Whales whalers and whinges. (Moby Dick - Herman Melville)

Name: lozzy_princess

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Product:	Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Date:	08/10/07 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of talk of whales. If you really like whales.Its a classic (apparently)

Disadvantages: FAR too much description, a very difficult academic based read.

Sadly the word classic nowadays seems to turn people off books automatically, it suggests difficult reading, a struggle, a study rather than an enjoyable story. For the most part i discourage this, many classics I have encountered i have found enjoyable, some even page turners, worthy of their term classic as an appraisal, a suggeston that these novels will never go out of fashion, they will always have a place in readers hearts.

However i do find it very difficult to count Moby Dick in this category, it epitimses the first suggestion, it is dull, difficult to read and incredibly academic based. the story itself i found readable, vaguely exciting but the characters were difficult for me to relate too, pretty obviously really a young woman of the noughties trying to relate to a middle aged fisherman in early America is not always the simplest of things. However i equally found it difficult to empathise, there is little outpouring of emotion in this novel, things are just as they are.

The studies of whales also i feel interuppted what could have been an alright read for me, giving me not-so-valuable insight into what a whale looks like, does and how it lives. It of course should be taken into consideration that readers at the time may have been intrigued by this, having not been able to see such creatures themselves, howevermodern day most people have on telivision at least. I suppose i cannot blame Melville for this, it simply is modern knowledge making a lot of what he wrote unsurprising, even mundane. However it is wonderfully descriptive and poetic in its nature, brilliant as a base for essays!

Basically i will stop myself now before i just begin to get annoyed with the novel for the soul reason that i did not enjoy it, so to get to the point;

It is undoubtably a well written literary novel, and incredibly academic on the study of whales. I feel it is interesting how he describes the beauty and power of these creatures, whilst the narrative pushes forward to result in the death of the most beautiful, powerful whale of all. Many readings can be made of the religious symbolism of the novel, when it is considered from a metaphorical point of view it does indeed give us a scathing report of religious belief.

And for its time it addresses many interesting, some may consider quite modern problems, such as racism, xenophobia and even the actual hunting of whales and how this could be problematic. For me however, its simply too academic, too harsh, and too brief in its actual narrative for me to ever find this an enjoyable read! But at the end of the day, books sold by Lozz: 0 books sold by Melville , well blooming millions to be honest! So i guess he wins out in the end, pity hes not here to see it.

Summary: I find difficult to enjoy, not exactly a summer read!