Rating: 
Summary: Bizarre but beautiful
Review: Without question this is one of the strangest books I've ever read. Its sureal writing style, and dream-like atmosphere left me speechless. And the philosophical and scientific content is truly mind-stimulating stuff. However, if you are easily offended by racist undertones steer clear because, being written in 1851, they certainly aren't lacking. That aside, this is truly an American masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Moby Dick Responses
Review: Through these readings of Melville's Moby Dick, I find the study of human development starting with the ardent and aggressive male and finally when age advances, the older but wiser male remains to teach the young to avoid his pitfalls and follies. Even in the whale families, nature seems to follow a plan and sticks to it; and the young eventually follow the same path as their older and wiser teacher followed when he was young. All of the community of nature evens out in this process and the survival of the race continues. Men react differently to situations compared to women. Melville illustrates this in the whales by suggesting that if a male whale is attacked, his fellow mammals quit him and leave him to his fate; but if a female reserves a blow, all her female mammals gather around to help her, even to letting themselves be put to risk. In human society, men are usually more self-centered and independent while women can be nurturing and caring. But new ideas change the world and these features become universal in both men and women. Still I believe that qualities of independence coupled with nurturing combine to make a fully-rounded individual. I can see how my own children and grandchildren adapt innovative attitudes in husband and wife chores. Today both the husband and wife work and each one shares the tasks of caring for the children and the home. Usually the woman finds herself still being the central figure in nurturing and household work. Melville examines the whales and laws concerning them, and compares them to us. In this world, we have givers and takers. The Law protect the givers from the takers. But sometimes the two get so intertwined, the Law can be interpreted to let the takers take all and the givers end up with nothing. When Rights can be denied to one person, what can we do to protect this person? When do Rights become wrong? We must examine our lives and determine how we can help to make this world a better place and develop laws to protect the weak who can be left without succor. I enjoyed the trickery employed by Stubbs and his interpreter to the "Rose-Bud." And I see the irony in finding the treasure of ambergris in the heart of the decaying fish. In life, we find treasures when we dig deep into our inner souls and bring forth truth and spirit. Our lives can be filled with treasure if we throw away the decay of sin and dying thoughts and expose ourselves to the light of higher aims and goals, to our ultimate destiny. Corruption of spirit can hide values that we need. I found so much hidden meaning about Life when I read the "Castaway." It seems to tell such a powerful and moving story. First of all, the story centers on a lower class young black boy who ends up cut off from his boat, along in the savage and unfeeling mother ocean. When we feel that we are alone and deserted in Life, we know the pain that Pip must have felt. What helps us keep centered and sane when we are lost in the oceans of trouble here? Do we have an anchor and keep ourselves focused or do we aimlessly bounce around and end up lost and castaway? God helps me in my time of troubles and prayer keeps me anchored on the ocean of Life. When "Pip" turns mad, he becomes filled with heaven's sense, celestial thought free from mortal reasoning. He reaches out for God and finds Him indifferent to him. How sad this belief can be? I wonder if Melville sometimes had these same thoughts as his "Pip" does. This chapter made me think of how many times in my Life that I have seen people as castaways and I hope that I can say that I turned to them and helped them find their way back to security and love. I find a kinship to the chapters that Melville writes about human feelings and cautions us about being aware of our surroundings. . I feel that he wants us to know that we should be in control of our inner resources, giving love and warmth to our fellow men and he shows us the way through his mini-chapters on caring. When words fail, human actions make better communication. A hand held in warmth and companionship makes a lonely, forgotten human ready to participate in the circle of human kindness. I happily agree that squeezing can be fun, and it can also release stress! I have a little soft toy by my computer and when I get the tightness in my fingers from typing on the computer, I squeeze the little toy and what a difference that makes to my whole body. When he writes about squeezing the warm globules of spermacetti, I can understand exactly how he felt. Everyone needs hugs and squeezes! Melville exhorts us about being grounded and not looking too long into the face of the fire. We can get blinded by our own ambitions for gold and power and material things. We must search for understanding or become as dead wood, ready for the fire. Like Ahab, who centers his search for the white whale, he focuses on light, the gold doubloon. Only "Pip" says that "I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look"(475). What could he be saying? But we all look and do we find what we are looking for? On the Pequod, the men are looking for the white whale and the golden doubloon stands blazing in their eyes to remind them. The doubloon remains a symbol of their pledge to Ahab to follow him in his monomaniac search. So who will get the gold? No one knows; but they are all looking. Pip speaks the truth from his madness; he forecasts the ending of this mad search. What an interesting allegory in the skeleton of the great whale found covered with Nature. Melville again uses the weaver in this story. I think that he wants us to look around and see how God covers the world with beauty. He creates a lovely paradise for us when Spring comes and surrounds us with blossoms and grass. He covers the dark and dreary world with new growth. He weaves for us a tapestry of Artwork unrivaled by any artist. Even in the skeletons of death and decay, he can recreate Life and flowering fields.
Rating:
Summary: No Count of Stars Matters
Review: MD is beyond all rating, far beyond. This is simply the greatest work of American fiction and one of the finest pieces of literature ever written. Of course, that said, it is not a simple read, a mere entertainment. It can best be compared to reading Dante's "Divine Comedy" or Milton's "Paradise Lost." You've got to get ready to take your time, think carefully, study a lot, read slowly and with the intent to savor, be humble and receptive. The prose is daunting, but Shakespearean in its greatness. No one short of the great Willy Shakes himself has approached the brilliance of Melville's poetic style. The novel is a quas-allegorical epic tragedy, if that makes much sense to those who haven't read it yet, and you must come to it ready to put yourself through such a monumental task as grappling with it. Ahab is the great madman pursuing his blasphemous goal, Ishmael the gentle searcher caught up in the terror and attractions of that purpose, and Moby himself the great mystery of evil and God and nature, "the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them til they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung". Hey, I could go on and on about this, about symbols and meaning and fate and evil and God and revenge and madness and hope. But what's the point? There are so many facets to this book, from farce to fate, that it would take me days to cover it all. If you want to read something great, this is what you should take in hand. By the way, the "message" of MD is extremely important in our day and age, in my opinion. This is not just an empty academic read, but a profound exploration of the meaning of life and the broadest, deepest questions of moral and spiritual purpose. The same themes haunted Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Camus, Satre, Becket, Graham Greene, Shusaku Endo -- the list could go on and on and on. But none of them reached as high as Melville in this work. You are welcome to write me to discuss MD any time, or to get pyshced up about reading it, or about unlocking some of its intricate and dense symbolism.
Rating: 
Summary: Be wary of who reads the audio
Review: Be sure to avoid the audio version read by Burt Reynolds. His pseudo dialect is almost beleivable, however he is way over the top emoting and blustering through the dialogue. Then he continues on in the same monotonous bombast to read the prose sections as if they were also dialogue. The problem with this is an extremely irritating sing-song pattern, combined with his squeeking, yelling, and mumbling. It lacks all respect for the dignity of Melville's prose. Buy the unabridged version read by Bill Bailey. It is not exciting, but it is not irritating and does not get in the way of Melville's prose.
Rating: 
Summary: Whew!
Review: Moby Dick cannot be compared to any other book. Basically, the book is divided into three parts. In the first part (Approximately Chapters 1-46), Ishmael tells his story about why he decides to go out to sea and, more importantly, why he wants to go after Moby Dick. In the second part (Approximately Chapters 47-96), the book frankly gets weird. It no longer deals with the story, but is more of an explanation about whales and whaling. Lastly, the final part of the book (approximately Chapters 96 - to the end) talks about Captain Ahab and HIS story. It is still told by Ishmael. I guess the best part of this book would be how the whale represents the unknown about nature (and Ishmael's and Ahab's nature - they want to discover THEMSELVES). Of course the ending is indicative of what happens when one tries to comprehend nature. I won't spoil it for you though! Stick with this difficult novel and one just might find all the effort worthwhile.
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Summary: Symbolism and Adventure
Review: Moby Dick by Herman Melville has frightened many readers for years. One hears about the deep meaningful symbolism that's contained within the covers and cannot help but feel overwhelmed at the prospect of deciphering the literary codes. What gets lost in this fear is the fact that Moby Dick is at heart a very good story. Symbolism and deep meaning aside, the novel can stand on its own as a great sea adventure. In Moby Dick we follow the fortunes of Ishmael as he joins a whaling ship headed by the surly Captain Ahab. The ship sets out in search of whales. Captain Ahab sets out in search of one whale in particular: Moby Dick. Yes, the whale does symbolizes an all consuming desire that eventually destroys he who seeks it. But the whale is also a dreaded foe that takes on the human traits of nastiness and viciousness beyond the scope of meer animal survival instinct. Ahab hates Moby Dick and Moby Dick hates Ahab, as much as a whale can hate. Ishmael is really an observer throughout the book. He becomes involved in as much as his duties on the ship require it. The far more fascinating character from the crew is the harpooner Queequeg. He is a "savage" that is befriended by Ishmael and provides many foils for Captain Ahab. I would recommend reading Moby Dick first as a pure adventure story. If you so choose, then go back later and reread it for the symbolism and hidden meanings. Either way it is truly an American classic.
Rating:
Summary: Time Well Spent
Review: Time well spent is exactly how i would characterize a reading through of this classic work of American literature. It is inconceivable to think of any novelist today producing such a work, with its lengthy digressions on a wide range of subjects that do and do not have to do with whaling. It's equally as laughable to think that a publisher would accept it in this age. But Melville had the love of the sea and its most maginificent creatures, and the courage to write his novel to his standards, not anyone else's. And it's a cracking good sea story. The last 40 pages are thrilling and truly classic. Invest the time and mental energy to read Moby Dick; the novel will reward your efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Stunned Into Stillness
Review: Already, some 100+ other readers have reviewed this book, and I can't hope to add much of substance. I would like to say, though, that we have lost something. To engage this book, you need to be able to still yourself, to get beyond this ever-growing need to be "entertained" constantly with immediate, easily consumable forms. Written in this day and age, I suspect Melville would be accused of gross self-indulgence at the expense of the reader; that is a sad commentary about what type of readers we have become. Melville writes a small chapter just on "the whiteness of the whale," whereas even a string of adjectives in any modern literature is often seen as needless. But, the writing, in the end, is the opposite of self-indulgent. Melville gives, to anyone who can quiet themselves enough to recieve it, a huge gift. To be sure, the vision given is harrowing and dark, but for this reader at least, it also deepens the experience of life itself and what it means to be a self-conscious skin of bark floating on Being itself.
Rating:
Summary: Quite simply, the greatest American novel, EVER!
Review: This book is the single greatest achievement of American literature. It is the one work that stands alone & can go toe to toe with all other countries' greatest authors without flinching. Moby Dick can hold its own against the likes of Homer, Goethe, Dante, Milton, Shelley and Virgil and take its place as one of the great classic literary epics of all time. However, as one of the other reviewers put it, it is not for everyone. Even some people who are really "into" literature may not care for this fine novel. That is simply because never has a book been written that has pleased absolutely everyone, without exception. But, I think the biggest reason many people don't care for Moby Dick is due to the fact that so many these days have short attention spans & prefer fast-food type novels whose plot can be summed up on the back of an envelope. If that is your type of book, carry on, sailor - this book is NOT for you. On the other hand, if you have an inquisitive mind that enjoys powerful allegories, then this book is for you! I like to think of Moby Dick as an Americanized re-telling of Milton's Paradise Lost. However, the best thing about the novel is not whether I'm right or wrong so much as the extraordinary range and scope of interpretations that are possible. If you read one single novel the rest of your life, read Moby Dick. If you read more than one novel the rest of your life, read Moby Dick first.
Rating:
Summary: This review is just a bit shorter than the book
Review: The right approach and the adequate level of intelligence is vital for that book's appreciation. Here are a few hints that might help. Did you notice that every time you dream the weirdest things there is nothing unfamiliar about them? Even when the enormous green elefant on gnat's legs attacks you with the eagle's beak you can tell your sleeping brain put the monster together using the oversized version of the animal you saw in a zoo, though in a different color, gigantic limbs of an isect and the bird's mouth. While communicating with itself your brain can not produce any images that do not correspond with your everyday experiences, it is capable of transforming them almost beyond recognition but the ingredients are real life. The same with the author. He neded to choose something to be able to communicate with you. Why it's the gigantic white whale? White is not a color but an absence of color - see the book's treatise on white and the eerie feeling it produces. The form of a whale is very elusive and hard to define. The animal lives in the most mysterious(it's still a few decades till the space age) but accessible element of that time - the ocean. So GWW is the most undefinable object Herman Melville could come up with. Even writing one of the most metaphysical books he could not have set the hunt for hk897]];\'; or =-llk5gghh. The need to communicate - remember? But be assured that the GWW is no less abstract than these crazy codes. There is some semblance of plot with the characters and even the final battle. Many readers are misled to such a degree they put here these "good plot and hystorical background but way to many details" reviews. Once I even stumbled upon the video cassette with the kid's version of Moby Dick - chubby boy grinning atop a friendly whale. Guy's, you don't know what are you dealing with! The quotations from the enormous variety of sourses on a whale at the book's first pages are not Melville's erudite showing off but a testimony to the futility of all the efforts to categorize. What drives Ahab? Revenge? Bloodlust? Even the most understanding readers try to find a word or two - The Quest for Truth, The Search For The Meaning Of Life. Choose any version or none at all. Ever thought about death? Are you familiar with that sense if inevitability that makes you gasp for breath and clench the fists. The fit is passes in a few minutes. What do you feel? Rage, fear, anger, helplessness? You can find words but they are not helping. So the Captain sails into infinity to conquer the...whatever. Too many fishes are named and described during the voyage? Too many details? In Zen practise you repeat thousands of words, name lots of objects until it all becomes meaningless and something else emerges. These fishes are not something you eat - they are just an excuses to give names ad nauseam, to catch the little flecks of infinity and try to make the catalogue. Enough said. This book must be read, not explained. But it's a very special reading - like having a long string of beads pass before your eyes. Do not think too much, do not expect to be entertained - just enjoy the feeling.
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