We've been talking a lot about categories and where Moby Dick should be placed. In my previous post about it, I claimed it to be a novel because that's what I understood about it at the time, but as I continued reading it I found myself thinking over and over, "Melville could have used a good editor." I found myself balking at encyclopedia type entries, the wandering attitude of the narrator and the changing of writing style. I felt like if this book were to be published today, it would never get through. A publisher would tear it apart, cut it in half, and then tell Melville that he needs to take out another 2/3 to get it publishable. "Nobody will read it," I can imagine them saying, "it's not entertaining."
We know that Moby Dick wasn't really popular when it first came out, but somehow it started to get attention during WWI. I don't know anyone who was alive during WWI so I can only assume what they must have been thinking. Perhaps they liked the rambling, perhaps it connected to them in a way that it hadn't connected before, but now? Today? We're still studying it, yet every time I've taken it out to read somebody has commented, "Wow, you're reading Moby Dick? That book is so boring." Now, a few of them mentioned that they enjoyed the scholarly aspect of it. A lot of us commented when we first began the book that we're all enjoying it a lot more than we thought we would, but is the book entertaining? Is it enjoyable for a lazy Sunday afternoon when we're just looking for a fun, high speed adventure?
No.
So could Melville have used a good editor? During class, I compared Moby Dick to a Wikipedia article gone wrong. He was using publishing as categories for whales, jumping to theater and stage writing, along with other seemingly random dashing about, like a bunch of links that we had no control over. They just continued to be clicked. But how much information is there if we, or more appropriately -- I, had just been willing to calm down, focus a little more, and stop trying to race through it? How much entertainment can be found within those difficult, rambling passages?
I could never guess at exactly what Melville was wanting to express when he wrote the book, and perhaps he could have used someone there to tell him to cut back. But on the other hand, maybe he was trying to do something completely different. Something uncategorizable. Something that's a bit like the Internet. Or, maybe he was just trying to write a metaphor about how difficult it is to read Moby Dick.
My first thought is that Melville wanted to do something different. Expounding on that, I think he wanted to write an intriguing story, but at the same time he wanted to explore what would go into that kind of story. So, he experimented with form, style, and plot. He wanted us to understand whales the way Ishmael understood them. He wanted us to really get into the story in a way that we're not used to getting into a story. He wanted us to go deeper. He wanted to start something new.
ReplyDeleteThose are just my impressions. Maybe we'll never know why Melville wrote Moby Dick the way he wrote it. Not knowing why he wrote it kind of adds to the fun of reading it though!
The concept of categorization and genre is particularly important and I'm glad you raised it. It wouldn't be difficult to start researching Melville's motives, or the rationale behind his curious format and style decisions. This is among the most discussed novels in literary scholarship. How about it?
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