Rereading Moby-Dick

[jesse_the_k]

As a break from all the fanfic I’ve been inhaling, I’m re-reading Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. This will be my third time through. I was too stoned to remember my high school trip on the high seas. The cassette tape audio edition by a mellifluous American stage actor (name escapes) distracted me when I was stuck in bed a couple decades back. I think it fascinates me because it's epic, it's full of weirdly specific detail, the language rolls and pitches, and I grew up in the area where whaling created magnates.

My plan is to read a chapter online each day, and then read it again in audio. Modern technology eases the way.

While there are scores of instances of Moby-Dick online, I prefer this one:
http://www.mobydickthewhale.com

It provides definitions of words which have fallen out of common use in 21st century English. (Who knew that "mole" was a jetty?) The low-key site design permits me to enlarge the font as needed.

There are more than one hundred different audio editions available on request at your library. For free, Librivox.org, the audio fellow-traveller to Project Gutenberg, has one:
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Literature/American-Classics/Moby-Dick/22710

To me the reader sounds like he’s acting, not reading. (I didn't link directly to Librivox because interface Reasons.)

Fortunately a stray tweet connected me to Peninsula Arts with Plymouth University, UK and their “Moby-Dick Big Read.” They’ve undertaken to produce and freely distribute an audio version of the complete Moby-Dick via the internet, with many different readers contributing.

They started on 16 Sept 2012 with Tilda Swinton slyly whispering “Call me Ishmael.” Other readers are famous (Cucumberpatch), appropriate (John Waters on whale foreskins, Stephen Fry on UST between Ishmael and Queequeg), unknown but talented (Capt R. N. Hone, Merchant Mariner), and much more famous (David Cameron).

Every chapter is at the Project's home page
http://www.mobydickbigread.com/
for streaming or downloading.

You can grab it from iTunes or stream at your computer via Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/moby-dick-big-read

I know Moby-Dick has a fearsome reputation, but it’s the whale that’s big. The book is lighter than many fantasy doorstops — just 135 10- to 30-minute chapters.

(This literary enthusiasm is brought to you by Twitter. I kvelled about the project, and numerous tweeps were like, "Melville? Why? Really?" I spammed my list with cetacean promotion for 15 minutes and discovered I'd talked myself into it.)

Comments

[branchandroot]

Don't forget the dirty jokes. Those are always fun. I kind of love the narwhal chapter.

[jesse_the_k]

The narwhal chapter has been lost in the mists of time, so now I have something more to look forward to.

[sasha_feather]

Not only did I not know that mole meant jetty, but I had to look up the definition of jetty. I didn't grow up around the sea or large bodies of water.

[jesse_the_k]

Huh! I'll keep that in mind as I splatter M-D on my journal.

I think we all learn the lay of our own native land.

You know so many things about the farming landscape that I don't even know exist.

I remember how out-of-it I felt when I first came to the midwest. Every field I passed I'd ask, "Is that corn? Is that corn? Is that corn?" I think I can tell corn from alfalfa from soybeans, but anything else is mysterious. You probably remember my steer-cow error on the drive last month.

[sasha_feather]

It's a lot of information, and like a lot of things it does seem best if one learns it young! Types of crops and livestock might be like types of boats and sails-- pretty incomprehensible to an outsider.

I think of Willa Cather as an author of the prairie.

[laceblade]

My favorite Internet artist LOVES Herman Melville.
I loathed some of his shorter stuff, so I've never picked up Moby Dick. Part of me wants to see what it'd be like, but then....meh.

(I'm a Nathaniel Hawthorne girl, though, in case you were wondering!)

[metaphortunate]

If you bounced hard off that idiot Billy Budd, I'm here to tell you that Moby Dick is awesome anyway.

[jesse_the_k]

+1

An author is lucky if they have just one Moby-Dick in them. We're lucky Melville did.

[firecat]

I listened to the audio version narrated by Anthony Heald. It is FABULOUS.

[jesse_the_k]

Good to know. I haven't been able to track down the narrator of my 80s version, but his voice was deeper than the deep blue sea. Soothing and creepy at the same time.

[toft]

Oooh, can we be twitter buddies about this? On your encouragement I've just listened to the first two chapters. Fun so far. First-time Melville listener!

[jesse_the_k]

I wish I could! I limit my net access to four days-a-week, so I can't tweet M, W, F.

I'm glad you enjoyed the first two chapters.

[zizi_west]

Thanks for posting the links! I've long wanted to participate in a Moby Dick Big Read, but haven't had any local opportunities.

Melville continues to intrigue and fascinate.

[jesse_the_k]

I'm fascinated that an English arts college, of all places, would be sponsoring an audio reading. I think of Moby-Dick as fundamentally American, although really it touches all corners of the world.

[metaphortunate]

I love that freaking book! Man, I need to reread again someday.

[jesse_the_k]

What's your favorite (or top ten) things that delight you?

[luzula]

Hmm, I have never read this book! Maybe I should. I would love it if I could download that whole reading in one go, though, so maybe I'll wait until they finish and hopefully they'll make it available that way.

[jesse_the_k]

Well I'll be sure to let you know when that ZIP is ready. But since they began their daily routine almost three months ago, you can download large chunks already.