"Chapter XV- Chowder"

[ealgylden]

Ever since I first read it in junior high, I've been terribly fond of Moby Dick. My family finds this amusing, since the book is notoriously boring, and copies of it generally serve as doorstops or tools for spider killing.

"Have you gotten to the ten chapters on coiling ropes yet?" they mock.
"Ha ha. We'll see who's laughing when we all get attacked by a giant, insane whale," I say.
"We live at least eight hours from the ocean," they point out, "so we don't think that book will be very useful against giant, insane whales."
"It's very, very slashy," I say, and since they're my family and they know me, they know that there is no counter-argument for that and I win.

Anyway, one of my favorite bloggers, Katie at Jejune.net, has recently read it, and her reasons why you should as well are very cute (be sure to sample a few of her other book comments as well- she has a way with a quirky phrase). I really want to see Geoffrey Rush as Ahab now. Plus she links to David Sedaris' essay on reading Moby Dick, which somehow I had missed despite being as big a fan of Sedaris as I am of the whale.


And now to stop spamming and go hunt up some food. This day has been violently unproductive. I think I'll watch Cry-Baby tonight. That sounds productive, doesn't it?

Comments

[ex-declinean757.livejournal.com]

Since I first read it in junior high, I've been terribly fond of Moby Dick. My family finds this amusing, since the book is notoriously boring, and copies of it generally serve as doorstops or tools for spider killing.

I get a similar reaction from people when I tell them I'm a Hawthorne fan and adored The Scarlet Letter. It also puzzles most folks that I can read Hugo without batting a lash, but Dumas leaves me cold. ::Shrug:: What can I say? I'm strange. :-)

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Not strange. Uncommon. Not one to follow the herd (or maybe one who follows the herd, except generations later- that's what I tend to do).

I prefer Dumas to Hugo myself, though I do like both, but Hawthorne I love. I was the only one in tenth grade English who was happy to read The Scarlet Letter (and the only one who'd read it before), and I've dragged all sorts of people to the infamous House of Seven Gables (even if they've refused to read the book). Salem has turned it into quite the well-done museum these days. Hawthorne and Melville get tarred with the same "boring classics no one willingly reads" brush, though, you're right. Too bad.

[ex-declinean757.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was the mood I was in when I tried to read Dumas, but I just couldn't get into it. Still, lots of people I know love his work. I'll have to try again sometime. :-)

::Trying to imagine a musical of House of Seven Gables and failing::

I really enjoy Hawthorne's short fiction. Think my favorite is Rapacinin's Daughter. The man did some wonderfully creepy stuff.