/lit/ - Literature

>You're a fucking WHITE WHALE!

What do you think of classics being afforded freedoms not given to contemporary writers

For example imagine if Moby Dick was written but never published and instead went missing for 150+ years, then someone found it and published it as his own, would people tolerate the historical marine fact infodumping as they do right now

Do these works need to be able to stand on their own in isolation or is their historical and cultural impact enough

> “Hark ye yet again—the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall?
Is Ahab voicing a Gnostic or Hermetic view here? Seems like a sickness of material reality, or am I reading this wrong?

I was given a copy of it from a friend but I don't know if it's worth the time investment.

ITT: purple prose

>>9796835
Yes. We've been over this, many times before.

>>9797096
I always laughed at this scene, as it showed Daedalus ignorance about the various types of Protestantism (Joyce is so wonderfully subtle). I'm always disappointed (but never surprised) to find /lit/ fags misunderstanding this scene.

Do people in modern times only remember this book because it has penis in the title?

Thoughts on this amazing book?

Does Ishmael have some sort of autism? Why is he so damn descriptive about every little detail he encounters? And he seems to have trouble communicating basic details to people

I'm scared to read this book.

From what I've heard some parts are awesome, until you get to the encyclopedia whale shit, and then it's all downhill from there.

What do

Achievable natty?

What is the point of all the encyclopaedic stuff about the fucking whale?

Someone please explain why Melville thought it was necessary

>>8525564
I quite like the cover but it's true it doesn't fit the atmosphere and content of the book. I quite like covers like pic related where Moby-Dick is depicted as this ghost eerie leviatan that induces fear and respect. on the other hand I hate when they exagarate the size of the white whale.

How do i read this?

Actually this.

Why do people tend to give this book a hard time? Is it because it didn't match their expectations?

Not going to pose a bullshit question or statement to justify this thread, I'd just like to hear everyone's thoughts on this book.

No, that would be this.

Is the difficulty of this book exaggerated?

Is this book actually difficult to tackle or is it blown way out or proportion? I've been thinking about getting it but I don't want it to be something I never really pick up and enjoy.

Lots of the grief I hear about it comes from the encyclopedic chapters about whaling, as well as the length.

is this book worth reading?

Let's have a Moby-Dick thread. It's arguably the greatest novel ever written, after all.

Is there any figure in literature more miserable than Ahab when he see Fedallah lashed to the side of Moby-Dick? What complete existential despair. "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee!" isn't a cry of defiance, it's a last shout into the void. It's sobering.

>>7523377
No.