Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
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Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#2My review:
A brilliant book, possibly my favourite of all the books I have read, which is a lot, and certainly one that I have enjoyed re-reading time and again. Tragic that it wasn't more widely appreciated in Melville's lifetime. A must read.
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#3My review: A brilliant book, possibly my favourite of all the books I have read, which is a lot, and certainly one that I have enjoyed re-reading time and again. Tragic that it wasn't more widely appreciated in Melville's lifetime. A must read.
Yes, it is if every sentence in it is a thoughtfully crafted poetic fragment.
And many of the chapters essentially nonfiction, a sort of encyclopaedia of Whales and Whaling.
"Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents’ beds, unerringly I rush! Naught’s an obstacle, naught’s an angle to the iron way!"
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#4What, ho? Someone hath run Neal Stephenson’s reviews through 1851translator.com?
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#5What, ho? Someone hath run Neal Stephenson’s reviews through 1851translator.com?
Exactly what I thought!
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#6What, ho? Someone hath run Neal Stephenson’s reviews through 1851translator.com?
Ah damn. I tried going to 1851translator.com thinking it was real. How disappointing!
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#7Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#8The language of the reviews is quizzical. I caught myself thinking how high-brow language once was. Then, it dawned on me the sense of intentionality and craftsmanship displayed by each sentence.
U up? Who dis? :emoji :emoji :emoji
I'm not sure if I'm nostalgic, sad or just a little bit of, "get off my lawn."_
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#9My review: A brilliant book, possibly my favourite of all the books I have read, which is a lot, and certainly one that I have enjoyed re-reading time and again. Tragic that it wasn't more widely appreciated in Melville's lifetime. A must read.
I agree that it’s a brilliant book, but it’s also a very strange one. Those reviews suggest to me that some of the earliest readers did in fact appreciate both aspects of it.
Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
#10The language of the reviews is quizzical. I caught myself thinking how high-brow language once was. Then, it dawned on me the sense of intentionality and craftsmanship displayed by each sentence. U up? Who dis? :emoji :emoji :emoji I'm not sure if I'm nostalgic, sad or just a little bit of, "get off my lawn."_
You're comparing highbrow literature reviews in leading magazines to short instant messages, which are a significantly different medium designed to be read by one or two people once, and then thrown away. Your best comparison is telegram style[0], which is not dissimilar to today's texts—complete with its own slang and shorthand. Nobody's writing "u up" in the New Yorker.