Book Review： Moby Dick
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154.85233
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Summary
In this episode, I discuss Moby Dick by Herman Melville, a classic work of literature written during the early 1800s and written about a whaling ship being attacked by a whale. I also discuss the history of whaling and the event that inspired the book.
Transcript
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Greetings, Balkingtons. Today I want to talk a bit about a book that I have read, Moby Dick.
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And first and foremost, when I greet you as Balkingtons, it's because it's a character in this book that is called Balkington.
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So I thought it was a fun way to introduce this video.
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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.
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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.
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Which is, yeah, this is very much a part of especially American culture, I would say. It is an important work.
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And also, before I begin, a shameless plug from me since we're talking about books.
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If you haven't already read my own glorious book, Dauntless, 200 pages of self-improvement and philosophy.
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I will link it, first link in the description box below.
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So, that being said, let's get into the book itself.
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And I will be very honest with everyone watching.
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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.
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I will always be honest with what I like and what I do not like.
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I did not enjoy reading it particularly much, to be honest.
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It can be for the fact that it is written 150 years ago.
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But I think more of it has to do with the fact that it's not a particularly immersive book.
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It's more written as a whaler's experience in whaling.
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And that is also one of the strong points of the book.
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That it's based upon an extremely epic incident or tragic incident depending on how you want to view it.
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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.
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Not these kind of lamps but the lamps you had during the early 1800s or to mid 1800s.
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And this book is written by Herman Melville who had a past in the American whaling fleet.
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And that is one of the things that makes the book, in my view at least, worthwhile to read.
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So even though it's not an immersive book that makes you want to hit the gym.
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It's a great piece of history, especially American history.
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If you are interested in 19th century Western world culture and history.
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And after all, it's been a classic for such a long time.
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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.
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And this is something that really, really captures the imagination.
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It's like something out of a legend or a myth or some, yeah, some strange fiction.
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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.
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So you have this great beast from the deeps of the ocean coming up to attack humans.
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It is something that really catches your imagination.
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So that was basically why I thought it was a cool read, even though I didn't enjoy it.
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So it's a bit of a not enjoyable, but enjoyable at the same time, if it makes any sense at all.
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So it's not immersive as a book by Connie Gilden, for example, or the Horace Heresy.
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But it's also a book that is based on something real.
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And you get to see from an actual whaler how things were back in the day.
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So as a time document, as a historic document, it's very valuable to have.
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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.
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He thinks it's a noble pursuit and perhaps it was.
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It was during the time 1850s when Western man at least really conquered the planet.
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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.
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Now we know exactly every species there are, or almost at least, and we know every spot on the map basically.
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And there is something really appealing in that feel of it.
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The feel of exploration, the feel of not knowing the unknown.
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There could have been more, even more horrendous monsters lurking in the deeps.
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But you have that sensation at least, and that is also what makes it interesting.
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And also seeing how he, the author, viewed the world back then.
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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.
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So I will take a few examples which I thought were cool.
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And this is one quote, it actually reminded me of Bronze Age Pervert on Twitter.
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Or yeah, Bronze Age Mindset, you might know the book, in its epicness, in the feel of the text.
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Especially the Oriental Isles to the east of the continent, those insulated, immemorial, unalterable countries,
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which even in these modern days still preserve much of the ghostly aboriginalness of Earth's primal generations.
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When the memory of the first man was a distinct recollection, and all men his descendants.
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So you have that sort of feel that there are still unexplored territories.
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Getting that sense through a book is quite attractive in terms of a reading experience.
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And then also in terms of having it as an historic document.
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You can see the relationship between the British whalers and the American whalers.
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Besides, the English whalers sometimes affect a kind of a metropolitan superiority over the American whalers,
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regarding the long, lean Nantucketer with his nondescript provincialism as a sort of sea peasant.
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So it's also interesting, again, to, when you read the sort of older books, you get a historic window to look through.
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So this is what the British seamen thought of Americans during that time.
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And another quote, something I've mentioned briefly, especially if you follow me on Twitter, is physionomy.
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Physionomically regarded, the sperm whale is an anomalous creature.
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Physionomy is basically, you can look upon a person's features and see what kind of man he is.
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I used to believe this was the most ridiculous of bro science, but it actually has quite a bit of truth to it.
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And during the 19th century, it was even more regarded as something legit.
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And this is, if you look upon bug men, for example, or new males, etc.
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They look, you can see that they don't have good, healthy, moral views.
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And people kind of knew it back in the day, too.
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He definitely admires the sperm whale as a king monster of the oceans, I suppose.
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And this is also something that highlights his knowledge of the world, of Western culture.
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And I am convinced that from the heads of all ponderous, profound beings, such as Plato, Pyro, the devil, Jupiter, Dante, and so on,
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there always goes up a certain semi-visible steam while in the act of thinking deep thoughts.
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So he just, you know, throws out some random beings there, such as Plato, Pyro.
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I think he means Pyro, Pyrrhus, the Greek general who fought the Romans.
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And then Jupiter, and then Dante, the Italian author.
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So yeah, in good company, you can say the sperm whale is.
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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.
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Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it.
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And in everything impossibly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.
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Take away the tied tendons that all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved Hercules, and its charms would be gone.
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As devout Eckermann lifted the linen sheets from the naked corpse of Goethe,
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he was overwhelmed with the massive chest of the man that seemed as a Roman triumphal arch.
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When Angelo paints even God the Father in human form, mark what robustness is there.
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And that was the absolutely most epic quote from Moby Dick, so I had to share it.
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So basically, you have a lot of cool references and quotes, etc., in the book.
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And again, it is a valuable time document, historic document, and it is based upon the most epic incident indeed.
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There is also a film with Chris Hemsworth that is being made out of this particular incident that I saw a year ago.
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I can highly recommend that as well, just to get that epic 1800s feel.
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So that was just me rambling a bit on the book I have just read.
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So the final verdict is, yeah, if you're interested in that time period, if you're interested in Wailing,
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because it is a very lengthy book about Wailing after all, and I don't regret reading it.
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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.
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And I don't think you should have this sort of literature in schools either, because it might turn people off from reading.
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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.
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Unless, of course, you're interested in the time period, but I suppose most people are not.
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So in terms of just an enjoyable reading experience, perhaps not.
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But for those of you who are interested in the time period, I can definitely recommend it.