{"id":1010,"date":"2019-03-21T12:20:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2019-03-29T16:39:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T20:39:24","slug":"how-to-read-moby-dick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/spring-2019\/how-to-read-moby-dick\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Read Moby-Dick"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Martha<\/div>\n
\n

Martha Elena Rojas, Professor of English<\/p>\n

Photo: Ayla Fox \u201911<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

2019 marks the bicentennial of Herman Melville\u2019s birth. For lit lovers, reaction to this news will depend almost entirely on their feelings about just one of his novels: Moby-Dick<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Moby-Dick is one of those novels that, let’s face it, many readers avoid or abandon. For those readers, mere mention of the novel may trigger anxiety that looms like its namesake: an intimidating, inscrutable monster.<\/p>\n

ENG 396: The Oceanic Nineteenth Century: What is Oceanic Literary Studies?<\/h1>

The Rumowicz Seminar in Literature and the Sea<\/em>
\nMartha Elena Rojas<\/p>\n

This course introduces oceanic literary studies and aims to broaden students’ conception of maritime literature. Readings include:<\/p>\n

The Odyssey<\/em>
\nby Homer<\/p>\n

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself<\/em>
\nby Olaudah Equiano<\/p>\n

A Tale for the Time Being<\/em>
\nby Ruth Ozeki<\/p>\n

Moby-Dick<\/em>
\nby Herman Melville<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

If Melville\u2019s 200th spurs you to take on the tale of the great white whale, English Professor Martha Elena Rojas has a few suggestions:<\/p>\n

Pick a version that works for you.<\/h2>\n

In addition to the familiar editions you might remember, there are Moby-Dick picture and pop-up books for children, and graphic novels for young adults. A favorite of Rojas\u2019 is Matt Kish\u2019s monograph Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page<\/em>. The book is 600 pages long with a shipping weight of 4.3 pounds. Melville would be proud.<\/p>\n

Commit to reading the first 50 pages.<\/h2>\n

\u201cEven if you read only one chapter, you will take something from it,\u201d Rojas says. \u201cI think of the first chapters as Melville’s long ramp into it, his way of drawing you into the text. Ishmael’s perspective as a somewhat experienced sailor who nonetheless ventures into unknown territory is much like the reader\u2019s, and the friendship that unfolds between Ishmael and Queequeg models a positive encounter with the new and unfamiliar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Begin at the end.<\/h2>\n

If you get really impatient, stop and read the last three chapters. \u201cMost people already know the plot of Moby-Dick<\/em>, so that\u2019s one of its challenges: We think we already know it,\u201d Rojas says. \u201cSo read the end first, and then pick up the book again to experience how Melville gets us there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the audio.<\/h2>\n

On the website Moby-Dick<\/em> Big Read, each chapter is read by a different person. Actor Tilda Swinton reads the opening chapter. Beloved poet Mary Oliver, who died in January, reads the epilogue. In between, you hear the voices of Royal Shakespeare Company actors. The novel with its scenes of sailors telling yarns and tall tales, of sermons, speeches, and soliloquies is inherently theatrical.<\/p>\n

Get in the mood.<\/h2>\n

Tracks from Laurie Anderson\u2019s multimedia translation, \u201cSongs and Stories from Moby-Dick<\/em>\u201d appear on her album Life on a String. \u201cI\u2019m partial to \u2018The Island Where I Come From,\u2019 with its strains of calypso, and the haunting, poetic \u2018Pieces and Parts,\u2019\u201d says Rojas.<\/p>\n

Set aside time, but not too much.<\/h2>\n

The key to success, Rojas says, is setting aside time specifically for the purpose of reading. In the classroom, she gives her undergraduates three weeks. \u201cTwo weeks is not enough and four is too much,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Be ready to be rewarded.<\/h2>\n

National Book Award-winner Nathaniel Philbrick argues in Why Read Moby-Dick<\/em> that the novel is \u201cas close to being our American Bible<\/em> as we have.\u201d It\u2019s also a great read, says Rojas. \u201cAnd Moby-Dick<\/em> has proliferated and permeated modern culture. There are plays, movies, paintings, operas, even rap songs devoted to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Marybeth Reilly-McGreen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2019 marks the bicentennial of Herman Melville\u2019s birth. For lit lovers, reaction to this news will depend almost entirely on their feelings about just one of his novels: Moby-Dick<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2019","architecture-syllabus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1625,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/1625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}