Moby Dick

>>9941528
Yes.

No.

>>9941669
>>9941673
>>9941723
Fuck

>>9941528
It's really quite drab to read in the modern day. Too much explanation for things that are common knowledge now, like that chapter on types of whales. I understand it made more sense when the laymen weren't as informed and with limited access to educational materials, but god damn does it ever disturb the pacing of the book.

Didn't even finish it desu, and it's sad because I could in the next day if I wanted to. But he lost me.

>>9941733
shut the fuck up

>>9941733
But you're missing the point. That chapter on types of whales is filled with false information, Ishmael is playing with his own theories which have little bearing on reality.

>>9941733
You're a kid.

Those ''explanations'' are written in masterful prose, and provide great entertainment. You're the type of person whose whole reading range goes from this novel up to that novel and finishes there. You haven't read the Bible. You haven't read Plato. You haven't read Aristotle. You haven't read Dante. If you think reading 200 pages about whaling is too much, this means you have little curiosity, and therefore you are not fit for lit. Those pages are not even difficult. You can quite literally understand the whole of those descriptions. It's very didactic and teaches you many things. Go back to /mu/ and stop posting here.

>>9941733
>not understanding those chapters are essential to defining Ishmael
Why don't you make like a banana split and peel outta here?

This is vastly overrated because americans don't have any decent big novel. Didn't finish it, it is just boring. Odyssey, Brothers Karamzov, hell even the Catcher in the rye are superior in every way to this garbage.

>>9941760
>Has only read this book and 3 others

>>9941789
Thank you for your bravery

>>9941528
It's deep and is absolutely an important book to read... but I can't say that I enjoyed reading it. I'm glad I read it but I doubt I'll ever read it again.

>>9942103
>but I doubt I'll ever read it again.
lel you're like 20

>>9942216

Seconded. Maybe he'll appreciate it more with a greater amount of life experiences.

>>9942380
>>9942216
i sure hope that that is true anons
btw im not him LOL get troled

>>9941528

I enjoyed the book and actually really enjoyed all of the stuff about whales and whaling. My favourite chapters were the parts about the various ways in which whales appear in art.

However, other than the chapters prior to the Pequod setting sail I found the actual story portions of the book to be incredibly lacking and felt the dialogue to be full of needless exclamation. My least favourite parts of the book were the chapters where Ishmael is telling us about events that he couldn't possibly have been privy to. I don't know if this is a common theory but I could only assume that Ishmael is either a liar or a fantasist. He talks about being friends with Polynesian princes and kings, almost as if he is saying it to make him seem more interesting, and the ending essentially gives him carte blanche to say whatever he wants because no one will say otherwise. I don't trust Ishmael as a narrator, though I don't know how much clout my interpretation actually holds.

Suffice to say, I don't think it is the best novel written in English (though I can't say what is) however I do think it is worth reading and has a lot of merit.

>>9941528
Wrong.

File: rosa.jpg (87KB, 880x630px) Image search: [Google]

87KB, 880x630px

Its a great book.

>>9941789
I find this happen with lots of works in english, maybe not that they are overrated, they are just more popular because >english is the international langue. For instance, there are works written in portuguese that in my opinion, are better than many books posted here, still, most people here will die never giving it a try, simply for the fact that it is not an original english work. I'll bet that if a work such as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Guimarães Rosa would be praised if it was written in english.

>voted in a poll by bokklubben world library in 2002 as one of the 100 best books of all time
>considered a very important modernist work of the 20th century (and in my opinion the greatest modernist work of brazilian /lit/)
>one of the most important works of brazilian and south american literature
>considered to be the brazilian equivalent of Ulysses AND The Odyssey (not by the same critic)
>"I speak: Portuguese, German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Esperanto, some Russian; I read: Swedish, Dutch, Latin and Greek (but with the dictionary right next to me); I understand some German dialects; I studied the grammar of: Hungarian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Lithuanian, Polish, Tupi, Hebrew, Japanese, Czech, Finnish, Danish; I dabbled in others. But all at a very basic level. And I think that studying the spirit and the mechanism of other languages helps greatly to more deeply understand the national language (of Brazil). In general, however, I studied for pleasure, desire, distraction".
>also a diplomat