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Craygor t1_iwyh8ee wrote

Reply to comment by kiwilapple in [OC] Inspired by movie barcodes, I made some emotional barcodes for books by Campbell_MG

The book isnt really about Captian Ahap, but follows the story of Ismael and is quite light hearted in the first third (at least I thought so). Ahap doesn't really show up much until the last quarter or there abouts. .

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kiwilapple t1_iwyhb0n wrote

Ohhhh. I should probably read it.... But also. Lazy. Thank you!

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Craygor t1_iwyi6j5 wrote

Warning, the middle of the book is EXTREMELY dry, but I think you'll like the friendship that develops between the New Englander Ismael and a harponner named Queequeg, a Polynesian tattooed cannibal.

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alt_account_6 t1_iwyuojb wrote

I liked the exhaustive discourse on cetology. It's almost religious. But not really a book for people who need constant stimulation and action scenes

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fallllingman t1_ix2emns wrote

The book isn’t dry. The prose is brilliantly evocative and is consistently great throughout.

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fallllingman t1_ix2016v wrote

Abah is a pretty prominent character from about page 200 onwards, and I’d argue the book isn’t about the story of Ishmael. It’s about Ishmael’s role as a witness or observer, not a participant.

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leftiesrepresent t1_iwz4g5v wrote

The book is purely Melville showing off how smart he is. He wrote the novel with the expressed intention of proving his higher command of English than his contemporaries. The "story" and "plot" are alllll tertiary to that goal lmao

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Craygor t1_iwzxjcc wrote

I'm not going to argue. One, is because I'm not that smart, and two, that actually makes kind of sense

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fallllingman t1_ix2058y wrote

I’d argue a great story isn’t as good as a meaningful story.

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