putperest’s Reviews > Moby-Dick or, The Whale > Status Update

Like what?

Eva wrote: "Like what?"

-indulgent but fun chapters devolving from the story to give you either weird taxonomic information, historic lore or obsessing over one specific bit of the theme / metaphor.
-endnotes as a tool for even more indulgence.
-a somewhat meta-thing with the narrator as the author setup.
-general playfulness with the form, like something aware of itself as a novel which is not just a storytelling medium, but something that pushes and pokes into its limits and shape?
idk, this was a throwaway thought but felt true cause in my head i saw things from mccarthy, david foster wallace, pynchon, nabokov while reading this, and i doubt the same spirit exists in other novels from 1800s (even though i havent read any other lol, so take it with a grain of salt).

Fun thoughts. Yeah, I think I see what you mean in the difference from more classical stories to a more self-conscious and modern creative work, showing you its belly. I found the long side leaps about whales to be a bit excessive, though.

excessive for sure, but i cant upset with it because i feel like i understand what he’s trying to do