/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12235201]

>my favourite book of all time is Moby Dick
What type of person do you imagine?

[Anonymous No.12235204]

>>12235201
Closeted homosexual.

[Anonymous No.12235209]

>>12235201
A smart guy

[Anonymous No.12235235]

A transcendentalist

[Anonymous No.12235308]

>>12235201
What's long and pink and layeth upon the sea-floor?

[Anonymous No.12235338]

>>12235308
the trail of aborted fetuses your mother flushed down the toilet

[Anonymous No.12235342]

>>12235201
A pseud. If you’re actually intelligent and well-read enough to be able to appreciate and even love Miny Dick, you know enough to know that it’s not THE greatest book.

[Anonymous No.12235350]

>>12235338
Rude and uncalled for

[Anonymous No.12235351]

>>12235342
>favourite = greatest
you are not as intelligent and well read as you think you are

[Anonymous No.12235359]

>>12235201
A guy who likes BBWs

[Anonymous No.12235361]

>>12235201
myself

[Anonymous No.12235382]

>>12235351
If you are well read enough to truly appreciate moby dick you are well read enough to have one of the five or ten greatest works of all time as your favourite

[Anonymous No.12235470]

>>12235382
awesome post dude we like seeing your stuff. very nice!

[Anonymous No.12235495]

>>12235338
Really inappropriate joke. Please reconsider next time you make a post like this.

[Anonymous No.12235496]

>>12235382
I enjoyed reading your post because it was funny but you're fucking dumb

[Anonymous No.12235509]

>>12235495
>>12235350
sorry mummy

[Anonymous No.12235519]

>>12235470
Thanks dude yeah I try to drop some knowledge here now and again glad to see it doesn’t go unappreciated

>>12235496
Come on, you know I’m right.

[Anonymous No.12236449]

>>12235201
Articulate introverted type, likely either currently or previously depressed.

[Anonymous No.12237179]

>>12235201
The person who say that just read his first book

[Anonymous No.12237211]

>>12235201
A boring pseudo intellect, with a decent paying job and probably a a free market liberal.

[Anonymous No.12237235]

>>12235201
The first person I ever encountered who liked it was this middle aged pseud woman. She was nice. I think of her.

[Anonymous No.12237728]

What's a good looking hardcover copy of Moby Dick?

[Anonymous No.12237753]

>>12237728
This one right here.

*unzips pants*

[Anonymous No.12237802]

>>12237753
thanks

[Anonymous No.12237966]

>>12237728
Everyman's Library, always

[Anonymous No.12238156]

>>12237728
This is the one I have.
Not hardcover tho.

[Anonymous No.12238723]

>>12237211
>>12235519
>>12235382
>>12235351
>>12235342
>>12235204
>tfw favorite book is moby dick
>tfw everyone on /lit imagines me as a faggot
why, why do you see this.

[Anonymous No.12238735]

>>12235201
a tryhard

basically
>>12235342

[Anonymous No.12238744]

>>12235382
please.......... shib on me

[Anonymous No.12238760]

>>12238723
please tell me i am interested

[Anonymous No.12239097]

>>12238723
Seriously please reply to this it is bothering me. what are the five greatest books ever. what objectively makes them blow moby dick out of the water. what is wrong with moby dick.

[Anonymous No.12239134]

>>12239097
look at this fag hahahahahaha

[Anonymous No.12239140]

>>12239097

[Anonymous No.12239284]

>>12239097
fiction or non?

[Anonymous No.12239294]

>>12239284
either i suppose he was the one claiming it

[Anonymous No.12239330]

>>12237966
Great edition, surprisingly thin too but the pages still feel great

[Anonymous No.12239351]

>>12239294
It doesn't matter though. If it's OP's favourite book that's grand and it doesn't matter if it's objectively a great book or not because it's his favourite. Just like ice -cream flavours or cigarette brands

[Anonymous No.12239388]

>>12239351
people in this thread are saying it is far from the best book ever written and that if you like this as your favorite book you are a pseudo intellectual i am wondering why they say this

[Anonymous No.12239535]

>>12235201
either a pretty old guy who's been reading all his life and isn't afraid to say his own honest opinion, or an undergrad who's recently started reading and chasing after his own white whale

[Anonymous No.12239675]

>>12239535
why do people keep saying moby dick is some sort of entry level book

[Anonymous No.12239708]

>>12239675
personally I don't think it's entry level. the other option I gave, after all, is someone who's pretty developed in their tastes. but it's very famous so people often read it first or say they like it without reading it. it's not a judgement on the book itself as much as on the people around the book

[Anonymous No.12239724]

>>12239675
Probably because most editions people run across are abridged and much more approachable (and they likely never realized it).

[Anonymous No.12239759]

doors of perception, aldous huxley
the consumer, michael gira

what type of person am i?

[Anonymous No.12239799]

>>12239759
green-pilled but appears blue-pilled

[Anonymous No.12240135]

>>12239097
For instance, the best parts of Moby Dick are wholly Shakespearean, almost to the point of being derivative. To be able to absorb Shakespeare’s influence enough to approach in his mode the heights of aesthetic splendour he achieved is an enormous feat. But the key word is “approach”, not reach or transcend. To prefer Moby Dick to Shakespeare’s greatest works is to prefer the incredibly strong but ultimately inferior imitation to the original.

[Anonymous No.12240149]

>>12239097
>what objectively makes them blow moby dick

I bet you'd like to blow Moby's dick

[Anonymous No.12240211]

>>12239097
>what objectively makes them blow moby dick out of the water
As opposed to in the water. It's probably easier since they haven't to hold their breath

[Anonymous No.12240686]

>>12240135
This post is asinine. Obviously Melville was influenced by shakespeare but how is Moby Dick derivative?

[Anonymous No.12241564]

>>12235201
You're gay, a fan of David Bowie, obsessed with the sea and your favorite whale species if the bowhead. You're a great storyteller and an engaging writer. You should do tours and talks around Manchester every once in a while.

[Anonymous No.12241569]

>>12240686
Read closer for the actual argument instead of your lazy interpretation of it

[Anonymous No.12241607]

>>12237728
Arion Press edition

[Anonymous No.12241613]

>>12241564
>You should do tours and talks around Manchester every once in a while.

Eww, why would you ever want to go to Manchester?

[Anonymous No.12241644]

>>12241613
So I don't have to travel to a Waterstone's 4 hours away to get one of his books signed and shoot the shit about Gregory Peck with him

[Anonymous No.12241867]

>>12241569
Except the argument is a lazy interpretation. So because something has influence, then one can’t enjoy it more than the work that it drew itself from? Like who is actually reading moby dick and scoffing like hedonist-bot that “oh ho ho ho looks like somebody read hamlet!”

[Anonymous No.12241909]

>>12241867
My argument isn’t just that there is influence. My argument has two basic parts: 1) Moby Dick is best precisely where there is the greatest Shakespearean influence, so when one admires Moby Dick, one is admiring what is Shakespearean about it; and 2) the best, and by transitivity the most Shakespearean, parts of Moby Dick, aren’t as good as the best Shakespeare. Therefore it is ridiculous to choose Moby Dick over Shakespeare’s best plays, as you are choosing the beautiful but ultimately inferior copy over the superior original.

[Anonymous No.12242276]

>>12241909
1. Ishmaels sojourn in Nantucket, the crows nest, queequegs coffin, cetology, the chapter about the whiteness of whales...among others these are certified banger moments that have nothing to do with the monomania of ahab (which is of course the most Shakespearean part of moby dick).
2. I disagree with this but it’s subjective. Because of how all encompassing moby dick is in scope and ideas and philosophy and length, I find the moments of ahabs soliloquies to be elevated. But all in all you are underrating the more understated moments of the novel.