Ishmael narrates the story of
Herman Melville's MOBY DICK
To call MOBY DICK "classic literature"
is like calling the sun a "yellow ball."
Unlike me, I hope you read Mr. Melville's
saga of the sea before you are sixty-four.
The book was first published in 1851.
The following quotes are from Chapter 1:
It requires a strong moral principle to prevent me
from deliberately stepping into the street, and method-
ically knocking people’s hats off–then, I account it high time
to get to sea as soon as I can...There is magic in it.
What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me
to get a broom and sweep down the deck...Who aint a slave?
Tell me that...However the old sea-captains may order me about–
however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction
of knowing it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served
in much the same way–either in a physical or metaphysical point of view
...All the difference in the world between paying and being paid.
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Footnotes
The hyperlink adds a musical dimension to Ishmael's comment.
You do not have to be a Rhodes Scholar to detect Herman Melville's
influence on Bob Dylan or anyone who has creatively put pen to paper,
beginning with Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll.
It was Mr. Twain who once said:
Classic- a book which people praise but don't read.
Please Please Please–prove him wrong
and don't wait sixty-four years to do so!
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