After a few chapters my suspicion was that Moby Dick would be one of those turn of the century novels which would be justified by a few beautiful paragraphs. At least, at the rate I read and general difficulty when it comes to concentrating, I tend to get a bit lost in books like Heart of Darkness, The Great Gatsby - books from this time period where the short novel was emerging from realist fiction. So after the first few chapters, I figured Moby Dick was going to do this to me, and in particular I was waiting for a line referred to by Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: First Contact, "If his chest had been a cannon" or something like that.
The line never came. I think it's misquoted and actually should be "if his chest had been a mortar," and either way, I missed the sentiment. I did find the writing all very good, but the ideas of nobility in whaling were lost on me a bit, even trying to appreciate the whole 'different times' thing.
So, yes. Good, and some nice sentiments somewhere in it - and the depictions of a hostile ocean are quite full-on for a shark-fearing man like myself, but I think maybe this book didn't change my life. Oh well.
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