No fail whale

The Moby-Dick Big Read is only up to chapter five. Tilda Swinton kicks it off with Chapter 1. My friend Caleb read yesterday’s installment.

6 responses to “No fail whale”

  1. FPS says:

    I have hit the doldrums in Moby Dick again, here on my third try. It happens right after the whale chapter. One thing that happens is I get a mental block on Stubb, Flask, and Starbuck, each of whom is supposed to have very distinctive character traits, but I absolutely can’t keep them straight. And then I feel “oh well, all is lost! Why keep reading?” or something like that.

    Part of me thinks reading it on the kindle is just an aesthetic mistake and things would go better if I’d just lug the damned thing around in book form.

    Oh, ha, of course this exists. Probable spoilers! http://www.fanfiction.net/book/Moby-Dick/

  2. Bryan says:

    Read those three aloud. They have very different voices. I don’t think I really got how distinct until I heard a good version on CD while driving to and from CT one summer. I like the Big Read’s multiple reader approach, though. Fun to hear various interpretations.

  3. Rachel says:

    What a cool idea. I would cry real tears of joy to hear you read a chapter, Bry.

  4. Bryan says:

    Sounds to me like they have their line-up in place. And it’s star-studded!

  5. Josh K-sky says:

    I read a chapter of Don Quixote for LibreVox a few years back (using my old Unfogged pseud) and in June an ex-girlfriend of mine called me to say she was listening to it and recognized my voice.

    FPS, persist.

  6. Bryan says:

    I should point out that my colleague and co-blogger Cyrus Patell has been introducing/glossing each chapter over at ahistoryofnewyork.com. Could help when you get to chapters that bog you down.