(Debby)
Fever + Moby Dick = Awesome

I feel like I’ve spent a significant chunk of my life avoiding reading Moby Dick. But then I got sick a few weeks ago. The first day I lay on my couch and watched television, and so of course my back went out. So the rest of the time I lay in bed, reading Moby Dick until I got too exhausted, and the rest of the time just lying there. (which led to some questionable results)

It was totally great! Most likely if I was whole and able to do something else, I would still want to read the philosophical rantings of a mentally-disturbed whaling captain, but I probably wouldn’t have been as patient with all those chapters on the intricacies of whaling, the differences between the heads of Right Whales and Sperm Whales, the critiques of many popular paintings and etchings of whaling expeditions and whales, let alone the whole argument about why whales will never be hunted to extinction.

But if you are patient, it’s a great pay off. It is a sprawling, insane and totally engrossing masterpiece.

Also, I really think that everyone involved in conservation work should read it. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded that ‘nature’ is not necessarily noble and serene and ‘good’. And whalers are not necessarily swarthy and greedy and ‘bad’. (No, I do not think that the international whaling ban should be lifted.) It’s also a great reminder that even before petroleum and electricity, the process of bringing light to our homes was still a brutal and bloody affair. You really get a feel for the whalers being driven by this insatiable demand for whale oil.