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Showing posts from February, 2008

Moby Dick

I just finished listening to Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. It's available here free of charge. I thought the reader, though certainly not a professional, did quite well. He knew his pronunciation on all the myriad whaling terms, and clearly knew the work quite well. His Captain Ahab voice was my favorite--it became very familiar by the end. I would say this book is half whaling textbook and half adventure novel. I kept thinking about how one would make a movie out of such a work, and my only conclusion is that half or more of the material would have to be discarded. It is a crazy work, weirder than I had imagined possible for such a highly-regarded work. Still, I liked it immensely. Still, what a great story. Melville clearly had a passion for the subject, and the tale is well told, with excellent characters. The ship is almost a microcosm of the world, with an incredibly diverse crew, fairly treated by the author (for 1850, that is). Ahab was my favorite character; perh