Category: Reading

Week 2: Hashtag The Discourse

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Well, here we are again, another week come and gone.

I’ve had some ups and downs lately. Trying to stay off of social media while I’m at work, which is nice because it exposes me to The Horrors less, but also makes me feel a bit more disconnected from the world. Kind of a trade off there, I suppose. Been swinging between an newly rejuvenated sense of self-confidence and some regular ol’ depression. I can accomplish anything I put my mind to, but it feels like that doesn’t matter a whole lot, y’know.

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Week 1: What’s Past is Prologue

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Alright, let’s try something different.

I want to write more, so I thought I’d get in the habit of posting some sort of regular update on my habits and thoughts. Almost like some sort of log, as on an old timey sailing ship… but rather than being locked in some old wooden chest, it instead lives on the marvellous web of information. Some sort of… web log… if you will. Perhaps we shall come up with a shortened term at some point, if it ever catches on.

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Chapter 111: The Pacific

Robin VanGilder2 Comments

Let’s keep this train a-rollin’.

I apologize for being a bit late this week, things were busier at work and I’ve been a bit stressed over my upcoming move. I’m really workin’ on it in earnest now, getting things organized, packing up all my books and video games and movies, etc etc. A lot of that is all squared away now, plans are set, all that’s left is to be ready on the day itself.

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Chapter 110: Queequeg in his Coffin

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The pieces are starting to fall into place.

It’s funny, so much of this book is either vague and philosophical, blowing out its themes to a vast scope, or extremely mundane and specific, that one quite forgets that there’s an actual plot going on, and certain things must be set up for it to conclude. Not that we’re ever going to fully get away from Ishmael’s philosophical reveries, of course. Yet, this is one such chapter, containing a pivotal development that will resonate with the inevitable end of this tale.

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Chapter 109: Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin

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I almost forgot!

This week I read the chapter early, because I was bored at work, and thought about writing the post really early. Then, I almost forgot to come and write it this evening because I was too caught playing Unicorn Overlord (which is really good by the way). But no! I will continue posting, and I will see this through to the end.

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Chapter 96: The Try-Works

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Okay, okay, I had my fun, let’s get back to serious business.

Honestly, I got most of the way into writing a big thoughtful analysis of the last chapter, but it really comes down to that little joke. That’s all ya need to know to unravel everything. I only get to do that once, I think, the inverse of my old post where I spun like 2000 words out of a one-paragraph chapter. Ah, that was a good one.

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Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand

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Ahhh, time to get into some real gay content.

I mean, not really, but also, yes. Look, people love to post excerpts of this chapter out of context, to make it sound like Moby-Dick; or, the Whale is some sort of pornographic free-for-all. As you and I well know by this point, that is not quite the case. And yet, there’s only so much that context can really change for writing like this. Let’s dig in and squish our hands around in it.

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Chapter 91: The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud

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Okay, okay, I didn’t mean to worry you, I’m still at it!

No, friends, I won’t be disappearing for months on end in between posts anymore, as long as nothing catastrophic happens in my life (knock on wood). I’ve just been busy for the past week gorging myself on the game Pentiment, which really is incredible. There’s a big ol’ post incoming for that one, don’t you worry. Anyway, on to the chapter!

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Chapter 90: Heads or Tails

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The more I reread this book, the more I find that old advice about skipping every other chapter baffling.

The idea was that the book switched back and forth between narrative and non-narrative chapters, so if you want a “normal” book you could just skip them, but as we’ve seen that is not at all the case. Instead, what happens is that Ishmael will give us a chunk of the story, and then go off on a bunch of tangents related to that narrative, and then those tangents themselves. Moby Dick is a weird book, and you just kinda have to deal with it.

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Chapter 89: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish

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Alright, enough about space whales, let’s get back to good ol’ fashioned domestic Earth whales.

Diver freeing a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) trapped in a fishing net.

We’ve got a real barn burner of a chapter today. One of those ones that feels like it was written specifically for me, or at least the 21st century audience. This is just a beautiful bit of philosophical writing that really gets across an idea in a very neat and tidy way. Sure, there are a few rough edges to it, I won’t ignore those, but we’ve certainly gotten used to them by this point, haven’t we?

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