Well, Girls, I Read It!!!!!!!

Darlings, among other things I did the other day, on my birthday, I finished the Melville epic, "Moby-Dick." Technically speaking, it was my THIRD reading (I had to read it for a college course in American Literature), but the SECOND one on my own!!!
I had read it within the last 5-10 years, and never expected to pick it up again. It is indisputably a great work, one of the GREAT (if not the GREATEST) novels in American literature, but it is not something I would be instinctively drawn to, like, say, "Middlemarch" or "Wuthering Heights." But this year happened to be the 160th Anniversary of its publication, and with that came Nathaniel Philbrick's "Why Read 'Moby-Dick'"?, which I have not read yet, but will. He is also the author of "In The Heart Of The Sea," which chronicles the actual incident Melville based "Moby-Dick" on. I have to read that one, too, darlings. Only, not just right now, because after twelve days with this book, my nautical cup runneth over!!!!

Then came Chad Harbach's much heralded first novel, highly recommended by me, darlings, entitled "The Art Of Fielding," which references Melville and his masterwork throughout. It was really reading this that decided me it was time to give "Moby-Dick" another look. And the discoveries were interesting.

It is a difficult book, and it takes work to read, because, despite its surface story, which even those who have not read it know, it is not about driving narrative. It is about language and its uses, and is a meditation on the forces of human nature that shapes this group of whaling men, and in turn the American psyche. Yes, at times it is so bogged down in its own details, that it seems like you are reading a textbook. The tendency of most people is to skip over these parts, but don't; just read them, and let the words wash over you. Even if you are not especially proficient in literature, you will be surprised how much you pick up, along the way. And it does inform the rest of it, especially when you get to the apocryphal battle between the maniacal Captain Ahab, and his White Whale adversary.

Thank God for Chad Harbach, I say! Without his book, it is very unlikely I would have picked up "Moby-Dick" again. And, honey, don't let anyone kid you, there is no mistaking the touching, emotional attachment that develops between Ishmael, the narrator, and the so-called cannibal, Queequegg!!!! They may not get it on, but theirs is a real and abiding love that humanizes an otherwise obsessive and demoniacal work!!!!!

The rewards of reading "Moby-Dick" outweigh its difficulties. Whether you read it straight through in twelve days, as I did, or take it in sips over the course of several months to a year, once you are done, you will have a sense of accomplishment, and insight into how American values lasting into the present were formed and honed.

"Moby-Dick" is a reading experience, unlike few others. It may exhaust you, it may deplete you. But it will challenge and stimulate. And yes, as the jokesters say, it is a "whale of a book!!!!"

Now, girls, I am not telling you to cancel hair appointments over this. And I am quite aware some of you may have to go into the attic, and get out your thumbed copies of the "How To Prepare For The AP English Exam" book, to get through the novel. But I am telling you, darlings, whatever tack you take with this book, it is well worth it!!!!!

Thar she blows, loves!!!!!!