This Thing of Existence: Talking with Rion Amilcar Scott
Rion Amilcar Scott discusses his new story collection, THE WORLD DOESN’T REQUIRE YOU.
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Posts Tagged: Herman Melville
What to Read When Your Workplace Is Full of Drama
In honor of the World’s Worst Boss, we’ve put together a list of books full of workplace drama for you to read while we wait to see if we can get that orange guy fired.
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The Rumpus Interview with Ben Ehrenreich
Ben Ehrenreich, author of The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine, discusses oppression, objectivity in journalism, and millennial politics.
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Kamden Hilliard
Survival is not always cute, politically responsible, mature, or sober. Survival is ramshackle, as is tolerance.
...moreThe Great American Typo
The Smithsonian attempts to hunt down its own white whale: why is Moby-Dick hyphenated in the title of the novel but unhyphenated in the text?
...moreLife with a Literary Middle Name
Yes, I thought when I was sixteen. That sounds about right. Over at the Toast, Mikaella Clements tells us the story of how she got her middle name: being escorted through the tumultuousness of adolescence by the crazed sailor Herman Melville and his book, Moby-Dick.
...moreWhale Day, the Very Best Day
Friday was Moby-Dick’s 164th birthday, and much celebration was to be had. Lit Hub went particularly hard, sharing all manner of whale-related materials: A history of whales in literature from Jonah to Melville to Nathaniel Philbrick; 120-year-old plaster dildos in Nantucket and the history and loneliness held within; An excerpt from War of the Whales, about the devastation of whale populations due […]
...moreMultilingual Farce
David Samuels fact checks Herman Melville down at Lapham’s Quarterly: Who Herman Melville was and what he actually thought about anything are altogether unsatisfying questions that have never been answered in a satisfying way. This has led critics from the beginning of his literary existence to accuse him, often rightfully, of fraud. The proper answer […]
...moreCall Me Friend
Patrick James Dunagan explores the human and professional relationship between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in a review of Erik Hage’s book on the subject over at Bookslut: Hawthorne inspired and reinforced Melville’s conviction to elevate the writing of Moby-Dick beyond any of the parameters he had previously explored with his earlier work. Melville’s “Mosses” review […]
...moreThe New York City Moby Dick Marathon
Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick was first published on November 14th, 1851, and for the second year, a marathon reading of the novel will take place in New York City to commemorate its publication. The event is held over three days, and dozens of authors and members of the literary community are enlisted to read […]
...moreHappy Birthday, Herman Melville!
At the time of this posting, the 29th Annual Moby-Dick Marathon has about three hours left of its 24-hour reading of Herman Melville’s classic novel. When the reading finishes, attendees will celebrate Melville’s birthday “in old-fashioned style with song and cake.” Did we mention they’re doing this all on the last wooden whaling ship in the […]
...moreMelville in Jerusalem
Herman Melville was not a happy camper after Moby Dick was panned by critics and failed to have any financial success (only 3100 copies were sold during his lifetime), but instead of pouting about it in America, he pouted about it in Jerusalem. David Sugarman writes about the post-humously famed author’s trip to the Holy Land and […]
...moreBartleby in NYC
Some friends of Housing Works Bookstore are hosting a marathon reading of Herman Melville’s novella Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. It’s only 45 pages, but it’s an exciting 45 pages. The reading will be this Thursday, Nov. 10, at 3 PM in the public atrium at 60 Wall Street.
...moreThe Latin American Traveler’s Guide in Moby-Dick
Here’s a hypothesis: one of the reasons Moby-Dick has survived so long in English classes is that the number of Moby-Dick-related essay topics is almost limitless. Moby-Dick is so vast and contains so much stuff—there’s no better word for it than “stuff”—that you could come up with new angles on it for a whole English […]
...moreWhy not read Moby-Dick?
Historian Nathaniel Philbrick lays out a convincing, if scholarly, case for why Moby-Dick is relevant to modern audiences.
...moreMoby Dick: Illustrated and Interpreted
Through playful and evocative illustrations, Matt Kish’s Moby Dick in Pictures transforms on one of the greatest American novels and makes it relevant again.
...moreA Special Case of Plagiarism
Earlier today Chris blogged about a guy who’s translating Moby-Dick into emoji. Which reminded me of something. Recently one of our favorite writers, Damion Searls, was pondering a 2007 abridgment of Moby-Dick called Moby-Dick in Half the Time. The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik had written of the abridgment that it improved the classic, by contemporary […]
...moreHappy Birthday Herman
“And I only am escaped alone to tell thee” If he were alive, today, August 1st 2009, would be Herman Melville’s 190th birthday and on this occasion I’d like to take the opportunity to pay a small, humble tribute to an author who has single-handedly taught me so much about writing and literature, patience and […]
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