The Golden One - October 26, 2019


Book Review： Moby Dick


Episode Stats

Length

11 minutes

Words per Minute

154.85233

Word Count

1,835

Sentence Count

126

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Greetings, Balkingtons. Today I want to talk a bit about a book that I have read, Moby Dick.
00:00:08.000 And first and foremost, when I greet you as Balkingtons, it's because it's a character in this book that is called Balkington.
00:00:16.000 So I thought it was a fun way to introduce this video.
00:00:21.000 So basically, before I begin to talk about this particular book, I know that this isn't the most click-baity or relevant topic there is.
00:00:31.000 But then again, I have a lot of subscribers, you who are watching this, who are into books, you like reading, you like literature, Western culture as well.
00:00:42.000 Which is, yeah, this is very much a part of especially American culture, I would say. It is an important work.
00:00:50.000 So I decided to read it.
00:00:52.000 And also, before I begin, a shameless plug from me since we're talking about books.
00:00:57.000 If you haven't already read my own glorious book, Dauntless, 200 pages of self-improvement and philosophy.
00:01:05.000 I will link it, first link in the description box below.
00:01:08.000 Definitely recommend everyone to read it.
00:01:11.000 So, that being said, let's get into the book itself.
00:01:15.000 And I will be very honest with everyone watching.
00:01:19.000 I don't want to be pretentious.
00:01:21.000 I don't want to pretend that I do like stuff that I don't really like just for the sake of coming across as cultured.
00:01:28.000 I will always be honest with what I like and what I do not like.
00:01:32.000 So this book, did I enjoy reading it?
00:01:34.000 Was it a good book?
00:01:36.000 No, not really.
00:01:38.000 I did not enjoy reading it particularly much, to be honest.
00:01:42.000 And that can be for a few different reasons.
00:01:45.000 It can be for the fact that it is written 150 years ago.
00:01:49.000 So it's a bit hard with the language.
00:01:51.000 But I think more of it has to do with the fact that it's not a particularly immersive book.
00:01:58.000 It's more written as a whaler's experience in whaling.
00:02:03.000 And that is also one of the strong points of the book.
00:02:06.000 That it's based upon an extremely epic incident or tragic incident depending on how you want to view it.
00:02:14.000 So basically during the heyday of whaling when the Atlantic powers ventured out into the ocean in search for whale oil because you needed it for lamps.
00:02:25.000 Not these kind of lamps but the lamps you had during the early 1800s or to mid 1800s.
00:02:34.000 So whale oil was a treasured commodity.
00:02:37.000 And this book is written by Herman Melville who had a past in the American whaling fleet.
00:02:46.000 So he had plenty of experience to draw upon.
00:02:49.000 And that is one of the things that makes the book, in my view at least, worthwhile to read.
00:02:55.000 It's a great time document.
00:02:57.000 So even though it's not an immersive book that makes you want to hit the gym.
00:03:02.000 It's a great piece of history, especially American history.
00:03:06.000 So if you ask, should I read this book?
00:03:08.000 It depends a bit.
00:03:09.000 If you are interested in 19th century Western world culture and history.
00:03:15.000 Yeah, it is an important work.
00:03:18.000 And after all, it's been a classic for such a long time.
00:03:21.000 And it is that for a reason.
00:03:24.000 And also the event that I mentioned that it's based upon is actually a whaling ship called Essex was sunk by a sperm whale.
00:03:36.000 It got rammed and sunk by a whale.
00:03:39.000 And this is something that really, really captures the imagination.
00:03:43.000 It's like something out of a legend or a myth or some, yeah, some strange fiction.
00:03:48.000 But it happened and the book is based on that.
00:03:52.000 And the sheer feel of that, if you just hear this for the first time, there was a ship that got sunk by a whale.
00:04:00.000 So you have this great beast from the deeps of the ocean coming up to attack humans.
00:04:07.000 It is interesting.
00:04:08.000 It is epic.
00:04:09.000 It is something that really catches your imagination.
00:04:12.000 So that was basically why I thought it was a cool read, even though I didn't enjoy it.
00:04:18.000 So it's a bit of a not enjoyable, but enjoyable at the same time, if it makes any sense at all.
00:04:25.000 So it's not immersive as a book by Connie Gilden, for example, or the Horace Heresy.
00:04:31.000 But it's also a book that is based on something real.
00:04:34.000 And you get to see from an actual whaler how things were back in the day.
00:04:40.000 So as a time document, as a historic document, it's very valuable to have.
00:04:48.000 And also a note on the author.
00:04:51.000 I have saved a few quotes from it and it's very clear that he is first and foremost very proud of having been a whaler.
00:04:59.000 He thinks it's a noble pursuit and perhaps it was.
00:05:02.000 It was during the time 1850s when Western man at least really conquered the planet.
00:05:11.000 Went out into the ocean, went out into the world, explored, found new species, and you didn't really have that same sense of knowledge that we have today.
00:05:23.000 Now we know exactly every species there are, or almost at least, and we know every spot on the map basically.
00:05:31.000 This was a time of exploration.
00:05:33.000 And there is something really appealing in that feel of it.
00:05:38.000 The feel of exploration, the feel of not knowing the unknown.
00:05:41.000 There could have been more, even more horrendous monsters lurking in the deeps.
00:05:45.000 Who knows?
00:05:46.000 But you have that sensation at least, and that is also what makes it interesting.
00:05:50.000 And also seeing how he, the author, viewed the world back then.
00:05:55.000 And yeah, the book is full of references to mythology and culture and history, and it's clear that the author is very well read.
00:06:04.000 So I will take a few examples which I thought were cool.
00:06:08.000 And this is one quote, it actually reminded me of Bronze Age Pervert on Twitter.
00:06:13.000 Or yeah, Bronze Age Mindset, you might know the book, in its epicness, in the feel of the text.
00:06:21.000 So here goes the quote.
00:06:23.000 Especially the Oriental Isles to the east of the continent, those insulated, immemorial, unalterable countries,
00:06:30.000 which even in these modern days still preserve much of the ghostly aboriginalness of Earth's primal generations.
00:06:38.000 When the memory of the first man was a distinct recollection, and all men his descendants.
00:06:44.000 So you have that sort of feel that there are still unexplored territories.
00:06:51.000 And yeah, that is appealing.
00:06:54.000 Getting that sense through a book is quite attractive in terms of a reading experience.
00:07:00.000 And then also in terms of having it as an historic document.
00:07:04.000 You can see the relationship between the British whalers and the American whalers.
00:07:10.000 So he says,
00:07:12.000 Besides, the English whalers sometimes affect a kind of a metropolitan superiority over the American whalers,
00:07:20.000 regarding the long, lean Nantucketer with his nondescript provincialism as a sort of sea peasant.
00:07:27.000 So it's also interesting, again, to, when you read the sort of older books, you get a historic window to look through.
00:07:34.000 So this is what the British seamen thought of Americans during that time.
00:07:40.000 And another quote, something I've mentioned briefly, especially if you follow me on Twitter, is physionomy.
00:07:47.000 And he mentions it briefly.
00:07:49.000 Physionomically regarded, the sperm whale is an anomalous creature.
00:07:53.000 Physionomy is basically, you can look upon a person's features and see what kind of man he is.
00:07:59.000 I used to believe this was the most ridiculous of bro science, but it actually has quite a bit of truth to it.
00:08:07.000 And during the 19th century, it was even more regarded as something legit.
00:08:12.000 And this is, if you look upon bug men, for example, or new males, etc.
00:08:16.000 You know, with their soy faces.
00:08:18.000 They look, you can see that they don't have good, healthy, moral views.
00:08:24.000 And people kind of knew it back in the day, too.
00:08:27.000 So just thought to mention that it was fun.
00:08:30.000 And another note on the sperm whale.
00:08:33.000 He definitely admires the sperm whale as a king monster of the oceans, I suppose.
00:08:40.000 And this is also something that highlights his knowledge of the world, of Western culture.
00:08:48.000 So I thought it was a fun quote.
00:08:50.000 And I am convinced that from the heads of all ponderous, profound beings, such as Plato, Pyro, the devil, Jupiter, Dante, and so on,
00:09:01.000 there always goes up a certain semi-visible steam while in the act of thinking deep thoughts.
00:09:07.000 So he just, you know, throws out some random beings there, such as Plato, Pyro.
00:09:14.000 I think he means Pyro, Pyrrhus, the Greek general who fought the Romans.
00:09:20.000 Then the devil, because why not?
00:09:22.000 And then Jupiter, and then Dante, the Italian author.
00:09:27.000 So yeah, in good company, you can say the sperm whale is.
00:09:31.000 And then another quote, which I put up on my page, thegoldenone.se, I also shared it to Legi Gloria's Instagram, is the following.
00:09:41.000 Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it.
00:09:46.000 And in everything impossibly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.
00:09:50.000 Take away the tied tendons that all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved Hercules, and its charms would be gone.
00:09:58.000 As devout Eckermann lifted the linen sheets from the naked corpse of Goethe,
00:10:03.000 he was overwhelmed with the massive chest of the man that seemed as a Roman triumphal arch.
00:10:10.000 When Angelo paints even God the Father in human form, mark what robustness is there.
00:10:16.000 And that was the absolutely most epic quote from Moby Dick, so I had to share it.
00:10:21.000 So basically, you have a lot of cool references and quotes, etc., in the book.
00:10:27.000 And again, it is a valuable time document, historic document, and it is based upon the most epic incident indeed.
00:10:37.000 There is also a film with Chris Hemsworth that is being made out of this particular incident that I saw a year ago.
00:10:46.000 I can highly recommend that as well, just to get that epic 1800s feel.
00:10:51.000 So that was just me rambling a bit on the book I have just read.
00:10:56.000 So the final verdict is, yeah, if you're interested in that time period, if you're interested in Wailing,
00:11:03.000 because it is a very lengthy book about Wailing after all, and I don't regret reading it.
00:11:09.000 Some cool passages, it feels nice to read a classic like this, but if you're starting out to read books, I would not recommend it.
00:11:20.000 And I don't think you should have this sort of literature in schools either, because it might turn people off from reading.
00:11:26.000 Because as I said, it's not a good book, it's not an immersive book in that regard, it's not something that you want to continue reading.
00:11:34.000 Unless, of course, you're interested in the time period, but I suppose most people are not.
00:11:39.000 So in terms of just an enjoyable reading experience, perhaps not.
00:11:43.000 But for those of you who are interested in the time period, I can definitely recommend it.
00:11:49.000 XOXO, boom!