Review: Moby Dick One Whale of a Tale

The radio made its grand appearance in 1895; the television coming along after that in 1929. Before these more modern forms of entertainment, books were king, being mass produced and widely distributed as early as 1454. And Herman Melville's Moby Dick: or, The White Whale is the king of books written for the king of whales (Whales as in sperm whale, not whales as in well -- the country Wales: a part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain.)


"Oh, the rare old Whale, mid storm and gale    
In his ocean home will be    
A giant in might, where might is right,      
And King of the boundless sea."   —WHALE SONG.

The journey of the Pequod

Brief:
Moby Dick is the tale of a man so consumed with vengeance, eaten up with hatred and driven by madness that he goes to whatever ends of the earth, exhausts all possible means, and sacrifices many on the alter of his passion in the pursuit of the infamous Moby Dick. Read aloud this book unlocks it's many secrets and subtle tones. To quote Jim Henson," When people told themselves their past with stories, explained their present with stories, foretold the future with stories, the best place by the fire was kept for... The Storyteller."(My husband enjoy hearing this book read voices and all by yours truly.) The tale is told by a man who bids us call him Ishmael, a newly ordained whaler off on his first voyage -- what a trip that turned out to be!


Melville uses his nautical knowhow and grasp on whaling vernacular to paint some beautiful maritime images. In this book, Melville hopes to illuminate the many darkened corners of everyday life aboard a whaling ship, a feat not many have had the opportunity to experience. (I was surprised by some of the goings on. Who would blaze a forge aboard a wooden boat in the middle of the ocean? Doesn't seem wisdom to me.) His tale is a fish tale told by a witness, too big to be believed, but too thrilling not to pass along. Chock full of tantalizing foreshadowing, exquisite imagery, lofty questions that harken even to the foundations of the universe: it is no surprise that this is a classic and should remain so for some time to come.


In Depth:
Written in 1851, Moby Dick didn't come into notoriety until much later, the 1920's, in fact. However, I don't believe that a work of genius loses its luster simply by being looked over for a few dusty decades. Moby Dick was still the peculiarly good book then that it is now, even without the recognition. 


The reason for this neglect is summed up in a critic's review upon the novel's release:
       
 "This is an ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed."-Henry F. Chorley, in London Athenaeum, October 25 1851


Ouch, that is a harsh but not entirely inaccurate review.
 Here's how:
1.The book is a hodgepodge of the epically awesome thrilling narrative of a vindictive whaling revenge story gone awry, AND it's a not so accurate antiquated whaleology (Cetology is the technical term, but you know...) dissertation.


And I know what you're thinking..."OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." And along with Rudyard Kipling you'd be right. Who would have thought of mixing science and fiction? (snicker, snicker... sorry) I am of course meaning literal science or at least the preconceived notions on whales from the time period . Moby Dick contains a wealth of knowledge and first hand whaling experience from Melville's life, but he doesn't just write it into Ishmael's tale. It is splattered haphazardly throughout the book educating the reader while disrupting the flow and pacing of the story. 


This is... well it's distracting, and well, it's infuriating! The story builds. As a reader, you are getting keyed in and keyed up. Then -- WHAM! Let's pause for this PSA on the differing types of twine used on whaling ships with an additional three pages on the species of whales this book is NOT about.

More whaling, less waxing on whaling, please!

From what I have gleaned about the book, it was not the current writing style of the times to marry fact with a tale of fiction -- however, woeful and whaleful it may be. But as much as it is a detriment to my attention span, this odd writing style also strokes my inner nerd and evokes my intellectual yearnings. I found myself continually questioning his information. Googling about whales -- heck, I even watched Blue Planet for some additional information. 


2. Now we come to the mad English bit. Melville uses either some extreme creative license or some heavily buried nautical colloquialisms to further embellish his maritime account. There are words in this book that only a sailor at sea cut off from civilization could conjure up. I remember looking at some words, and searching for them with my Kindle's dictionary. I cannot begin to relay the frustration that the phrase "No entries found" causes me now.  It had me continually worried I wasn't understanding the story as it was meant to be understood.


But beyond all this wordage and pacing, the story of Captain Ahab is intensely engaging. Long before you meet the whale (He doesn't make an appearance till the last 3 chapters out of 135...), you know things aren't going to go well for the captain or his crew. And it is these early portentous notions, that have you flat flying to the end of the book. You just have to know if Captain Ahab has his retribution or if the white whale exacts yet more torments on the already tortured commander.


On the Stocking Scale, I give it a 4 for Darned Good. It is looooooong, and takes a commitment to read, but I don't believe you'll regret the decision in the end. And should you want to skip the whaling tutorial and get down to the gritty tale itself, well -- read the abridged version.