Weekly Discussions

Moby-Dick Week Nine - The End!So here we are at journey’s end, and what a long strange journey it has been. Thank you all for coming on this voyage. I loved hearing all the different experiences people had with this text. There were epiphanies, frustrations, laughs,...

Moby-Dick Week EightWe are in the wondrous Pacific now Shipmates. One senses the curtain is rising on the final act. We have voyaged far. With the end of the journey nearing, I would like to make this week’s icebreaker to be about the first stage in planning our next...

Moby-Dick Week SevenI find chapters we read this week to be among the most absorbing in the entire novel. So much happens. So many scenes have an epic, cinematic, quality to them. The philosophical digressions are profound and there are some great comic moments. For...

Moby-Dick Week SixI sometimes feel overwhelmed. By the news. By my job. By my garden. This week I was even a little overwhelmed by Moby-Dick, and by the realization that I am not a giant salamander. So for this week’s icebreaker, we are going to do an emotional check...

Moby-Dick Week FiveIf the only part of Moby-Dick to survive centuries from now were Chapters 61 through 75, then one would not blame those future readers for concluding that Stubb is the book’s protagonist. For the coming meeting’s icebreaker, I’d like you to say...

Moby-Dick Week Four“To read a great book for the first time in one’s maturity is an extraordinary pleasure, different from (although one cannot say greater or less than) the pleasure of having read it in one’s youth. Youth brings to reading, as to any other...

Moby-Dick Week ThreeWelcome back! This week’s reading covered a lot of ground (water?), so I hope everyone made it through with all your limbs still attached. Recap - Chapters 31-45 When we last left the Pequod, Ahab had just given Stubb a severe tongue lashing. Now...

Moby-Dick Week TwoBefore we begin examining chapters 16 through 30, I wanted to say how great the first in-person discussion was. So many interesting ideas and different takes! One idea that really hit home for me personally was that commerce and culture are...

Moby-Dick Week OneWelcome to the first of our weekly re-caps and discussions of Moby-Dick. If you were part of the crew that took a thirteen-week cruise on the U.S.S. Infinite Jest, then you are familiar with the format we will follow on this voyage; weekly posts...