Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick • Hacker News Board

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#11

Post by relaunched » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

pkage wrote: post #10

relaunched wrote: post #8

The 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. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_s…

I can't help but think that telegram style was more a function of the exorbitant cost and pricing model of sending a telegram.

https://newatlas.com/last-telegraph-message/28314/#:~:text=I....

Relative to wages in the 1860s, telegrams were very expensive.

https://www.portablepress.com/blog/2016/10/where-the-money-w...

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#12

Post by jimbler » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

zabzonk wrote: post #2

My 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.

Fun to see this on HN. What an incredibly strange, amazing and beautiful book. Ambition as wide as the ocean. I think both Ishmael and Mellville were nuts. I'm attempting to finish it right now (again). I've tried multiple times to get all the way through. I've joked that Moby Dick is actually my Moby Dick.

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#13

Post by bombcar » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

billfruit wrote: post #3

zabzonk wrote: post #2

My 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 t…

It's apparently the style of the time - Les Miserables spends a decent amount of time talking about sewers iirc.

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#14

Post by m_myers » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

Recently ran across this interesting guide to Moby-Dick: "The 100 Chapters of Moby Dick You Can Skip - And why you won’t want to" https://baos.pub/the-100-chapters-of-moby-dick-you-can-skip-...

The point is that while most of the book is incredibly boring, that's a feature and not a bug.

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#15

Post by blululu » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

“To convey an adequate idea of a book of such various merits as that which the author of Typee and Omoo has here placed before the reading public, is impossible in the scope of a review. High philosophy, liberal feeling, abstruse metaphysics popularly phrased, soaring speculation, a style as many-coloured as the theme, yet always good, and often admirable; fertile fancy, ingenious construction, playful learning, and an unusual power of enchaining the interest, and rising to the verge of the sublime, without overpassing that narrow boundary which plunges the ambitious penman into the ridiculous; all these are possessed by Herman Melville, and exemplified in these volumes.”

Could not agree more 170 years later. My girlfriend and I are currently reading the book aloud to each other before bed and almost every page is a master work of the English language.

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#16

Post by zokier » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

billfruit wrote: post #3

zabzonk wrote: post #2

My 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 t…

> And many of the chapters essentially nonfiction, a sort of encyclopaedia of Whales and Whaling

Which certainly did not improve it as a novel.

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#17

Post by drzaiusapelord » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

relaunched wrote: post #8

The 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."_

If you think they didn't have slang in the 19th century then you are mistaken. You can't compare academic writing to slang and pretend society has devolved. We live in a time where people who would be locked out of the publication process for "reasons" can now write books. Where literacy is the highest ever. Where more books get published than ever. The incredible progress in publishing should be praised, not disingenuously mocked.

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#18

Post by robin_reala » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

If anyone’s looking for a nice and libre ebook of Moby Dick, I produced one for Standard Ebooks: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/herman-melville/moby-dick

I also put together a collection of Melville’s short fiction, which includes “Bartleby”: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/herman-melville/short-fict...

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#19

Post by yuuu » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

zabzonk wrote: post #2

My 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 am skeptical of anyone who has read Moby Dick and not admitted how much of a slog it is.

Re: Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick

#20

Post by billfruit » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #13

billfruit wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

It's apparently the style of the time - Les Miserables spends a decent amount of time talking about sewers iirc.

And minutiae about court cases, legal precedent of the era.

Similar with Count of Monte Cristo as well, the details of the Mediterranean smuggling trade it goes into is simply amazing.