In a moment of excessive enthusiasm I decided to read Moby Dick by Herman Melville as my introduction to the DailyLit service. DailyLit, if you recall, is a subscription service that sends users a daily portion of a book of their choice via e-mail or RSS feed.
I scheduled my daily portion of Moby Dick to arrive in my inbox every day at 4:30. I now dread 4:30. I'm five portions behind, and the e-mails are taunting me.
At this point, I'm not ready to blame the DailyLit service. It's all Melville's fault. I'm nine chapters in and Ishmael is not even on the boat yet. It's just... moody.
A friend has repeatedly called my decision to read Moby Dick masochistic. I've been insistent that it's not that bad, thank you very much, Monsieur de Sade.
But yes, it is that bad. In fact, it's torture, and not of the sublime kind. As a result, Moby Dick is being temporarily suspended until I'm ready to embrace my inner masochist.
Friday, May 09, 2008
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4 comments:
It could be worse. It could be Finnegan's Wake.
Oh, dear. Did I warn you? I should have warned you. I read it for my senior English class, and loathed it. :( I keep meaning to give it another shot, to see if it was just my youth that kept me from loving it, but...
For all my reading, it seems classic novels and I just aren't destined to get along.
Oh jeez. Well, the only positive thing I have to say about Moby Dick (as I really truly disliked it) is that it's something of a cultural study of the male of the species at the time and possibly repressed homosexuality. At least that's what I had to tell myself to slog through it. If I recall correctly at a certain point it breaks into "play format", which did speed it along a little bit. Just a wee. As Stu said, it could be Finnegan's Wake. I try that every year and every year I throw it against the wall by page 2.
Stu, that's funny because I was just talking with someone at dinner about Joyce and Finnegan's Wake. Yeah, I'm not even going to go there.
Last Knight, I think you did warn me but when I get something in my head, I tend to latch on and try anyhow. After all, every writer loves the "defying all odds" story.
Randika, that's really funny because even though they're not on the boat yet, I've already picked up on the themes of repressed homosexuality.
I'm considering trying to catch back up on it. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.
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