'Moby-Dick' update 2
When last I wrote about "Moby-Dick," on Feb. 6, I was at Chapter 54 and page 248.
Since then I've read 47 chapters and 209 pages and still am not done, although I'm getting there, inch by inch. As of Monday I'm up to Chapter 102 (out of 135) and page 457 (out of 577), reading at least four pages every single day since Jan. 1, and sometimes more. Sunday I read 32 pages, which took an hour of concentration at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, where I've read big chunks of the book. (I know I should read at Starbucks, since Starbuck is Ahad's first mate, but I like Coffee Bean better.)
Also since Feb. 6, the Claremont Insider blog devoted a post to my quest for the White Whale. Strange to think that the big news in Claremont that morning was that a Claremont resident was reading "Moby-Dick," but just when I was coming to grips with that, they quickly went back to deriding the Claremont elite and all was right in the world. I did appreciate the attention on myself and the book.
So here's where I am: The Pequod is still on the open ocean and, despite Ahab asking passing ships "Hast thou seen the White Whale?" two or three times already, we've yet to see him.
Do I feel cheated? Not at all. It's an amazing book, full of poetry and philosophy and humor. The anticipation and buildup is part of what makes "Moby-Dick" a classic.
The book is full of digressions about whales and whaling. Entire chapters are devoted to the parts of the whale, such as the skin ("The Blanket"), the forehead ("The Prairie"), the spout ("The Fountain"), the brain ("The Nut"), the head ("The Battering-Ram") and the tail ("The Tail"). An editor could pull all the digressions out and leave a book half the size that would have thrust and momentum. However, at that point you would have a nice whaling tale for boys. It's the digressions, in my opinion, that make the book.
The whale -- Leviathan, as Melville often calls it -- was in his day, and ours, the most incredible mammal in existence, and yet still somewhat mysterious and unknowable, at least at that time. The way he explores and ruminates upon each aspect of the whale, and details how each bit was mined and used by man, can try one's patience at times, but I find those chapters among my favorite, and the most lyrical. They make the whale loom even larger in our imagination.
At any rate, I've got 120 pages to go, or about four hours of reading; two minutes per page is as fast as I can go with Melville, as he takes a lot of concentration. I should finish by the middle of March.
Hopefully the whale shows up by then.
I almost didn't get past "The Whiteness of the Whale" chapter, David. I just kept rereading it ... again and again.
Thrilling to hear from someone reading this for the first time.
Don't apologize for preferring another coffee shop to Starbucks. I prefer my coffee "neat," and it is rare to find an independent coffee shop as bitter as Starbucks.
[So I hear. I'm actually a tea guy, and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf has more teas. -- DA]
[1] There was a city manager at Walnut named Linda Holms (I think that's how it's spelled) about 10/15 years ago.
[2] It's a shame that the city of Pomona can spend millions on a overhead walk at the railroad tracks and support a daycenter for the illegal workers at the tune of $200,000/$400.000 a year and who knows what else, but want to raise taxes to fix the roads.
[We don't cover Walnut or consider it part of the Inland Valley, but thanks for the information nonetheless. -- DA]