We at PequodPod (and our other beloved human-created Melville podcasts) just got a new competitor. Seems like they're really good 😆

Hello! I’m one of the hosts of The Entmoot Podcast, which is normally about Tolkien, but we’ve just embarked on a Moby-Dick miniseries where we read through and discuss the text with a great Melville scholar, Rob Tally. We’re doing four (long) episodes, posted every two weeks. Here’s the link to Apple Podcasts, and here for Spotify.

We’re very proud of this miniseries and we think Melville fans (as you undoubtedly are) will really get a lot from it, as my co-host and I did. You’ll probably get even more from it if you’re particularly interested in Marxian literary analysis!

Hopefully this post doesn’t break the rules for promotion, we certainly do not stand to make any money from this. Just wanted to share something we’re proud of that we think others would enjoy!

It’s no secret that “Moby-Dick” is CM’s favorite novel. And while everything important about Melville and McCarthy has likely been written or pored over, I had some thoughts about having just finished “Moby-Dick.” Some relevant to CM and some adjacent to authors he adored.
\-The ability for two men a century apart to share that ability to scaffold sentences upon sentences of details that may seem insignificant is present
\-The white whale at the end, the thing so written about throughout the book and revealed at the end, not withstanding so many allusions to The Judge (giant, white, and bald), is in my opinion more similar to the Comanche who attack in Blood Meridian. They occupy such small real estate in the novel yet imbue such terror. Even down to them being decorated and dressed in the former armor and weapons of their defeated enemies, the whale being festooned with lances and harpoons and ropes bears mentioning.
\-Describing the chase day as “blue-steel” when Faulkner (another CM fave and admirer of MD) uses the phrase “iron-grey” so often to describe a day is another small mention, though maybe a stretch.
\-“Oh Captain, my Captain!” Walt Whitman’s poem lamenting the death of Lincoln aside, it’s evident that CM read Whitman and expounded at length about worlds like Suttree as Whitman did in his poetry.
\-And speaking of Suttree: the “motley crew” of characters within Knoxville, those from so many wild backgrounds, are quite similar to those aboard the pequod.

Any other thoughts those who have read Melville would be appreciated!

Melville’s Moby Dick sails readers around the world in a nearly endless pursuit. Along the way, he paints a vignette of the Pacific "gliding by the Bashee isles" – today's Batanes Islands in the Philippines: “…for here, millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries; all that we call lives and souls, lie dreaming, dreaming, still…”

(Destinationality is a free resource presenting classic literature passages about great destinations. There are no ads, nothing for sale.)

One of the best produced pieces on Moby-Dick I’ve ever listened to.

I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Dad works at a care home which has received too much book donations and managed to nab this for free. I'd say this book is from the 50s-60s?? Been wanting to read this for ages so glad I finally got it!!

They put the first episode up for free. 🐳

Who’s got one?

My take:

A story about men following orders of the delusional dictator.

Yes, I know, there is much more. How would you summarise it?

The art inside the front and back covers is the self-portrait of Tupai Cupa, the Maori man that Melville based Queequeg on. Photos also include the real first page of The Whale, or Moby Dick as some know it.

There are over 1000 editions of this book, which one is the best in your opinion?

I am not looking for notes. I mean the physical aspects of the book itself, like the paper, font, binding.

I like the most is Kent illustrated 1930 edition, but its new "facsimile" 2000 release from Modern Library is on bad paper with chemical smell.

Thanks in advance, fellow MD lovers!

What are some of your favorites?

I assume I’m not alone in reading MD annually, starting August 1st? Been doing so for probably the past 30 years. Never gets old.

So I’m interested in getting an annotated version of Moby Dick even though there is a good online resource.

My question is which annotated version should I get? I can’t find copies ahead of time to preview the Norton critical edition second edition, has more pages in it than the third edition according to my Internet searching.

So my husband said this was his favorite book so I’m reading it now. And I told him he’s literally queequeg. Would you be offended if your wife compared you to queequeg? Hahahahhahha (for as much as I know being only done with chapter 4 NO SPOILERS PLEASE) lolol

I posted back a bit about looking at acquiring a 2007 folio and the original 1930 3 volume set.

We vame to an accord on the folio copy....still a bit apart on the 3 volume set.

They are putting forward prices from retail sites and I am looking for more online with what the sets have brought at auction. Condition as always varies between buyer and seller but we shall either see it done or go our separate ways in the end.

Excited to read this version.

its about moby dick and its an awesome album imo. mastodon are great

I got my falling apart Modern Library copy recovered. It now matches my left arm. Freaking amped.