Moby Dick
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The Importance of Moby-Dick
The affronted world’s Ahabs, crippled by attack, vow vengeance and a show of might. At The Kenyon Review blog, Karen Malpede talks about her experience of reading Moby-Dick out loud every night and explains why the book is still relevant…
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Whale 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…
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Kloss, Kish, and the Great White Whale
Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake aside, it’s hard to imagine a more mutualistic artist-writer pair than Robert Kloss and Matt Kish. (The Rumpus also recommends the duo of Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg.) Kloss and Kish (who also illustrated every…
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Spotlight: The Old Man’s Illustrated Library, Issues 36 & 5
The Old Man’s Illustrated Library appropriates elements from Classics Illustrated in a series of vignettes depicting elderly male authors alone in their apartments.
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The Lonely Voice #30: Brief Early Morning Thoughts on Ahab
I find that lately I do more reading than writing, and more thinking than either.
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Call 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…
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Poe’s Moby-Dick?
For the New York Review of Books, Marilynne Robinson considers the place of Edgar Allen Poe’s novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, within the author’s prolific career. In addition to comparing Pym to other maritime novels, including Moby-Dick, Robinson argues that labeling Poe…
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Mr. Difficult, Mr. Easy
Is Moby-Dick really a tougher read than Fifty Shades of Grey? Noah Berlatsky argues that the distinction depends on the reader: …”difficulty” seems to hold out the possibility of more objective standards—to assure us that these books, over here, by…
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Celebrating the “American Bible”
In accordance with the 163rd anniversary of Moby-Dick, Elisabeth Donnelly explores why Melville’s “American Bible” is still relevant today: Perhaps what Moby-Dick has to offer for generations of readers is “a shaft of light in the darkness,” as Philbrick puts it. “Not that it provides any…
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The 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…
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Ishmael’s Hot Line
Step #1. Call Ishmael’s number: 774.325.0503. It goes straight to voicemail. Step #2. Listen to Ishmael’s short answering machine message. It changes weekly. Step #3. Leave a voicemail about a book you love and a story you have lived. Have a…
