Comment by srean | Hacker News Reader

Comment by srean | Hacker News Reader

Moby Dick is considered the great American novel. As someone who is not well read on American culture, could anyone help me with the surrounding context -- what made it the great American novel. I know I am asking for a lot here.

Thanks folks all those who responded. Now I am better armed. I did have a go at it about an year back. Read around 4~5 chapters and then realized I need more context to fully appreciate what makes it special. I sensed there's a lot of symbolism being used, but couldn't quite put a finger to what exactly. Was quite surprised by the homo-eroticism in some of the chapters, did not expect that. I assumed literature from such times would reflect more 'victorian' values. I presume that might have created a stir then, or may be not, I am not that well versed in American culture, especially from that era.

The U.S. was the dominant whaling country at the time of Moby Dick, but there is little in the book that assumes a knowledge of American history, culture, or literature. It's a candidate for "the great American novel" only because it was written by an American. I've read it more than once, and it strikes me as something completely original, not tied to the conventions or themes of literature of its time or country of origin. You may or may not like it, but "Americanness" won't be the reason.

Personally I prefer authors from the 1920s: Fitzgerald, Hemingway and the like. But Moby Dick is a combination of long, a very American (New England) setting from a certain period in whaling, and a memorable story of obsession. I read it fairly recently and it’s actually a pretty good read. Fell free to start skimming when Melville gets into one of his long-winded encyclopedic descriptions of some whaling topic.

Probably too much to cover in a forum post. This DH Lawrence essay is a good place to start: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/lawrence/dhlch11.htm

Because there's a chapter where they cut off the whales penis, skin it, turn it inside out and wear it as a robe. Everyone thought that was hilarious, but they had to pretend they liked the book for other reasons. (https://www.shmoop.com/moby-dick/chapter-95-summary.html)

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