I don't get it
It's a metaphor for being yourself.
It was all a harangue on penises and its wonders.
its a comment on the repression of sexuality in victorian scotland
when pronounced in the scottish dialect you realise the title is actually "my big dick"
I know you are joking OP, but The Confidence Man was terrible.
I thought since I'd like Moby Dick I'd like it, but nope.
>>7855351
it's about a man who REALLY REALLY doesn't like a whale
>>7855360
scots have never and will never pronounce 'my' as 'mo'. It's 'ma big dick' or 'ma buhg duhck' at a push
>>7855371
perhaps his hypothesis isn't entirely off
instead its "more big dick", referring to the immigration of lanky englishmen
>>7855380
yeh, i can get on board with that
Just forget 'getting' the metaphor for the moment and enjoy the language. Melville has some of the finest prose of any American writer, ever.
"For this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error. So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory."
Also:
But courage! there is good cheer in store for you, Queequeg. For now, as with blue lips and bloodshot eyes the exhausted savage at last climbs up the chains and stands all dripping and involuntarily trembling over the side; the steward advances, and with a benevolent, consolatory glance hands him - what? Some hot Cognac? No! hands him, ye gods! hands him a cup of tepid ginger and water!
"Ginger? Do I smell ginger?" suspiciously asked Stubb, coming near. " Yes, this must be ginger," peering into the as yet untasted cup. then standing as if incredulous for a while, he calmly walked towards the astonished steward slowly saying, "Ginger? ginger? and will you have the goodness to tell me, Mr. Dough-Boy, where lies the virtue of ginger? Ginger! is ginger the sort of fuel you use, Dough-Boy, to kindle a fire in this shivering cannibal? Ginger! - what the devil is ginger? - sea-coal? fire- wood? - lucifer matches? - tinder? - gunpowder? - what the devil is ginger, I say, that you offer this cup to our poor Queequeg here?"
"There is some sneaking Temperance Society movement about this business," he suddenly added, now approaching Starbuck, who had just come from forward. "Will you look at the kannakin sir; smell of it, if you please." Then watching the mate's countenance, he added: "The steward, Mr. Starbuck, had the face to offer that calomel and jalap to Queequeg, there, this instant off the whale. Is the steward an apothecary, sir? and may I ask whether this is the sort of bitters by which he blows back the life into a half-drowned man?"
About sums it up.
http://thelectern.blogspot.com.br/2012/03/moby-dick-herman-melville.html
maybe the real moby dick was the friends we made along the way
>>7855420
maybe Moby Dick was the power of love
>>7855371
>he thinks the victorian scots had exactly the same accent as they do today
arrogant and wrong
>>7855351
>I don't get it
whales are evil
>>7855555
>I didn’t finish the novel
Nice digits, though.
>>7855555
Quints of truth
>>7855351
the whale is good and captain is evil
What if it really is just about how much a guy hates a whale, and everyone is looking too deep into it?
What are other Melville novels worth reading?
>>7856234
No, the whale stands for God. Ahab is asserting his aristocratic will to power.
>>7856524
I've heard the others are just escapist romanticism. Fun reads but nowhere near as great as Moby Dick. But I haven't even read them, what am I talking about?
>>7855420
maybe the true dick was inside us all along
>>7855351
The point is you're supposed to look it up on project Gutenberg and use it for shitposting on websites that don't have a character limit.
>>7855362
wrong. the confidence man ranks next to ulysses for highest order books ever written. reread it.
TURN YOUR FUCKING BRAIN ON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zdBEdhLBeY
Sperm whale. Moby dick. Sperm comes out dick. Dolphins are whales. Semen is salty. Salty sailors. Gay as fuck.
>>7856597
bologna. his first two novels, massive commercial successes (Typee and Omoo) are precisely that, but everything else by Melville is generally great.
>>7856524
read his short works. Billy Budd and Bartleby are two of the greatest short stories of all time. Confidence Man is great too. Pierre is good but off-putting.
He also wrote a weird epic poem I haven't gotten to yet called Clarel
>>7855420
maybe the real moby dick was trying to tell us to believe in ourselves
>>7857115
"Turn your fucking brain on" is such a great line.
>>7855351
Damn, I like that cover.
