Moby Dick

>>9897295

Fuck off faggot. Moby-Dick is probably the closest thing to a perfect novel in existence.

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>>9897295
>criticizing great books

Some resentful people just can't help seeing the bad in everything

>>9897295
There are none. The English major is superior to you in every way

>>9897299
>>9897311

Oh yeah, let me go on for 30 pages of taxonomic classification of every whale in existence. Perfect book my ass.

>>9897333
utterly plebeian

>>9897333
>the best way for me to admit I'm donkey-brained: the post

>>9897333
>missing the point this hard

>>9897348
>>9897352
>>9897359

Any legit posters or just endless ad hominem?

>>9897295
>hasn't read it
>still wants to criticize it
>has the nerve to call anyone else pretentious

If you're being serious, you're a massive shithead. Read the book, it'll teach you to be less of a cunt.

>>9897509
Faggot

>>9897509
Shut up bitch

>>9897509

What do you want to know? You want sharp criticism of the novel? There's not much to critique. Moby-Dick is one of the only works of literature which almost the entirety of the academic and critical community views as an example of a near-perfect novel. Here's a concept, why don't you just read the book for yourself so you can intelligently discuss the novel with your perceived intellectual enemy.

Are you admitting you're too stupid or lazy to actually come to a conclusion about a novel yourself?

I haven't read it yet (it's on my shelf, one of the few books I took with me when moving for a while) but after reading Bartleby I am worried that Melville was just a forecoming of today's faggy Jew / women New Englander type of writer. I also opened moby dick ti a random page and it was less biblical more whimsical

>>9897524
Im a philosophy major, I don't have time to read Mr Biologist goes whale watching.

>>9897554

>Philosophy Major
>Doesn't have time for Moby-Dick

You're a psuedo nigger who can't think for himself. Moby-Dick is one of the most philosophically charge novel ever written.

You're baiting now. Fuck off.

>>9897359
what, may I ask, is the point?

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>>9897554
>Im a philosophy major, I don't have time

> wants to critique a book he won't read, a book universally accepted as the great American novel

OP can't seriously be this much of a faggot

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There's literally an entire book on why you should read Moby Dick.

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>>9897554

>>9897575
On a broad level to join in the struggle and the neauseating mono-obsession of the crew and feel yourself wreaking as you look for the effeble profundity amongst the drowning absurdity of the whale as the object of the quest

too many adjectives

>all these pseuds jumping at the chance to gang up on OP
you do realize /lit/ is a board based around critiquing books they haven't read? it's all they do

>taking the bait this hard
I expect better of you, /lit/. While I'm here I wonder if anyone has anything to say on Moby Dick being the first (and perhaps only?) instance of American mythology. I know that's a bit vague, but I'm curious if viewing Melville's depiction of the whale as quasi-religious would be a productive way of thinking about the book. The extensive accounts of the whale's biology, the mythic anecdotes of whaling adventures, the whale's ubiquity in 19th century commerce--all of these things suggest that Melville (and maybe his contemporaries?) appreciated (perhaps worshipped?) the whale the way people appreciate a deity.

>>9897601
t. Resentful after having his shitty author ripped to shreds

>>9897597
I realize you feel smart for using a coupe ten dollar words there possibly in an attempt to obfuscate slower readers but your post can be reduced to
>to make the reader feel as bored as the crew

>>9897622
Not just bored, fucking pissed off and sick of God forsaken whales too

>>9897613
t. doesn't read

>This book is so good that we can't even explain why its good

>Its so good that I can't possibly critique even the smallest part of this book

You fuckers sound like fundamentalist Christians sometimes. I doubt more than a 1/3rd of you have read this beyond the Wikipedia entry.

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>>9897736
>You fuckers sound like fundamentalist Christians sometimes

>>9897736
Okay hotshot, why don't you respond to my inquiry above >>9897610

>>9897610
uhhmmm racist much? are you just going to ignore the rich native american mythology which existed thousands of years before Melville jerked off into a whales blowhole and wrote a book about it?

>>9897736

Oh we can explain why it's good. But we're not cucked faggots who spoon feed pseudo-intellectual assholes just because they want to "shove some talking points down their throats".

>>9897863
>we
so this guy speaks for all of us here including me? or is he just reddit af

>>9897866
He is actually our elected spokesman

>>9897802
>being this bad at baiting

>>9897863
You sound like the kid on the playground who bragged about having 6 Mewtwos on his team but would never show anyone or battle because "it wouldn't be fair".

Fuck off, pseud.

>>9897895
>falling for the bad bait bait

>OP trying to bait so he can get responses for his high school essay

>>9897895
>>9897907
how is that bait? I'm objectively right, native americans did have a rich mythology long before moby dick was conceived.

maybe you should go back to /pol/ if you just want to pretend other cultures don't exist.

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>>9897316
Congrats, you win the /lit/ non-sequitur of the week award!

>implying English majors are superior to any life-form more advanced than a sponge

>>9897509
>Any legit posters or just endless ad hominem?

The latter, you ignorant wanker.

>>9897601
>projecting this hard

>>9897933
He was talking about actual America, not Pocahontas America

>>9897970
>get's BTFO
>Y-you're p-p-projecting
lmao pathetic

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>>9897953
Since everyone in this thread is functionally retarded, I'm gonna keep this simple.

3 Positives about Moby Dick
- Whales are cool I guess. Free Willy was good.
- The prose is ok
- Adventure stories are fun

3 Negatives about Moby Dick
-Too fucking long. 30 page diatribes about whale biology and history of whales.
-Too much homosexual imagery. The indian guy is from Gay Head for fucks sake. May as well have been from Fire Island
- Obsession with the whale was fucking stupid. Its an ocean mammal. Was ahab really worried about Moby coming into his room at night and sperming up his guts? Plus they had guns on the boat. Why resort to doing something stupid like getting in its element and stabbing it?

Anyone else enjoy Melville's autistic rants, such as the one about how people draw whales completely wrong?

>>9897524
Not much to critique in one of the greatest novels ever written. Fuckin hell /lit/ shall we just stop now?

>the great american novel
>makes you sick of whales
>whales are fish

>>9898005
>Obsession with the whale was fucking stupid.

THATS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT YOU RETARD

>>9897299
Eyyyyy I get that stans, but I really struggle to call the whole thing great. It's the one classic that I can agree with the 'it's boring' crowds.

>>9898075
he means 'negative stuff' by critique

>>9898122
and what am I supposed to gain from that? it's a shitty gimmick and melville shouldn't have put it in there.

Moby Dick is the best book I read this year desu

Well, there are some plot inconsistencies. For example, a character gets introduced early on with much fanfare but is never mentioned again.
Also, the middle section isn't as intensely genius as the rest of the book, it's only really good.

>>9898139
>the point of the book, the concept that guides everything is a gimmick and it shouldn't be in the book

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>>9898002
Not even the same anon, you projecting fuckwit.

Protip: there's a world that exists outside your own head, which the rest of us call "reality."

>>9898162
you keep saying it's the point of the book. so if I write a long boring book about y balls and how I clean them and jerk off and you were to tell me it's shit and I said that's the point of the book would that make it a good book?

what am I supposed to gain from this "point"of being a boring fucking book?

>>9898179
bait

>>9898186
it's honestly not. I'm sick and tired of /lit/ jerking off dead white men's shitty books but not one person can explain why they're good. you guys are worse than reddit.

You're all a bunch of pseuds and if I could I would fight all of you.

If Moby Dick is boring to you, stick to best sellers

>>9898186
yeah when you're called out cause you can't back up what you're saying it's always bait. keep telling yourself that you fucking pseud pussy bitch

>>9898195
This dude has a point. The extended metaphor bullshit is tiring. The book is influential / a masterpiece etc., but I don't think it's wrong to acknowledge this.

>>9898227
Its not a metaphor, only plebs believe this

>>9898195

It's great because it's deep like the sea.

"There is a wisdom that is woe, but there is a woe that is madness." -HM

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>>9897295
>pretentious
>English major
>talking points

Grow the fuck up.

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>>9898237
I'm a philosophy major. I've read texts that would make your plebian little face melt off like you had just opened the Arc of the Covenant.

For all your circlejerking, pretentious english major bullshit, you cannot find one flaw in a 600 page book.

Grow up and learn how to critically analyze things.

>>9898268
>>9898237
>when the barristas are arguing about some autistic shit and you just want your coffee

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>>9898268
Did I say anything about being an English major? How do you know what I've read?
If you're so intellectually capable, read it yourself, you fucking caricature, I'm sure you'll find more "flaws" than any of us.

>>9898281
>JUST A MOMENT, SIR

>>9898290
>>9898268
yes I'll have a caramel machiatto extra foam please.

>>9898313
>IT'LL BE JUST A MOMENT, SIR
>WE'RE REALLY BACKED UP

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>>9898281
>>9898292
>>9898313
>>9898321

Jokes on you, i'm unemployed.

>Woah man, this book is like so deep. It literally invented american mythology as we like, know it man. Its so good that I can't even explain why its good, you just gotta like, vibe with it yourself man.

I sent a thank you card to the man who raped you.

>>9897509
Classic donkey brain right here.

>>9898336
Sure, it's not like art can only be truly evaluated by engaging with it directly and on its own terms.

I read How to Read Kant and looked at a message board. Let me totally """mindfuck""" you with why Kant is wrong now. Culture is about me winning and looking smart.

>>9898365
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY in this thread has given a single coherent reason, not even subjectively, on why Moby Dick is even a good book.

I'm convinced this is /lits/ equivilent of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, /k/s version of the Mosin Nagant, and /v/s version of Vanilla WoW.

Idiots, all of you.

>>9898232
what is it then and why should I as a reader care?

>>9898426
Bullshit, you can't know a novel unless you read it, like any other text. You can't even properly debate it until you've read it. This is such a basic fucking principle in any field of knowledge that I can't believe somebody has to explain it to you.
The only way I could give you what you're asking for is to literally copy and paste the novel onto the board.
"Moby-Dick is a great novel because of the way it integrates several different genres into an exegesis on American destiny and the inevitable destruction of its own culture."
Not good enough, right? Yeah, nothing will be good enough. You have to read the book.
I'm not even defending Moby-Dick, I'm telling you that if you're setting out to tell people why a book isn't good without having read it and identified problems yourself, there is no good reason to listen to you.

>>9898426

>/lits/ equivilent of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

exactly, it's a masterpiece

>Can somebody tell me why Godel is wrong about the incompleteness of algebraic systems? I want to shut up this math major and I need some talking points. No, I've never taken Algebra II. I just need a quick rundown, I'm going to own this nerd.

>>9898483
>literature is objective like math
>I'm an autist who needs everything to be quantifiable

Just go in on how it's "racist". Bam, perfect and unassailable criticisms.

It took me three attempts to make it through Moby Dick. I still don't see the purpose of the endless digressions on whale biology, how no one knows how to properly draw a whale, how Perseus and Saint George were technically whalers, why the color white is terrifying, or why Melville autistically decides to call a whale a fish when he knows full well they are mammals.

I quite enjoyed the scenes with the crew, but the rest is just so much filler.

>>9899224
bretty assailable if your interlocutor has read, say, Benito Cereno

>>9897333
It all has a point. Not going to make it.

>>9899233
The autistic one is you

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>Heres a 30 page analysis about whales written in autistic levels of detail

>Heres a rant about how nobody in human history has ever drawn a whale correctly

>Also whales are mammals lol

>>9899480
Yeah, I got a nut... SO???

http://www.litcharts.com/lit/moby-dick/chapter-95-the-cassock

>>9899159
>no reading comprehension
The point being that somebody doesn't want to do the work of forming their own opinion for the sole purpose of feeling better than somebody else. Pretty inexcusable.

>>9897333
Moby-Dick's cetology is probably tied with Iliad's catalog of ships in functioning as a pleb filter. It never fails; I fucking love it.

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>>9897333
>Outing yourself as a brainlet in literally the second post you make

>>9899626
>>9899637
>whales are fish

>>9899672
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetology
>Cetology (from Greek kῆτος, kētos, "whale"; and -λογία, -logia) or Whalelore is the branch of marine mammal science that studies the approximately eighty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoise

>doubling down on brainlet status

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>>9899672

tfw you got into an argument with your mom over this when you were 5

>>9899703
>>9899672
There is no actual taxonomically reflective category known as fish

>>9899709
sure there is -- maybe you mean phylogenetic instead of taxonomic?

>>9899737
I take that as a given when speaking of species

It's just a great book. I don't want to describe it to all these autists, to justify it or prove to them in some way that I've read it and that it's enjoyable. That seems to fall short of what reading is all about. There's no prestige to Moby Dick, or to reading any sort of 'great book', I find. I'm not going to write essays on it, or to bring up its aristotelian nuances or the psychological traits it underlines in each of its characters, the struggle between duty and care, here or elsewhere. Besides, I feel this melanesian leaf-gathering collective isn't really the place for spouting about it in all of its details. The point is simply this: it's a great fucking read. You're there in the boat with a crew worth knowing, boring nights to learn about whales, and a creature you don't know whether or not to believe, let alone kill. It's an enjoyable book. Are there better books? Maybe. It was worth the attention this particular philistine chose to give for it.

>>9899740
fair enough, but I was thinking that traditional, historical, and colloquial groupings could probably be called taxa (or at least have a place in taxonomy as a discipline with an awareness of its own history) but not phyla.

>>9897610
I don't think he worshipped whales but I think you're right abut them appreciating it as some sort of mythological figure. I personally think Melville rejuvenated or perhaps recaptured the ideal of great myths and set them in an American context.
What I mean is that Melville lived in a time where the art of writing and appreciating great epics akin to Homer were rapidly dying out. Thus Melville set out to write a similarly profound work that intimately touches the human spirit.
Moreover, I think that the way we write stories has a lot to do with how we view the world. In ancient days we didn't really understand the world, so we made stories about Gods and demons everywhere.
In a period when the world was rapidly becoming smaller, with man having charted nearly everything and taxonomized nearly every creature, the whale represented one of the last bastions of human ignorance towards God's creation.

whales ARE fish and you missed the point if you think otherwise

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>>9898426
> beautiful, scripture-like prose
> a central narrator with charm and will
> a central protagonist in Captain Ahab who is both disturbing, upsetting yet admirable in equal measures
> beautiful bonds of friendship develop into a dreadful tragedy providing an exciting climax to the book
> portrayals of race that aren't insulting, ahead of its time for the 1800s
> The sermon
> beautifully paced book that provides contextualisation to every narrative-driven chapter that follows

Suck my dick, motherfucker.

>>9899637

>calls someone else a brainlet
>posts Bowie

>>9900375
delete this

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>>9897295
reminder that we are quantifiably more intelligent than an average journalist

>>9898426
That fact that you include the Nugget in your list tells me that you don't understand any of these things. Fuck off.

>>9901224
>The average """(((journalist)))"""

>>9897295

The ending is rushed and anti-climactic and the titular beast stands above and beyond any of the extensive definitions the book spent most of its duration shoving down your throat.

It's like you read a 600-page report on the nigerian culture, inhabitants, and geology, and then in the last chapter the characters meet a martian instead of nigerians and get blown up with an atom blaster in one half-hearted sentence. Which actually sounds a whole lot more interesting than Moby-Dick.

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>>9901224
>we
How many people here have actually read moby dick?

strawpoll time

https://strawpoll.com/y722wx4y

>>9897295

Most of the characters are forgettable. It is way too long.

More than half of a novel is spent on general whaling stuff. While there are few really great chapters in that part most of it doesn't say anything worthwhile.

I can see how people can like this book, but I don't know how anyone could call it flawless.

The only reason it is so much discussed here is because this is mostly an American site and Americans don't have a lot of valuable books from the 19th century when compared to Europe.

People outside USA don't consider Moby Dick as best book in the world or anywhere close to it for a reason.

>>9899909
Interesting stuff anon. I was actually thinking Greek mythology when I made that post. The character Elijah, for example, is kinda reminiscent of an oracle.
>In a period when the world was rapidly becoming smaller, with man having charted nearly everything and taxonomized nearly every creature, the whale represented one of the last bastions of human ignorance towards God's creation.
This reminds me of something some anon said here about Moby one time. That it was kind of a fantasy/sci-fi story about whaling, and the cetology chapters function similarly to the way a sci-fi writer today might explore the mechanics of some spacecraft propulsion system might work in a novel about interstellar space travel.

>>9899761
/thread/ :')

The book is far too inconcise for its message. I got about halfway through and dropped it.

>>9902037
Why did you put a meme answer? Now we won't get accurate results.

>>9903036
if you think people here were ever gonna answer any poll honestly then maybe you should return to /v/eddit

>>9902210
>The only reason it is so much discussed here is because this is mostly an American site and Americans don't have a lot of valuable books from the 19th century when compared to Europe.
germanfag here.. i noticed the same thing about melville, but also that faulkner seems to be more esteemed in europe than he is over there

ive only listened to the audiobook at work

>>9897295
It's was a long long read wore me out.

>>9897554
Is this bait? I have a degree in philosophy and Moby-Dick is my favorite novel. Fuck you, bitch.

The semen squeezing

>>9903052
Faulkner is god-tier

>>9899233
Whales were categorized as fish at the time

>>9897311
Sheep with the Bloom bantz

>>9898005
The guns were there to fend of pirates. If they used bullets on the whale (which were probably useless against it, compared to harpoons) they would have to use harpoons against guns.

>>9897554
Retard

>>9898195
>dead white men fallacy
>Muh Reddit
Go away tumblrsperg

>>9897295
>Help me pretend to read

You aren't going to get any help here, OP

I would definitely read the chapter where Ahab crafts his spear. I mean, you could read a quick summary and just jump around, the chapters are 1-2 pages. Cite specific points, always makes you seem more well read than trying to explain away the entire general meaning.

>>9905721
this and also the central set-piece of the novel: the whale language. How the whale feels about his role in Ahab's mania, Ishmael as collateral damage and the continuing oppression of the ethnic rag bag of hired hands. The Voice of Moby, especially in his conversations with the whale family, is the real debate: what position does he take and reprsent?

>>9898426
Dude you're the one who's being idiotic.

If you could sum up an epic tome in two sentences it wouldn't be worth reading or writing in the first place, see?

Some things just aren't for everyone. A lot of people can't read long, difficult books. Its ok.

>>9903052
Melville is very esteemed in the UK/Eire.
No offence German-brah but you guys don't really have academic institutions, so how can a novelists be esteemed or not in European countries? I guess booksales but come on...

>>9902037
>i understand it perfectly
Like anyone can ever "perfectly" understand any work of art

Chose that option because it was the most accurate but still a dumb poll

>>9898426

Alright, faggot. Here's just a few reasons why Moby-Dick is an amazing novel:

1.) Melville's Prose is top-notch. He stands alongside Shakespeare and Joyce in his aesthetic ability and I would argue there is really no one outside of the other two aforementioned writers who can compete with Melville's ability to turn words into unrivaled art. Without Melville, the aesthetic style of writers like Faulkner, McCarthy, Pynchon, Hemingway, and many others doesn't exist. After Shakespeare, he is arguably the most important stylist in the English language. I personally prefer the monologues and soliloquies of Ahab, Ismael, et al over any of Shakespeare's famous monologues. Ahab's monologue in The Symphony is, in my mind, the single greatest monologue in the English language.

2.) Thematic Cohesion. There is not a chapter, paragraph, or word that is wasted in Moby-Dick. It is all carefully crafted to tie into the core themes of the novel. Namely, the unconquerable of nature of Nature itself (and therefore, God), the Byronic quest conquer nature, and the noble, if ultimately futile, pursuit of defying fate/God. All of those chapters you find 'boring'-the ones related to cetology and whaling--they exist to serve the thematic purpose of the limits of human knowledge and the ultimately powerlessness which we as humans possess. We can classify and quantify and acquire unlimited amounts of knowledge about something but ultimately we hold no real power over our final destiny. As Ahab proclaims,

>"Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who that lifts this arm? But if the great sun not move of himself; but is as an errand boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike"

The themes and ideas presented in Moby-Dick are universal and eternal. Moby-Dick is indeed an epic, but in this epic our heroes aren't waging war against gods or men but rather the idea of God and man itself. The epic quest which Ahab embarks upon is a quest for something which cannot be achieved or even properly understood, yet he carries forward nonetheless, thereby dooming himself and his men. The white whale can never be slain because the white whale is ultimately what lies beneath 'the mask', the core driving force of the cosmos. This force is something which can never truly be understood, and therefore can never be defeated, and mankind will continue 'striking at the mask' until his ultimate annihilation.

cont...

>>9902210
I'm a Britbong and Moby-Dick is my favourite book.

>>9907118

3.) Meta-narrative and literary form manipulation. Melville is the first writer to successfully integrate and utilize different literary forms. He utilizes literary structures reserved for plays, mythology, narrative poetry, and academic writing throughout the novel--predating the modernist who would come to utilize these techniques extensively by 60+ years. Modern and Post-modern aesthetics owes an incredible debt to Melville, who preceded these movements by over 50 years. The techniques which Melville employs throughout Moby-Dick pop up again in Joyce, Faulkner, Pynchon, and many others. You could argue that he was, in aesthetic form, the first modernist writer. The concept of a 'meta-narrative' literature was largely obscure and even mocked at the time of the publication of Moby-Dick and Melville himself was panned and shunned for it by his contemporary critics. Without Melville, you probably don't have the modernists or post-modernists and the idea of meta-textual works may have never come to fruition.

4.) Moby-Dick is the first (and possibly only) "American Epic"--It is the best attempt by an American writer, so far, to establish a national epic. The form, narrative, and structure establish Moby-Dick very distinctly as a traditional quest epic. It's characters, linguistics, and cultural themes are distinctly American. I would go as far as to say that Moby-Dick may very well be the only successful prose epic in English, as all other major epics exist in poetry form. Melville establishes and creates an American tapestry of distinctly cultural mythology. The concept of Manifest Destiny, the idea of the liberated and individualistic American, the emphasis on a distinctly American venture which seeks to conquer nature (whaling)--all of these Melville raises to mythical heights which has now successfully been integrated into the fabric of American history and culture. There are some other strong candidates for an "American Epic" (Huck Finn most prominently comes to mind), but nobody has match or rivaled Melville so far.

I could go on, but hopefully that satisfies your pleb mind.

>>9907118
>>9907190
Good post(s). I especially appreciated the third point. But do you think that maybe this Great Man of Literary History rhetoric you're using is appropriate? Like, all the times you say "without Moby Dick, X work of literature wouldn't exist" is poignant analysis?

>>9907190
>Without Melville, you probably don't have the modernists or post-modernists and the idea of meta-textual works may have never come to fruition.

Don Quixote was very meta-textual.

>>9907824
They are lofty claims, I agree, and I'm not saying that those techniques wouldn't have been utilized by subsequent writers, but when you look at the great modernist stylists, Joyce and particularly Faulkner, they all recognize Melville as a significant influence in their own writings. Faulkner even went so far as to claim that Moby-Dick was the one book he didn't write that he wished he had. In fact, at the time the modernist movement was getting started, it was the modernist who revived Melville's image, who by that point was almost entirely forgotten in the public and even critical circles. Had it not been for the modernists, it's very possible Moby-Dick would still remain in the shadows as a forgotten classic instead of the quintessential "Great American Novel" it's (rightly) heralded as today.

>>9907878
Yes. There are other examples of meta-textual works which predate Moby-Dick, such as Don Quixote or Tristram Shandy, but Moby-Dick was, in my opinion, the first novel to handle this extensively to great success.

Tell him it's a racist work by a privileged white male.

Moby Dick is tedious, gay, and precious. That calling of New Yorkers "Manhattoes" is so cutesy it should have come from JD Salinger.
Moby Dick appeals to ponces who confuse girth with complexity, and benefits from a century of imagined depths granted to it by opportunistic critics.
Because it is such a lengthy, turgid read, they know most people will never transit the novel, and therefore their assertions will remain unchallenged.
The author was such a mooning calf of an asshole that Natty Hawthorne told him to stop coming around. I think Melville bad touched Julien, but i can't back that up.

>>9903874
It must have certainly inspired your talent for snappy comebacks, eh? Turd.

>>9908212
is this pasta? if not, we should meme it into one.

>>9908212
>one for the gulags

>>9908212
Tip top kek

>>9907190
Great post, great analysis. I do disagree with one minor point though.

>Moby-Dick may very well be the only successful prose epic in English

The Lord of the Rings. It's not as good as Moby-Dick, I'd never argue that, but it is an English language epic and it is very, very good.

>>9897295
Let me think, so you are a lazy dog that wants us to help you out show off agains another lazy dog. :P
Okay I follow. Read the whole book boy.
YOU then, create a unique criticism, based on YOUR thouhts and if the guy disagrees, you use arguments based on what you have read and shove his personal opinion (based on ingnorance as you imply) up his throat.
But this needs work and brains, which you don't wanna put to achieve your goal.
Fun fact, you already have put both, brains and work, to read this message, so why not reading Moby Dick already?
Yes you might not like reading. But that's how critics make criticism.

If you get the belefs of others, and show off telling something someone else said about Moby Dick, you will not be able to stand for it. You will be exposed and be embarrassed.
Because it is quite obvious if you actually KNOW something about a book or not.


Finally, just so you can understand, let's imagine that I am a computer tech guy. You wanna tell me that a specific laptop is nice. Let's say that I KNOW why it sucks. I got one, fixed one, know the specs, the pricing, thw quality and all the stuff to make a right argument. So you ask around people that own the laptop, to tell you why it rocks. Can you imagine how stupid you would sound coming and spitting arguments to me, that are not yours and how easily I would show that you got no idea at all?

A "pretentious English major" will be at that position if you actually read the book. Think about it.
Oh by the way... watch this too...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAxEQYqo7no

>>9897295
If you want to trash-talk a book you haven't read (or at least sampled) you're just going to embarrass yourself.

>pretentious English majors
You yourself are being pretentious by pretending to read the book when you haven't.

Instead of looking for someone else to think for you, read it own your own and form your own criticism. Who knows, maybe you'll even like it. Spooky!

>>9909201

I agree. The Lord of the Rings would also be the only other work which could properly be classified as a prose epic, as it is commonly understood by the critical definition of Epic. As much as I love Tolkien, however, he's a step below Melville.

it's literally the best book ever written

the central story, if you're pleb enough to be solely concerned with that, is great. the hugely charismatic byronic character raging against fate, the life and death struggle between ahab and the whale is fucking great

and if you're just a tiny bit below that level, the symbolism of it all is great, the raging individual against the fates. the battle scarred ahab taking down the white whale that took his leg

but if you go deeper still, you get ishmael's fantastic beautiful soliloquies about the nature of the universe that are so all encompassing and welcoming and wonderful, and it becomes about the world in general and how much it has in it
and it's about everything you ever thought of, the beauty and free-wheeling spirit of imagination

and beyond all that it's simply about how fucking much melville loves whaling and it turns out that's fucking interesting too.

and in each chapter every sentence is packed with so much enthusiasm, wit, symbolism, and pure joy that if you don't love it you are literally a neanderthal pleb and fuck off

It would have been a bestseller if Stephen King wrote it.

>>9908308
You have my permission

It would have been better if Kevin McDonald wrote it. It would have told the truth about the Jews.

>>9902210
>People outside USA don't consider Moby Dick as best book in the world or anywhere close to it for a reason.

And what do they consider, Middlemarch? Moby-Dick is the apotheosis of the American Novel and elevated literature farther than any other country's author.

Call me Roland.
The man and the boy came on deck together. They had been hunting the whale for a long time. They had both grown very brown.
Moby Blaine, the White Hwhale, had absconded previously with Captain Ahab's right leg, and a goodly portion of his dick. Hence the resentment.
"Come on, you goddam shitter!" Ahab railed. "Take the bait!" He glanced at the cabin boy. "Did you properly chum, me hearty?"
"Don't call me chum," ejaculated the boy.
At this, Ahab gave the boy a glancing blow.
Abruptly, Blaine the Hwhite Hwhale, turned an beedeedeebeep rammed Ahab's great black cloak of a ship, The Shoah.
Ahab pissed his pants. One of his Bass Weejuns toppled from his foot (and remember he only had the one)
More later, time to snort of a few lines, Love, SK