Moby Dick - Starts 23rd October (Rachel and Devika)

[Aahana, aka Aelin Whitethorn :)]

Starts: 23rd October
Finished: to start
Buddies: Devika and Rachel

Hey!! I've heard so much about this book!! Excited to see what you both think :)

[[deleted user]]

Yay! Me too! :)

[◐Devika]

I've finished 3 chapters now. The book is a bit hard to read and there are a loooooot of objects and words I don't know about, but I do get the basic idea of what is happening.
How much have you read? I know that you won't be online now, so I'll try my best to be online at 9AM MDT or 8:30PM IST

[[deleted user]]

10 chapters. I'm confused and intrigued at the same time. Is the cannibal harpooner an actual cannibal? Also is he actually selling heads?!??!

[◐Devika]

I'm still on page 49(end of 3rd chapter)
I'll start reading 25 pages each tomorrow onwards... I'm really sorry about that part... I know you're probably on Page 100 or something, but can you give me some time to catch up?
Tell me which page you're on and I'll try to read till that part by tomorrow.
What I mean is- I'll read whatever number of pages you've read by tomorrow and I'll start reading 25 pages from day-after-tomorrow.
(view spoiler)[Not that it matters, but I'm just writing a short summary of the book here:
Chapter1:
Ishmael is talking about how great the ocean and water is. He also says that if a person walks unconsciously in an unknown place, his legs will eventually carry him toward water, if there is any(I wonder if it is true. I'll definitely try it out somewhere in the distant future, but I'll make sure I have my phone with me). He also gives some examples for all this.
And then he says that he goes not as a passenger, because a passenger is quarrelsome, gets sea-sick etc, not as a cook, captain or a commodore but as a sailor. According to him, everyone serves each other.
He also says something about his roles in the world and about how he goes on a whaling voyage.
Chapter2:
The ship he was supposed to catch had left early, so he decided to wait till monday morning, when another ship that goes to the same place will come.
He needed someplace to stay. He does not enter the inns which are too expensive. Once he even accidentally entered a church. After some wandering about, he finally found an inn good enough.
Chapter3:
Inside the inn, most of the things he saw resembled whales, oceans, ships etc according to him.
He asked the landlord if there was any room which he could occupy, but there wasn't any. The landlord told Ishmael that he could sleep with a harpooner if he wanted to. But Ishmael didn't want to, so he decided to sleep on a bench, but that plan failed. He wasn't very comfortable sleeping there.
He sat waiting for the harpooner. After some time, when it became clear that he wouldn't come, Ishmael went and slept on the bed. The harpooner also seemed like a cannibal.
The man comes and does some sort of a ritual. He then lies on the bed smoking.
The narrator becomes afraid of this man, calls the landlord and all misunderstandings are cleared. While sleeping at night, Ishmael says that it was one of the best sleeps he had ever had.
(hide spoiler)]
The first two chapters seemed very boring, but the third one was not so. Till the third chapter, it was sort of like a non-fiction book. In the third chapter, we get to read the book as a kind of story, I guess. I forgot most of the third chapter because I only read it once, but I read the first two chapters twice.
I can't exactly say that I'm excited to read more, but I'll definitely be excited if I finish the book. By the end of the third chapter, I kinda felt like reading more, but that was only a little bit.

So how did you think the book was? Was it boring?
Lets hope that it does not become or continue being boring from Chapter 4 onwards...
So sorry for the unnecessary summary, I just felt like writing one, but the comment became way too long. Sorry🙏🏼🙏🏼

[[deleted user]]

The length is fine, i am honestly enjoying the book so far, but that's mostly because of my own confusion. I have read up to Chapter ten, so get through nine and you'll be caught up. The summary was great, i often do that with things i read to make it easier to understand. :)

[◐Devika]

Rachel wrote: "10 chapters. I'm confused and intrigued at the same time. Is the cannibal harpooner an actual cannibal? Also is he actually selling heads?!??!"
So the harpooner is an actual cannibal. And he was literally selling human heads.
After reading chapter 3, I understood the cannibal part, but I thought that he was selling wooden heads or something(the kind you sculpt)
Both these facts were confirmed by google.

[[deleted user]]

Aaaahh. That's very creepy. How do you have a broken human head? Actually i don't want to know!

[◐Devika]

Sorry, I could not write these comments yesterday as my parents confiscated my laptop for a day and I can type out long messages only on my laptop as autocorrect may ruin it for me if I use any other device.
Anyway, now this book seems interesting. And I've finally caught up with you.
Starting trouble is so true! I think the author wants to leave a good first impression, so thinks very hard and writes complicated stuff. But when he gets to page 40 or 50, the words flow out of him and its no longer that hard.
It does take me so long to read though, one hour for 25 pages!!! Maybe its because I read it while also listening to the audiobook. It is available for free on stories.audible.com.
I wish I could reach the part where he sees the whale!
All the following comments are my thoughts while reading the book. I don't think any of it is true(you know, me thinking about whether this was the reason for that etc.)

I'll read another 25 pages today, and also please tell me which page you're on.

[◐Devika]

Chapter 4:
(view spoiler)[You would think that Ishmael had no past, at least I thought of it that way. He seemed to be a person who was just born and became a sailor. Although I think it was mentioned that he was a schoolteacher before.
I never thought he had such a nice(depending on which angle you look from) childhood.
One would expect him to be poor from birth.
I know its definitely not nice of me to say that, but that was my image of a sailor.

That mystery of the hand...I think it was probably the stepmother feeling bad for what she had done. I know it is unlikely, but who else would sit by him? Maybe it is the father, who also felt bad for him. Well, we'll never know.
Then why bring it up in the first place? This book is filled with unnecessary detail, one of the things I hate the most.

Queequeg is really odd...his name, his behaviour, everything!
(hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Chapter 5:
(view spoiler)[ Its really funny how Ishmael can tell how long each one has been ashore just by looking at their cheeks! He must be really experienced at cheek-reading XD

I think all the sailors at the breakfast table were embarrassed because they had not seen any whale at all! Maybe they did see one, maybe they just want to be polite. But I still think it is the first reason. Is it even possible to go whaling and not see a whale?
(hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Chapter 6:
(view spoiler)[Just a thought-are parts of this story even real?
I mean, are there really civilized cannibals in this world?
I always thought cannibals lived in forests and jungles...
(hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Chapter 8:
(view spoiler)[Are almost all the people in this place harpooneers and whalers and sailors and whatnot? Even the chaplain is one!

Is Ishmael a person who looks for a deeper meaning in everything? Seems like one to me.

I think this chapel was made by this chaplain or maybe everyone just likes the sea, like I told before.
(hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Chapter 9:
(view spoiler)[I'm getting sick of it! Everything is sea for them!
Didn't Herman Melville get any other creative ideas?!?!?

I have never read the bible, but I do know the main story about Jesus.
Why does Herman have to write the entire sermon on paper? I'm not saying it is boring, its just that I can't understand anything...

Is the sermon even important? I skipped it!
If it is important, please do let me know, because then I have to read it...
Judging from some parts, it doesn't feel that much important to me, as is a half of this book!
(hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Chapter 12:
(view spoiler)[
Queequeg...Kokovoko...anyone has any idea which country these names came from? But its a really nice name and also funny.
(hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Chapter 13:
(view spoiler)[
The book has become so easy to read, except at some parts.
I didn't even realize the ship had been moving until Queequeg jumped into the water.
I never thought Queequeg was this considerate of others, to be honest, I didn't think about him at all before this...
(hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Right now I've just finished chapter 15.
I'll continue reading the rest about 24 hours later, but I don't know till where I should read. By our daily count of 25 pages per day, we should be finishing chapter 21 by tomorrow. But if we are to read 25 pages from where I am now, we would finish chapter 18.
So till which chapter should we read- 22 or 19?

[[deleted user]]

Whichever one you feel comfortable with, sorry i wasn't here this morning. :)

[◐Devika]

Chapter 16 (view spoiler)[
Where does Queequeg get the wood shavings for the fire from? Is it taken from Yojo itself?

Oh, so captains hire sailors just like that?

I thought someone had invited Ishmael to go whaling, because, idk. I just thought that. So it was his own choice. If it was his own choice, then how could it be the decision of the Fates?

Anyway, everything happened for free those days. Just go upto a captain, tell him you want to go whaling, answer a few questions and you could get a free pass to the sea! Everything happened in 10 minutes or so.

I have a doubt- Who is a Quaker?

Ishmael has certainly described everything in much detail(as always), including all their back stories. This makes me wonder- how does Ishmael know all this? Ishmael just met this person and is already telling us about their histories.
Some he heard from the hotel or something, I agree, but what about everything else?

First he said," You know best" and now he Bildad arguing that he is correct!

Yojo's select craft might also be this one! Even if it is not, they'll be travelling in it anyway.

Are they really travelling for 3 whole years? I thought it would be for a month or two. But three! No wonder why the book is so long.
(hide spoiler)]

I don't understand many of the words in it, but I'm just reading to get the gist of it. If I were to look up every unknown word, it would definitely take me 3-5x longer to finish.

To save time, I'm now reading while listening to the audiobook at twice the speed. I can still understand everything, but I can't blink too long or I'll miss something.

Are you listening to the audiobook and reading? Or simply reading? Or simply listening?
I'm honestly listening to the audiobook at all to get through everything fast. The audio forces me to move my eyes quickly.

It is past 10 pm here now, so I'll be reading the rest tomorrow morning(if I can)

[[deleted user]]

Of course! Take as much time as you need to finish. I still haven't finished either. :)

[[deleted user]]

(view spoiler)[Oop, just now saw the spoiler part! Sorry! :) A Quaker is a member of a certain religious sect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers

Yeah! A whole three years! It's crazy!

I agree its weird that Ishmael knows all of that without really giving context of how. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

(view spoiler)[ I noticed several references to the Bible in these last few chapters, Ahab and Jezebel, Daniel/Beltshazzar, Jonah, honestly i'm kind of confused what this has to do with the story.

Nothing is really happening, at least from my pov, its really slow and character development is really odd. The cannibalistic feast was really creepy and odd. I'm curious to see how all this cannibalism talk actually plays into the plot. Wbu? (hide spoiler)]

[◐Devika]

Reply(view spoiler)[Honestly, I didn't think about it that much. There are a lot of useless things that are mentioned in the book, like the sermon of the chaplain. The author just keeps adding stuff that comes to his mind. This made me think that the cannibalism part was also something like that. Maybe it isn't really part of the plot. That is what I thought. I don't know, everything is just so boring(not always, only when Ishmael tells unrelated things). What made you think that it was part of the plot? Maybe the food gets over in the ship and maybe they eat each other or something. Actually, that is the only thing I can think of.
I agree with you, everything is just soooooooooooo slow.
Which chapter are you on? I've not read anything more since yesterday. But I'll catch up today.
About the bible names, maybe it is just another useless thing(I'm not telling that the bible is useless). At this point, I'm thinking of most of the things that Ishmael writes as useless. It is just a whaling story. So maybe the author thought that if he were to write out the plot only without deviating, it would only cover 50 pages or so.
Thank u for telling me about Quakers:) (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

(view spoiler)[Oh, i didn't think it was a part of the plot, i was just wondering if it has anything to do with the story, or if it is just a useless piece of information.

I'm on chapter 38.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, but its rather annoying rn, 'It is not his fault, nay, his mother named him Ahab when he was naught but a year old. He is just like his namesake, that is not good, didn't the dogs feast on his blood?' I get that he is named Ahab. His mother named him Ahab. He is just like Ahab. But why is that in here? Before we know it, Queequeg's real name is going to be Jesus.

Np Devika! :) (hide spoiler)]