"The pale Usher--threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now."
I am setting out to read Moby Dick for the fifth time. I have read Melville's heartiest novel before in high school, once for pure pleasure, and twice in college -- among these full undertakings, I have skimmed and reviewed the book multiple times. Every opportunity to involve Moby Dick in my school work was sought: in a marine science class I took online while displaced temporarily by Hurricane Katrina in the middle of my college career, I used the opportunity to write yet another paper on Moby Dick.
Somewhere between college and post-graduate studies, I work for a college library. I consider myself among Bartleby and The pale Usher and, as a bit of a lost wanderer, I consider myself among Ishmael.
So this will be my fifth time to read Moby Dick completely through front to back, and I thought blogging about it would make the task (yes, an enjoyable yet formidable task, even I admit) an even better learning experience for me. I plan to expand on criticism, offer my own academic analysis, point fellow readers to interesting links -- but I also want to add oddities and fun bits.
I want personal experience, art, music, and science to come together with literary critism to create a reading experience. Moby Dick is an adventure story at its most basic form and the reader should be having her own adventure as well.
