anticapitalism – The Beige Moth

Chapter 134: The Chase.—Second Day

March 30, 2025April 16, 2025 Robin VanGilder2 Comments

As we approach the end of this great tome, I find myself in a reflective mood.

Thinking back upon the story as a whole, its many detours and sidequests, and the thrust of its narrative. This past week I even went and read some other criticism of Moby Dick, to refresh my memory a bit. The… pacing of this project has definitely been lopsided, with my having covered more than half the book in the first year, and then slowly grinding out the last bit of it. But that feels appropriate, as Ishmael dithered and delayed in telling the end of his tale, so do I struggle to embrace the entirety of this enormous work with the inadequate span of my typing fingers.

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Chapter 115: The Pequod Meets The Bachelor

June 2, 2024 Robin VanGilderLeave a comment

Man, I had a weird week.

I apologize for missing my post last weekend, call it a holiday off. I read the chapter, but couldn’t come up with anything, my head wasn’t in the right place for it. Then I had another dentist appointment on Tuesday, had some more fillings done. Unfortunately, those fillings were right next to the tooth that is still very sensitive and in need of a root canal, so it was… not very comfortable, shall we say. I was recovering from that the next couple days, and had a very stressful time at work. But, I’m feeling much better now, things have been resolved, just a bit.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

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Chapter 112: The Blacksmith

May 5, 2024 Robin VanGilder3 Comments

Alright, let’s get back on track.

I’m all moved in now, it went… pretty smoothly, all things considered. I’m still settling in, of course, exploring the neighborhood and whatnot, getting used to new routines. Living in like an actual city again is nice, but very different. And I’m much closer to the sea, which is really energizing. I think that sea breeze is really going to help me survive the summer months.

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Final Fantasy XVI Review: Towards a Better Tomorrow

July 26, 2023 Robin VanGilderLeave a comment

Hey, remember when I used to review video games?

Well, I never did it very much, since I do not finish video games very often, and even less often do I feel strongly enough about them to sit down and write something. Also, whenever I have the energy to return to this blog, I usually continue on my sisyphean quest to finish the Moby Dick project. But no longer! It’s time for another one!

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Chapter 105: Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?

July 9, 2023 Robin VanGilder2 Comments

The last day of my vacation has come, and I decided to take advantage and write one more post, for now.

The damnable summer heat has finally abated, somewhat. The famous clouds of my homeland have returned, if not the more-famous rains. But I know that they shall, in the fullness of time. I can only hope we don’t suffer from awful wildfire smoke this year (knock on wood).

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Chapter 103: Measurement of the Whale’s Skeleton

July 3, 2023 Robin VanGilder2 Comments

Ahhhh, nice to be able to get back to this.

I’ve been so busy lately, very stressed out about this project at work, plus I got sick last weekend. Ugh. But now, I’m on vacation, time to get back to my true passion: writing about writing about the sea.

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Chapter 101: The Decanter

May 27, 2023May 27, 2023 Robin VanGilderLeave a comment

Alright, we got the big one outta the way, let’s keep moving!

I’ve been feeling energized lately. Maybe it’s just that the weather has cooled down a bit, but my creative juices are flowing again. And this chapter is a great canvas for my, shall we say, creative interpretations of this book.

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Chapter 91: The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud

January 15, 2023 Robin VanGilder1 Comment

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 87: The Grand Armada

February 3, 2022November 6, 2022 Robin VanGilder1 Comment

We’re finally out of the non-narrative chapters! Enough about whale anatomy, lets get back to story, shall we? Or, at any rate, some interesting disconnected incidents which the Pequod had while sailing about the ocean.

This one is pretty lengthy, and pretty thrilling. It’s one that never makes it into the filmed adaptations, which is a shame because it’s so very dramatic. Then again, there hasn’t been one since the advent of CG, you could really do it justice now. Of course, Moby Dick is probably unfilmable, or would require more of a broad TV approach to really do justice.

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Chapter 78: Cistern and Buckets

August 24, 2020 Robin VanGilder2 Comments

Ah, here we go, back to action!

Yes, after a few chapters in a row of straight philosophizing, Ishmael has deigned to give us some more Things That Actually Happened on his fateful whaling voyage. I often wonder how much of the initial poor reception of this book would have been mitigated if Melville mixed these two modes of writing together more evenly. I remember hearing that it went narrative and non-narrative every other chapter, but that’s obviously not true.

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