This book is FUNNY. Why did no one tell me all my life? Moby Dick is always portrayed as some super serious victorian shit but it's funny as hell, it reminds me of the Coen Brothers a bit.
>dick
kek
>>7684335
Nobody read it here.
/lit/ only knows that it says a lot about whales.
>>7684352
The section that I remember was when he compared certain Whales to particular philosophers. I remember losing my shit, I need to read it again.
>>7684335
Hell yea. The beginning is downright hilarious. I also love when (I forget his name now) is calling out commands to the seamen to go faster, but not that fast! Or something along those lines.
>>7684420
>seamen
jej
>>7684420
Stubb is full of funny lines. Also don't forget the 5 foot tall negro boy who goes totally insane and becomes Ahab's butt-boy
What's the point of being encyclopedic about whales?
>>7684335
This (minus the Coen Brothers part) is exactly how I felt about Ulysses. I wasn't expecting it to start off with a wacky line like
"STATELY, PLUMP BUCK MULLIGAN CAME FROM THE STAIRHEAD, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently-behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
-- Introibo ad altare Dei."
>>7684837
It's dry humor. The joke gets funnier every time you think the story is about to get moving and it's suddenly brickwalled by more droning about the proper way to cook whale tongue.
I read and enjoyed about half of Moby Dick online (too poor to buy a copy) 3 years ago. I stopped when I lost internet service. I've thought about giving it another go but my backlog is huge right now.
>>7684352
can confirm
>>7684884
SOUNDS LIKE AMERICAN PSYCHO AND HIS VERBAL DESIGNER BRAND MASTURBATING/MUSIC COMMENTARY INTERLUDES, NOT TO COMPARE THE TWO NOVELS AS A WHOLE
I know I'm getting trolled into reading this dry-ass book right now, but whatever, it's gonna happen eventually.
>>7684922
DON'T YELL THIS IS A LIBRARY
This is how I feel about Lolita. To this day, it's still the funniest book I've ever read.
>>7684837
What it did for me was make imagine in great detail the whale and the ship, and the manner in which they both functioned, so that at the end in the climax I had startlingly clear images of both how the whale would appear to them, and all the different actions that the crew were undertaking simultaneously. It added a kind of immersion.
It was also just interesting.
>>7684959
Patrician.
>>7684933
Read the first 50 pages and you'll be convinced. The bit where he's looking for a cheap hotel and accidentally ends up in a negro church is what convinced me.
>>7684884
I read from Swiss Family Robinson that whale tongue tastes like shit.
>>7684933
>moby dick
>dry
when will this meme die
It has plenty of humor in it, but it's hardly just comedy. Ahab is a tragic hero.
>>7685379
When people realize being at sea would be very wet.
>>7684335
goofy arse book that's for sure
>>7686312
What I really like about /lit/ is how eloquent everybody is.
>>7684356
which philosophers, any I'd recognize?
>>7684967
just set me straight, how is that not racist? a negro church being mistaken for a cheap hotel.
>>7686595
Oh it's certainly racist.
If you're looking for observations to be racist.
Melville simply observed certain traits for his characters and environments, most likely from his own experiences.
If you want to consider that racist, go right ahead.
>SHIPMATES! HAVE YE SHIPPED IN THAT SHIP?
>>7686687
eh...so the characters are racist, not the author...and the person laughing thinking that is funny? that blacks at one time couldn't afford a church that didn't look like a cheap motel? that a white person would mistake a holy place for black people as a shithole? thinking that's funny and not a shame... what does that make that guy?
>>7686700
stop trolling, and if you aren't trolling, get off 4chan.
>>7686781
salty
>>7686700
You're right, Melville should have depicted the church as a cathedral tilted to the tits with gold.
McCarthy should have called the Mexicans Mexicans instead of niggers.
Dostoevsky should have had alyosha say "no" instead of "i don't know" when asked if Jews eat children on Easter.
This would make literature much better.
does the norton critical edition have the best notes/supplementary material?
>>7686845
Reading comprehension. I'm right there with you, depicting racist characters does not make the author a racist... Just like the author of Lolita was the opposite of a pedophile an knew his protagonist was a villain. on the other hand...how is that funny?
wasn't the upshot of moby-dick that ishmael actually ended up getting on really well with all sorts of people and shared a fucking bed with the supposed savage queequeg and considered him a total bro and it's actually less racist than the average 21st century american or i am fucking dreaming here
>>7686886
>his protagonist was a villain
How can one resist feet like these? How can you? We're only human, cut the poor man some slack, he didn't even get to taste some of that pussy.
>>7686886
Lol I just jumped in and got excited. Didn't read the OP or the thread. Didn't know we were talking about humour, just racism. My bad.
Too stoned to read and apparently too stoned to shitpost.
>>7684335
Stubbs and Starbucks have great banter. And the beginning between Ishmael and Queequeg is funny as well.
But besides that it wasn't that funny. Entertaining though.
>>7684335
you haven't read past the first 50 pages
>>7684335
I'm reading it through myself, and i completely agree! it's quite funny at times, other times are a bit dry and boring, but there are definitely funny parts. Also, did you get a bit misty eyed with man tears when Queequeg and Ishmael got married?
>>7686916
dude weed lmao
>>7686948
It's ok to be gay, just don't comment on things you don't understand.
>>7686921
i just felt incredibly uncomfortable
couldnt stop projecting myself in the situation i guess
>>7687005
I dunno, I felt like it was a bit reminiscent of manly affection. I imagine it was a bit forward thinking, considering the times, in terms of a racial aspect. and in terms of a relationship between men, you really have to experience a fast friendship that includes affection without sexuality. I think homophobia ruins a lot of male companionship.
>>7686886
OP here, Ishmael is very emphatically not racist, it actually comes up. He didn't mistake the black church for a shitty hotel because it looked bad, he heard a commotion and assumed it was a rowdy hotel. Also the joke isn't "lol niggers," the joke is that he just burst into some church in the middle of a sermon thinking it was a hotel.
>>7686903
No, you're completely right. The tumblrina ITT has clearly not read the book.
>>7684335
>Why did no one tell me all my life?
There's this author called Philip Hoare - the guy behind the "Moby-Dick Big Read" project, basically an expert-überfan who's totally obsessed with the novel - who finds it really funny, he always points it out during relevant talks or interviews.
I'd recommend his book, "Leviathan", if you're interested in either whales, whaling or Mellville and all things Moby-Dick, it's informative and a very enjoyable read.
/plug
>>7687044
among most normal males balking at sleeping two to a bed would be considered gayer than sleeping two to a bed. that type of homophobia only exists with insecure types and black people (for whatever reason)
>>7684335
It's pretty hilarious in parts. I couldn't stop laughing at the part when Queequeg sits on the sleeping sailor and nearly suffocates him, but thinks nothing of it because he always used servants as furniture back home.
I also find Dostoevsky pretty funny in parts - particularly when Marmeladov is drunkenly trying to kiss his wife's feet and beg her forgiveness, all whilst she's beating him around the head. It's especially funny if you know much about Dostoe's relationships with women.
>>7687089
interesting. that's why I asked someone to correct me. I was sure, or hoping, i was completely off base.
>>7687187
Or quequag sleeping in his coffin after he doesn't die. Had a laff.
>>7684837
nothing other than providing context to the reader
not only does one of the encyclopedic entries explain how little info there is about whales at that time
its also just Melville's style, he's very digressive
so was he right about the spout? was it vapour all along
>>7686886
This is a joke right?
>>7684922
>>7684938
I love /lit/ banter
If you read Melville's other books, you notice that he was a) a very melancholy dude and b) very funny
>>7686290
medium kek
>>7684837
this>>7684884
it's about his overwhelming desire to fuck that whale. he really really is obsessed with experiencing that whale.
but there is all of this cool shit going on around him. but all he can think about slipping his harpoon into that soft whale belly. all day. every day. whale. whale. whale. then when he gets to the very moment when he can slip that whale his harpoon he's like, meh. fuck this shit, lets go home. i'm not really into you anymore now that the chase is over.
>>7687171
haha this.
The more serious military "schooling" programs like the UK commando or US Rangers require you to share a whole in the ground with several of your newest closest friends or risk hypothermia. Objecting to this calls your sexuality into question and worse, jeopordizes the other guys.
>>7690657
Everyone knows /k/ is gay, what are you trying to prove.
Wasnt there a chapter about the butter being passed around the table?
Melville was a meme author, and had no discernible talent. he was shitposting, and is literally genre tier fiction. clearly a juvenile author.
>>7692380
well memed
>>7692380
Hemingway, Faulkner, and Melville?
Are you having a good time or no
>>7694042
not the same anon.
Ulysses had me laughing like crazy at some parts. Especially this chapter.
DFW is very funny in his essays
