#cor reads

[llycaons]

the thing is every single line of moby dick is so rich with imagery and metaphor and such, and the lines are so long and elaborate, that if I was reading it in person it would still take me a while but since I'm listening to the audiobook I need to rewind and listen to the same passages sometimes twice or three times to really get what Melville's saying. and I'm coming to this book RIGHT from anna karenina with a brief podcast break, it's not like I'm out of practice in parsing dense prose. moby dick is just like that. no wonder it's a classic of english literature, even tho the subject matter is so...non-universal

[morganbritton132]

No one tells you when you get a Big Serious Job™ how many fucking abbreviations you’ll be forced to learn.

[llycaons]

I've never read any hemingway but his main characters sound like absolute assholes damn

[llycaons]

Ishmael frequently refers to the relationships between men in terms normally used to describe heterosexual romantic relationships. What is the literal and symbolic importance of homoeroticism in Moby-Dick?

Ishmael and Queequeg are depicted in bed together several times and are frequently described as “married” or “wedded” to each other. When they wake in the Spouter-Inn, Queequeg has his arms around Ishmael in a seemingly conjugal embrace. Melville uses the vocabulary of love and marriage to suggest the strength and closeness of the bonds between men at sea.

hmmmm

[llycaons]

just read: The Literal (and Figurative) Whiteness of Moby Dick - a short, engaging article exploring the novel and Ishmael's conflicting and complicated perspective on race

[llycaons]

1. thank god that long part about the symbolism of the color white is over. we GET IT.

2. I was wondering how this worked. like, do they just sail around randomly until they see a whale? but of course ahab's got maps and the seasonal migration patterns based on past years of observation and shit. they know where to look

3. how many whales does a whaling voyage bring in, on average?

3. I really hope we see a whale kill. it sounds like they take a small boat out and harpoon it and then the big ship arrives and drags it up to deck, but sperm whales are so big I'm wondering why it doesn't just...swim away? swim down? how far can a harpoon go underwater? seems like a sperm whale should be able to overpower even a bunch of people

like. wow! that's huge!

obviously this stuff actually happened so I'm not trying to criticize it for being unrealistic but I DO wonder how it works

[llycaons]

ishmael with access to tumblr. he can't be on twitter bc he would need a 30-tweet thread to finish a sentance

[llycaons]

gilagamesh time baybe

[llycaons]

honestly idrc about jane feeling sad or anything. like the racist ableist bitch? she didn't spare a single thought to a woman locked up for 15 years and described her as an animal when she'd been treated basically like one. like! all that compassion and kindness for her abusive guardian, all those virtues extolled. and she doesn't give a shit about this woman because she's 'mad'? calls her a hyena? she can go to hell man

[llycaons]

maybe 18-20 IS a little young to be a captain? but man what do I know maybe this sexy young thing is actually the best candidate

[llycaons]

honestly it just goes to show BS, white mormon man, is great at building complex fictional magic systems but apparently cannot conceptualize the mere existence of an othered or oppressed ethnic/racial identity. like different cultures just don't exist, except as brief summaries from the far past as told by scholars. it would be nice if they were reclaimed, but they dont exist NOW. the oppression happens and it's bad, but the people who are oppressed don't actually have an identity of their own beyond their oppression

[llycaons]

the thing about listening to this as an audiobook is that I don't recognize a lot of the words, either spanish or mayan, and I have no idea how to spell a lot of them so I can't look them up

[llycaons]

QUAKER MENTION!!!!!!!!!!!

[llycaons]

also I have complained a lot bc some of the passages did drag and bc I was forced to finish it on a time crunch but I don't want to make it sound like I didn't enjoy anna karenina or that I regret reading it. the ending was a little bit of a whimper but the vast majority of it was deeply rich and satisfying and I had a great time for the most part

[llycaons]

wait. wei wuxian as dantes. mdzs comc crossover. duh

[llycaons]

COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO IS INNNN