A whale of a time

It's taken a while, but I just finished reading Moby Dick. I've been getting a few classic ebooks to read on my phone when I have spare minutes. Previously I've done Frankenstein and Don Quixote. Old books tend to have a different style to modern works and this is no exception. If anyone doesn't know it's the story of whaling ship captain @ahab (okay, so it may not really be him) who lost his leg to the white whale @mobydick (again, maybe a fake account, but see his comments), and wants revenge. A young sailor (call me Ishmael) recounts the tale.

Ahab
Image from Wikimedia

It's a strange mixture of a book. There are chapters explaining how different aspects of whaling were done and others about myths around whales. Some of it is like a Shakespeare play, including stage directions. Many of the characters speak in a very poetic way that doesn't seem realistic, but then neither is a lot of Shakespeare. There are lots of references to classical literature and historical figures. I didn't get all of those.

The Wikipedia page has some of the background. Author Herman Melville did work on a whaling ship, so he had first hand experience. There was a real white whale called Mocha Dick that attacked ships and had lots of harpoons in him when he was finally killed and a ship called the Essex was sunk by a whale.

It's more than just an adventure book and may be hard work for some. Most of the action is in the last fifth of the book. We don't even meet Ahab until we are well into it. I did enjoy it though. I think it's worth persisting.

Of course I am against whaling. These amazing creatures may live for a hundred years and a brain that big ought to have some sort of intelligence. We know they are communal animals who show concern for each other. The fact is that whaling was a massive industry in the 19th century and persisted into modern times. Now it is limited to some catches by indigenous people and the so-called 'scientific' whaling by the Japanese. Back in the day it was a source of oil for lighting and many other products that we have alternatives for now. Numbers have recovered, but we need to preserve their environment too.

Coincidentally the BBC show In Our Time has an episode about the book last week. That filled in some more background for me.

I'm not sure if I have seen the classic 1956 movie. There's also a more recent TV version. I'll have to see if I can find those.

I'm debating what to read next. I may go for something more current as I have a big backlog of stuff I want to read. You can see what I have been reading on GoodReads.

Steem on!