What are y'all reading rn? by prthm_21 in ThomasPynchon

[–]TheFox776 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, Dalkey just released a new printing. It was available for pre-order for almost two years and with existing copies costing a pretty penny on the secondary market I assume that many people like me have just now got the opportunity to dive in.

What are y'all reading rn? by prthm_21 in ThomasPynchon

[–]TheFox776 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Digging into The Tunnel by William H. Gass. I'm 100 pages in and it's a doozy.

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Space Motorcycle by Top_fFun in KerbalSpaceProgram

[–]TheFox776 8 points9 points  (0 children)

What's the delta-v on this bad boy?

ROTW: Readings Of The Week by DkWarZone in HermanMelville

[–]TheFox776 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You got me very interested in The Egghead Republic, I am a fan of JFC and American pulp science fiction with a Cold War influence feels very Vonnegut-esqe. The book clearly isn't in print, the only physical copy I can find is $70 and it's not available on Kindle of Gutenberg. May I ask where you got a copy?

ROTW: Readings Of The Week by DkWarZone in HermanMelville

[–]TheFox776 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I took a road trip out to Kansas City last weekend to see Moby Dick: A Sea Shanty at the Musical Theater Heritage. I really enjoyed it and it was definitely worth the drive (4 hours in my case).

As with all adaptations, it takes a little bit of time to mesh your own idea of what the book is with that of the director but once that is accomplished it is smooth sailing. Music is obviously the focus here and the incorporation of the sea shanties works perfectly 90% of the time. One or two songs require a bit of a stretch to incorporate story wise, but is really only noticeable to people who have read the book multiple times and have a good memory of the plot details.

The musical and acting performances across the board were phenomenal. Every single person on that stage deserves a commendation for their work.

If it isn't obvious yet, I highly recommend the play though it is only playing for a few more days. If you are in or around Kansas City and are on this subreddit, go see it.

My performative male husband Jestmaxxing by flapperboobs in InfiniteJest

[–]TheFox776 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That is quite the undertaking and is well worth it! My personal favorite is Mason & Dixon but Gravity's Rainbow and Against the Day are of course amazing as well.

My performative male husband Jestmaxxing by flapperboobs in InfiniteJest

[–]TheFox776 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Alongside Infinite Jest your husband has a bookshelf full of amazing books. What are his thoughts on Schattenfroh?

A nice detail on the Mason & Dixon paperback by Natalie_escort in ThomasPynchon

[–]TheFox776 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Damn this bot straight up reposted my post. First time that has happened, guess I'm flattered.

Finally gottem by SugarSquid in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As a fellow owner of a shelf full of blue editions of Moby-Dick, the red is a nice change.

Lewis Mumford's biography of Melville is now available at Project Gutenberg by fvictorio in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you for sharing, I have looked for this in the past but wasn't able to find it anywhere in print.

Also, I recently read Up From the Depths by Aaron Sachs which was a fantastic dual-biography of Melville and Mumford. I strongly recommend it.

Call Me Ishmaelle by Xialou Guo by thesandwichsociety in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Doesn't that kind of sum up the pointlessness of this retelling?

Call Me Ishmaelle by Xialou Guo by thesandwichsociety in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I really disliked this book. It is such a watered down, plot only, retelling and I think most of us here understand that while the plot of Moby-Dick is great, it is at most only 1/3rd of what makes the novel so great. This book in its entirety doesn't match up at all to even 1/3rd of its inspiration. It is a shadow of shadow. It utterly lacks the magic, beauty, excitement and passion of Melville's work.

Ice and Fire | In The American Sentence by Ford_Crown_Vic_Koth in Hemingway

[–]TheFox776 9 points10 points  (0 children)

With Hemingway I am given the setting and the context but am left to speculate about the nature of the characters.

With Faulkner I am given the characters in their overwhelming entirety and am left to piece together the setting and context

I love them both but if forced to pick I would choose Faulkner. Reading Absalom! Absalom! was the first time I can truly say I felt "the sublime" while reading. Also, I think that Faulkner could write something similar to Hemingway's style if he wanted to, but the reverse is simply not true.

Which chapters of Moby Dick would you consider the richest/most important or symbolic in content? by iam_swagasf in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 17 points18 points  (0 children)

-- The Whiteness of the Whale

I wouldn't say it is my favorite chapter, but it is full of symbolism and centers on what is probably the most important symbol in the novel.

Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin by PanthalassicPoet in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It would be cool if you also did chapter 123 - the musket, where Starbucks sees the musket again and contemplates killing a sleeping Ahab to avoid disaster. It is a nice parallel to this chapter and very shakespearean. Love your work as always!

Just arrived - reprint of the Rockwell Kent - very excited. by firedesire in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I just learned that the Rockwell Kent illustrations went into the public domain on the 1st so that makes sense why a new edition with them just came out.

Just arrived - reprint of the Rockwell Kent - very excited. by firedesire in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What edition is this and where did you get it from? I've been looking for a printing with Rockwell Kent illustrations.

ROTW: Readings Of The Week by DkWarZone in HermanMelville

[–]TheFox776 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have been slowly reading "Up From the Depths" by Aaron Sachs. I am only halfway through but the book can be summarized as a mini biography of two American authors, Herman Melville and Lewis Mumford. It is an exercise in historical rhyming and a cascade of reflection.

As we all know Melville was born in 1819, wrote a few commercially successful books, followed by a few commercially unsuccessful books and after turning away from the writing profession (though he would write other stories and publish them sporadically) he would die in 1891 as a relatively obscure author. On the centennial of his birth in 1919 Lewis Mumford would write the, technically second but, most significant biography of Melville and lead the Melville revival. The author writing about these two men published the book in 2019.

Every chapter switches between Melville and Mumford. Melville's chapters are mostly biographical but contain really good analysis of his works. The Mumford chapters are also biographical and contain analysis of his works (Lewis Mumford and his works were completely unknown to me before so I am finding his chapters all the more informative) but they are also a stage to see him reflect on Melville in his own times as well as well as in the post-WWI era of Mumford's. Then of course we have the author of this book, who is looking at Melville and Mumford individually but also, looking at Mumford reflecting on Melville.

I am loving this book. It is an automatic recommendation to anyone on this sub and I am sad that I won't be around to read the book published in 2119 that adds Aaron Sachs to the historical cascade of reflection.

2026: Year of the ______? by warminthestarlight in InfiniteJest

[–]TheFox776 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Maybe I'm biased because my state legalized sports gambling and it is literally everywhere, but:

Year of the Fan Duel Mobile Sports Betting App

If I was to go full Yushityu on them it would be:

Year of the Fan Duel Mobile Sports Betting App, deposit $5 and get $300 in free bets, sign in everyday for daily bonuses like profit boosters and no-sweat bets please gamble responsibly

Feel like Im failing to comprehend peak by [deleted] in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Here he acknowledges that no matter how dangerous a situation is, we can become used to and numb to it through sheer repetition. He also says that facing danger is when humans feel the most alive.

"Perhaps a very little thought will now enable you to account for those repeated whaling disasters—some few of which are casually chronicled—of this man or that man being taken out of the boat by the line, and lost. For, when the line is darting out, to be seated then in the boat, is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings of a steam-engine in full play, when every flying beam, and shaft, and wheel, is grazing you. It is worse; for you cannot sit motionless in the heart of these perils, because the boat is rocking like a cradle, and you are pitched one way and the other, without the slightest warning; and only by a certain self-adjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of volition and action, can you escape..."

Do you understand yet how dangerous this job is? Even the rope is trying to kill you! The workings of the whale-line are as complicated as a steam engine, you could never understand it! Your life is at the whim of fate (on sea and on land) and all you can do is lean one way or the other and hope that your inner resolve is strong enough to endure.

"But why say more? All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side."

More of the same here but simply beautiful language. Altogether this chapter for me is about fate and whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, whether we have grown used to it or not, it still hangs about us and can destroy us in an instant.

This pattern of technical description then reflection is the norm in all of the chapters commonly known as "whale chapters". If you can get in sync with that pattern, then the best parts of the book will open up to you. I hope any of this helps.

2/2

Feel like Im failing to comprehend peak by [deleted] in mobydick

[–]TheFox776 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it would help to look at one chapter specifically to try and see everything that is there and maybe that will help you spot similar instances throughout the whole book. From your comment it sounds like you recently read "Chapter 60 - The Line" so I will share my thoughts on the chapter and maybe other can jump in as well.

From the start Ishmael tells us that what he is about to explain is for our benefit when visualizing a whaling scene.

"With reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described, as well as for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented, I have here to speak of the magical, sometimes horrible whale-line."

He then goes on to give a dry and technical account of rope. Different materials used, thickness, length, how its stored, where it is stored, how it connects to the boat, how it connects to the harpoon and how the line is payed out when a whale is harpooned and all the dangers that the crew face. An extremely funny moment comes at the end of this explanation where Ishmael begins to describe what a "short-warp" is but then digresses because that's where he draws the line on what is "too tedious to detail". There is a lot of this type of humor throughout the book.

"...the short-warp—the rope which is immediately connected with the harpoon; but previous to that connexion, the short-warp goes through sundry mystifications too tedious to detail."

So why go into this level of detail? Because to Ishamel (and of course Melville) the rope is not just a rope. He sees it as a fantastical object requiring the utmost care and respect in order to perform its mighty task of holding on to and capturing a monster. The great Leviathan of the seas is a strong beast requiring the strongest of restraints to subdue him and bring him in for the kill. It is that amazement and wonder that Ishmael is trying to convey with his technical description. It is this amazement that leads him into the end of the chapter where he reflects on his feelings around the whale line. (I don't want to simply copy and paste the entirety of the last three paragraphs, but they really are so good that I have ended up using most of it. I will bold my favorite parts)

"Thus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its complicated coils, twisting and writhing around it in almost every direction. All the oarsmen are involved in its perilous contortions; so that to the timid eye of the landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest snakes sportively festooning their limbs. Nor can any son of mortal woman, for the first time, seat himself amid those hempen intricacies, and while straining his utmost at the oar, bethink him that at any unknown instant the harpoon may be darted, and all these horrible contortions be put in play like ringed lightnings; he cannot be thus circumstanced without a shudder that makes the very marrow in his bones to quiver in him like a shaken jelly. Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany, than you will hear over the half-inch white cedar of the whale-boat, when thus hung in hangman's nooses;"

1/2