fiction files redux discussion

So I've been sick most of the week and have gotten a good deal of reading done and I've finally made some more progress with Moby Dick.

I've fought through bucket loads of boring stuff and it has paid off because it's getting interesting again. Starbuck and Ahab have it out, Queequeg makes up his coffin then gets his junk together and gets in it.

Sorry I've been so bad about this one Chris, but I won't lose a leg to this white whale.

Everyone loses a leg to the white whale. Moby Dick is James Joyce (or so he said to his wife)...

I am absolutely NO FURTHER in this mammoth novel! I'm glad you are thundering through Dan...I'm sorry you've been sick!

All that stuff about how to take the blubber off the whale and process it does get numbing, not to mention that those chapters have a habit of turning some of my students into Greenpeace members. However, buried in that stuff are some great moments, like "The Try-Works." That image of the "burning" ship plunging through the darkness and the waves is haunting, as are Ishmael's warnings about staring into flames.

Glad you've made it through, Dan. Queequeg's coffin is the start of the end.

Kudos to you Dan. I have been swallowed whole and have lost appendages. I am hoping I get spit back out so that I may try a sneak attack upon the beast. I'm out the game for now and seem to have forgotten how to read at all.

I have always a question when people get stuck in the middle of Moby dick... when you were kids, didnt you have fun reading encylclopedias about animals, etc? Or watching Walt Disney wild life docummentaries?

Jcamilo wrote: "I have always a question when people get stuck in the middle of Moby dick... when you were kids, didnt you have fun reading encylclopedias about animals, etc? Or watching Walt Disney wild life docu..."

I loved that sort of stuff as a kid however this is sort of twisted. It's like an encyclopedia on animals that talks about whales every fucking page. Page 4, 18, 285, 443. Whales, whales, whales. Shut the fuck up already where's the goddamned plot?

That being said, I finished the book and I even liked it. Especially when we got to the plot and the last 20 chapters or so. There were so many great and weird scenes (like chapter 108, where it suddenly feels like a play we're reading) but I feel like i'd have gotten the same, or perhaps a more enjoyable, experience if the book were 65% shorter. But maybe it's because I'm an idiot.

That is the plot. Just like the catalogue of ships in the Iliad... Anyways, I remember dinossaurs books. Dinos everywhere.

you guys! i still haven't found my copy of moby dick but i just saw this new release on netflix (in canada) and had to tell you about it so we can be horrified (and not in a good way) together. i am quoting directly from netflix here:

2010: Moby Dick
2010 NR 87 minutes
That infamous whale is bigger, badder and a whole lot stronger in this sci-fi reimagining of Herman Melville's classic tale of the battle between man, sea and sea creature starring "Xena" alum Renée O'Connor as the (traditionally male) narrator. But the boat -- now a high-tech submarine -- is also bigger, and Capt. Ahab (Barry Bostwick) is as determined as ever to settle the score and take down the mighty sea mammal that maimed him.

http://ca.movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/...

imdb link in case you can't see the canadian netflix one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1694508/c...

and lastly, the link to the trailer:

http://youtu.be/lXSHCzCuKzg

i used to trust you gabrielle. xena has made way better career choices, i guess. :)

I saw this article on NPR today and HAD to post it in here!

Why Read Moby-Dick?: A Passionate Defense Of The 'American Bible'

Maureen wrote: "you guys! i still haven't found my copy of moby dick but i just saw this new release on netflix (in canada) and had to tell you about it so we can be horrified (and not in a good way) together. i a..."

I saw that too this past weekend and seriously considered watching it.

But then I decided on The Piano, a movie that makes me happy.

I just watched the William Hurt and Ethan Hawke movie -- that was bad. Interesting boat footage, but dazed and confused would be the genre of that film.

The Piano makes you happy, Shel?? Well...I guess it kinda has a happy ending, but the journey is so sad.

I'm behind you, Shel. I love The Piano. :)