Dan > Recent Status Updates

Here we go. The only time I’ve ever felt this particular way about an ending before is climax of I Am Also Thy Brother.

WORK is making me do my stupid JOB as if Ahab doesn't have Moby Dick directly under his boat as we speak.

Ahab is so, so close to calling it quits and he just can’t bring himself to do it. I keep hoping he’ll change his mind even though everyone knows he chases Moby Dick to his death.

We've hit the point of no return. God, I love a tragedy.

Obviously the hearse of wood is going to be Queequeg's coffin and the death by hemp is going to be the rope Ahab attached to his new harpoon.

This book is so good that I want everyone I know to read it, but of course I cannot, because "Hey, read this dense, 175-year old book that's 550 pages minimum, depending on your version" just isn't something you can reasonably ask of people.

Chapter 96, I meant, The Try-works.

Chapter 97 is my favorite yet, especially of the philosophical chapters.

I’ve got the longest chapters out of the way, so it should be pretty smooth sailing from here on out. Really glad to finally be reading this one.

Ishmael is now applying phrenology to a whale.

Just four chapters every weekday means I’ll be finishing this before the end of the month. Especially happy about that since when I started three weeks ago, I figured it’d take me till the beginning of September.

When the homeless guy started talking about Abraham and Isaac, I hoped David would say something about the Patriarchs. Never expected to hear the actual akeidah; I love it.

Alright, four chapters per workday, and I’ll finish by the end of the month. Easy.

I was not looking forward to chapter 54 at all, as I knew it was the longest one, but I really enjoyed it.

Jeez, that’s twice in two books one of the kids has used queer as an insult. Gotta expect this from the ‘80s, I suppose.

"Because, in the case of pirates, say, I should like to know whether that profession of theirs has any peculiar glory about it. It sometimes ends in uncommon elevation, indeed; but only at the gallows."

Ishmael is so funny. I love this dude.

“giving the white man ideal master ship over every dusky tribe” just jump-scared me, but I suppose it’s my fault for not expecting something like that from a pre–Civil War book.

Ishmael is making the argument that we don’t technically know that Moby Dick can’t teleport. Lines like that are really making this effort worth it.

"My own opinion is, that however this one-sided horn may really be used by the Narwhale—however that may be—it would certainly be very convenient to him for a folder in reading pamphlets."

I was dreading this chapter, but it's turning out to be my favorite one yet.

I’ve reached what appears to be one of your dreaded whaling chapters. Let’s see how this goes.

"Long usage had, for this Stubb, converted the jaws of death into an easy chair."

I am in love with this line.

I see I have some of the dreaded whaling infodump chapters coming up, but in the meantime, I'm getting through this far more quickly than I expected. The language isn't even that difficult; Melville just uses a lot of allusions I'm unfamiliar with and loves those old-fashioned page-long paragraphs.

So far this is going more quickly than I anticipated.

This has been on my to-read for literal years. Obviously I’m like 1% through the book, so who knows how my feelings will develop, but so far this writing is a lot easier than I expected, and Ishmael is a very fun guy to be in the head of.

Slow going, but I should have this finished before the month is out.

Same thing: I like the parts with the boys can’t understand half of what the dad is talking about.

Currently hindered by not knowing much about Catholicism.