This is fascinating. Melville might have intended Moby-Dick to have a happy ending (and we have many thanks to give that the narrative didn't go that way).
Also, think on this:
The Beale, he says, "puts us pretty close to Melville composing Moby-Dick. He's reading it at the time, and some of the marginalia not only find their way into the actual text ... but all the passages that are incorporated freely or in a modified way ... are also marked in this copy."
In light of all the invective thrown at Brad Vice, consider that the Greatest Novel Ever Written incorporates verbatim passages taken from a non-fiction source. Shocking!
(link stolen shamelessly and admiringly, as always, from Maud Newton)
1 comments:
Some of my friends recently have been laughing at me because I haven't yet read Moby Dick. How could I have not read one of the greatest books of "my" American literature. All I could say was, well, I don't have that book.
Truly though, I'm afraid to read it. I remember how bad it was when we struggled through Billy Budd in high school. It was so bad, the teacher finally worked through the story with us in class. It just wasn't reaching us. I had much more enjoyment from Joseph Conrad and his writing, once I really took the effort to understand it.
I hope that Brad is doing well and that his book might soon come out after all. Any news?
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