Chapter 25: Postscript

[Vikk]

Moby-Dick Big Read
Chapter 25 - Read by Fiona Shaw
Artist: Tony Grisoni
http://www.mobydickbigread.com/chapte...
Blogs:
http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/2012/10/...
http://patell.org/2012/10/moby-dick-b...

[Vikk]

Well, this is a little bitty chapter and perhaps a slam or poke at the British.

Not sure what to make of it, really. Today I doubt it would escape an editor's scalpel and the NY blogger even says it was omitted in the first published English edition. I also wonder whether it is a part representative of the early edition pre-Hawthorne meeting that the blogger referenced in ean earlier chapter. Apparently Melville had a rather deep change in how he approached the story after meeting Hawthorne and began massaging his story.

Even today we're not that keen on the well-oiled man.

There may be some subtext I'm missing on the whole bit about the nature of the oil used during coronations, too. Especially since Melville is so quick to scorn olive oil and finally insists that only the sperm whale oil is best suitable for the royal head.

Interesting bit stuck at the end of the whole advocate chapter. Anyone watch the video for this chapter?

[[deleted user]]

I did watch the video... ew.... what is it? Wait, don't answer because I don't think I want to know. (I'll go read the blog now and see what Prof. Patell says.)

I think this little add on is just a final dig: He's quick to scorn olive oil as it comes from Europe, but Sperm Whale Oil does not. "You English think you're so fine, with your kings and queens, but without the lowly and reviled American whaleman your king is just a normal man."

ETA: OMG... it was Petunia Dursley reading this chapter. What a splendid actress she is. But why such a short chapter?

[Kim]

I'm a bit dismayed that Fiona Shaw got such a short chapter. I saw her in an Ibsen play (with Alan Rickman and Lyndsay Duncan) when I was in NYC last year and she was wonderful. Also loved her in the 1995 film adaptation of Persuasion.

[[deleted user]]

Kim wrote: "I saw her in an Ibsen play (with Alan Rickman and Lyndsay Duncan) when I was in NYC last year and she was wonderful. .."

Go ahead, rub it in! That must have been wonderful.
Yet another of the things we didn't get to do in NYC because of the broken ankle: the theater! I wanted to take the Beast to a musical.

ETA: one wonders... will Mr. Rickman show up in this project somewhere? hope beyond all hope!

[Kim]

Hayes wrote: "Go ahead, rub it in! That must have been wonderful. Yet another of the things we didn't get to do in NYC because of the broken ankle: the theater!..."

Sorry, Hayes. Going to NYC and not going to the theatre is almost worse than going to NYC and breaking your ankle! And yes, it was pretty wonderful. We (daughter and I) had booked tickets for some things before we arrived (eg. Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice), but Ibsen with Rickman and Shaw we didn't know about until we saw a poster in a subway station. We were in seventh heaven.

I'm also hoping against hope that Rickman will narrate a chapter. His reading of The Return of the Native made me decide that Hardy is alright after all. I would listen to him read the bus timetable.

[Vikk]

His reading of The Return of the Native made me decide that Hardy is alright after all. I would listen to him read the bus timetable.

Loved this. :) (I'll have to take a look at that audio you mention.)

[Vikk]

I've added the links to the two blogs that are cross-posting their info on the Moby Dick Big Read chapters. They, too, are complaining about Shaw having such a small chapter.

[[deleted user]]

He is good, isn't he? I wish I had had a literature teacher like him at university. (btw, it's really just one blogger, Prof. Patell, although he has two blogs.)

[Vikk]

Oops. I saw the two names on the history blog and thought one was assigned to each. :) I think they are providing a great addition to the readalong.