“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” (Ch. 104)

“In this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim).” (Ch. 1)

These two quotes sum up Moby-Dick for me. The first is obvious: Melville has indeed written a mighty book on the mightiest of themes, and that’s why Moby-Dick is so great. The second is subtler: it turns out that the Pythagorean maxim he’s referring to is this: “Avoid beans.” Right here at the beginning of this mighty book, Herman Melville is making a fart joke.

So Moby-Dick isn’t what I thought it was. It’s funnier, and trickier, and less boring. Despite the farting, it’s a book of enormous weight; I can’t remember reading a book with this much pure authority since Milton’s Paradise Lost.

And yes, the chapters on whales and whaling are necessary. The white whale doesn’t actually show up until the last 30 pages of a 625-page book, and when he does, it’s in a climax of astonishing power. That’s partly because Melville is a crack action writer, but it’s also partly because he’s spent much of the last 600 pages building Moby-Dick up as the Leviathan, establishing his (completely literal) larger-than-lifeness. Yes, there are seven chapters in a row about whale heads. But by the end, you know exactly what a dangerous weapon the sperm whale’s head is, and that’s going to be important later.

And besides, they’re not as bad as they’re made out to be. They’re not as exciting as the more plot-driven scenes, sure, but they’re worth it just for Ch. 32, where Melville shows that whales are fish, and Ch. 105, where he proves that it’s impossible to hunt them to endangerment. Oops!

The Penguin Classics edition is beautiful, and it has a good introduction by World’s Foremost Moby-Dick Champion Nathaniel Philbrick, but it completely lacks endnotes for some reason. They’re not necessary, but you’re not gonna get that fart joke without them.