Call me Ahab

WHAT FOLLOWS is the original opening post for this rash experiment of mine; but first, a word of explanation.

LAST YEAR I resolved to read Moby-Dick, and I thought it would be an interesting exercise to record the experience of reading this recognised classic through the means of a web-based diary. Alas, as with so many well-laid plans, it initially didn't survive contact with the enemy - in this case, working life. A dozen different distractions impeded my intended path, and after just a few weeks both the reading and the recorded consideration fell by the wayside.

SO WHY try again? And why now? Without going into too much detail, I have found myself at a crossroads, and things are changing in my life in a swift manner. Not ever completely comfortable with change, I am now having just such thrust upon me, and with it a choice; I could postpone this endevour - I had always intended to return to the project - until a more suitable time, or I could once again take up my paperback Melville and set out with Ishmael and Starbuck and the others once more.

This is my intention.

IF I FALTER after a few short weeks or months, then so be it. I have suffered graver humiliations at my own hand in the past. I don't know if there will ever be a better time to begin again. The only time I have come to realise that isn't as certain as we let ourselves believe.

AND SO to the original first posting of my own white whale, Moby and Me.


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THE PLAN For the New Year I've resolved to read Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. I hold a degree in English Literature, and it has always been a bit of an embarrassment to me that I haven’t got around to reading what some scholars believe to be the most significant novel written in English.

I thought it might be interesting to keep a diary of the reading experience. Moby-Dick is a story about obsession. It seems appropriate that the reading of the novel should be accompanied by a recording of the my impressions of, and reactions to, Melville's prose.

Until now, I have only read Billy Budd, Sailor - for an Honours course on narrative structure - which I enjoyed both for the story and for Melville's writing. In spite of this, I've always found the idea of reading Moby-Dick daunting; it's a novel that comes with a reputation. It's one of those great stories - I'm told - that one can come back to several times in his life and take away something new and unhinted at previously, like Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair, Heart of Darkness, Sons and Lovers, Love in the Time of Cholera... I could go on.

Another part of this process I find somewhat daunting, is the fact that this isn't my first stab at writing a blog. I started writing a movie-weblog a couple of years ago, but after a cpouple of months I couldn't keep it up. I think the subject was just too broad - films I thought I had something to say about - and I ended up writing indulgent essays instead of pithy, thought-through entries. With Moby and Me I'll try to discipline myself to write briefly and often, at least two or three times a week. I'll try to keep it to the book as much as I can, but I can't promise that life won't sometimes intrude. Also, I can't promise it will be interesting, educational or fun - we'll just have to see where Melville takes me.