of men and the ubiquity of the whale's power.

>>9369244
(me, too)

: - ) ) ) )

(but Ahab still isn't the protagonist)

>>9369257
Good post. 8/10. I was about to post a half-assed troll post saying that "the reader is the protagonist."

>>9368751
>Moby Dick died
read it again anon

>>9369208
The real fucking protagonist is the White Whale

fukkkk Humans and hunting

>>9368752
After watching Ahab's obsession getting him killed you wanted to go hunt whales?

>>9368226
>>9368180
I had a big fight with a friend a couple of nights ago regarding this. He said that the only problem with Moby Dick is that Ishmael does not acts most of the novel, to which I answered that that's not the "function" of Ishmael, but that he is an observer of the unfolding phenoma of a spirit broken, a bystander to set sane eyes into monomania.

>>9369208
Thanks for this anon, made me chuckle.

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>>9369323
that's all I want out of life.

: - )

>>9369316
Ishmael isn't even the narrator half the time.

>>9368503
>Ahab was the true hero
>furthest thing from an edgelord
>missing one of the main points of the whole novel
Considering that more than half of the board can't even make heads or tails of The Stranger I can't say I'm mad, only disappointed.

>>9368657
>Polynesian
>Nigger
Why can't white people even be racist properly?

>>9369428
He's Maori

>>9369434
>Maori
(which is Polynesian)

>>9368164
Ishmael was a literal faggot. Prove me wrong.

>>9369434
>He's Maori
No he isn't. He comes from the fictional island of Rokovoko. Also The Maori are a Polynesian people so even if you were right I have no idea why you would bring it up.

>>9369461
No, he comes from New Zealand

>>9369461
>No he isn't. He comes from the fictional island of Rokovoko.

I'm assuming that guy is saying that because the tattooing described is exactly like the Maori. Also: when we first hear of him he's selling specifically New Zealanders' heads.

>>9369473
>>9369461
>>9369485
oops, I was wrong. He's just flinging shit around.

>>9369473
>Queequeg was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are.
Hmmm, that's an interesting way of spelling New Zealand.

>>9369428
>missing one of the main points of the whole novel
It's to not seek revenge on whales or nature in general. However, I didn't really care for the main point much and admired Ahab

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This thread looks like a bunch of neet weeaboos with a bernard-level reading of the book.

>>9369550
>It's to not seek revenge on whales
I really hope you are joking
>or nature in general
It isn't. If you had said Nature (capitalised) and without the in general that follows it I would say you are on the right track. But nature in the sense of animals and trees then no, that is not the point at all.

>However, I didn't really care for the main point much and admired Ahab
You said Ahab wasn't an edgelord. I pointed out that his function in the novel is literally to be an edgelord. Now you say you agree he is an edgelord but you don't care because you like him anyway. That's fine, but why lie and say he isn't an edgelord then?

>>9369588
>You said Ahab wasn't an edgelord. I pointed out that his function in the novel is literally to be an edgelord. Now you say you agree he is an edgelord but you don't care because you like him anyway. That's fine, but why lie and say he isn't an edgelord then?
I felt that there was nothing wrong with Ahab's actions. I really never understood why people give him shit for wanting revenge on Moby Dick

>>9369602
>I really never understood why people give him shit for wanting revenge on Moby Dick
He took his entire crew with him. Besides he was too old to be seeking revenge on a whale

>>9369602
You don't think there is anything wrong with intentionally fucking over the company you are meant to be working for or Intentionally putting your whole crew in very serious and unnecessary danger?

People don't give him shit for wanting revenge, they give him shit because human life means nothing to him so long as he gets his revenge, and that the things he is willing to do are so out of proportion to the wrong actually done him.