Weekend Open Thread! You should be doing this: the Moby-Dick ‘Big Read’

(Original artwork from Maine government Fish and Wildlife site did not include “monster earphones.”)

Something pretty cool is going on right now — and most of you, unlike poor beleaguered high school students, are probably old enough to appreciate it, because in my opinion this is a book that requires some life-experience to truly cherish.  From a story on Slate.com:

For many, fall is the perfect time to snuggle up with a weighty literary classic, but Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick may not be the most popular choice. The imposing novel is notorious for its lengthy digressions, wide-ranging allusions, and, for some, unappealing subject matter. But a new project called the Moby-Dick Big Read is delivering Melville’s American epic in a new way: one chapter each day read aloud by people from various walks of life—including some you have probably heard of—and made available, for free, on the Internet.

Author Phillip Hoare—who has written his own whale book—and artist Angela Cockayne launched the project back in September, with the first chapter, and its famous first words, “Call me Ishmael,” lovingly delivered by actress Tilda Swinton.

That’s the Moby-Dick Big Read at http://www.mobydickbigread.com/.  If you’ve never read this Great American novel, now you can have a bunch of people do it for you.  The linked article offers some interesting samples from the various readers — like John Waters and Richard Attenborough.

While you’re waiting for that big boy, this is your Weekend Open Thread.  Talk about what you will.


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)