Week 12 of the Big Book Club: Oh Boy, Tolstoy!
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
Release Date: 08/21/2018
What's next?
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
A monthly podcast!
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Bonus Moby-Dick episode: Interview with Richard King, author of "Ahab's Rolling Sea"
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
As a special post-Moby-Dick bonus, Jennie and Megan previewed the new book, "Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick," and interviewed author Richard King by phone from his home in Mystic, Connecticut.
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The End!
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
And so we come to the conclusion of our voyage... was the destination worth the ride? Opinions vary...
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Ahab Turns Up the Insanity
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
In this week's discussion of chapters 102-121, we contemplate biblical history and prophecy, and Megan solves the meaning of Moby-Dick once again.
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Whale Bones Are Not Made of Ivory
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
This week, half of Arlington is on vacation, so Jennie and Pete set sail on their own. The two cover chapters 87-101, discussing the unpleasant topics (racism, whale slaughter) and the absurd (Stubb's nose, the ineptness of whale ship captains.) And with no co-hosts, there's no one to stop them from making references to The Simpsons but also no one to correct Pete when he calls whale bone "ivory" repeatedly.
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Stuck in the Doldrums with Melville
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
In chapters 71-86, no amount of action could keep us from feeling sedated by the seemingly endless chapters on phrenology... Although maybe all of Moby-Dick would improve if read like a jazz poem?
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Whaling: Not for the faint of heart
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
In chapters 60-70 we encountered bloody whale killing, racial stereotyping and ugly power structures.
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Herman "Not Suble" Melville
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
Squid are scary, Fedallah's whaleboat crew are eerie, and and Melville is not subtle.
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To read all of Melville's Cetology, or to skip that chapter...
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
Who got the gold star for reading all about whale-fish, including the footnotes? Who is actually caught up on the reading? Who thinks Ahab is headed for a reconning of, well, mythic proportions?
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Our Cast Is Introduced, and We are Underwhelmed...
Big Book Club's "What the Whale!"
180 pages in, and we've barely left port...
info_outlineWhich moments have been Pierre's worst? Is Tolstoy an unreliable narrator? Jennie heralds Gossip Girl's value in raising lexile levels! And Alex insists that what the 1812 Moscow fire really needs is zombies.
This week's references include:
Joseph Joffre, commander in chief of the French forces on the Western front during the initial stages of WW1, who, insisted on sticking to his usual schedule, even during battle. Pete learned about him in Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast episode, Blueprint for Armageddon 1
"Gossip Girl" by Cecily Von Zeigesar
Palate cleansers
- Megan is reading "Many Love" by Sophie Lucido Johnson, "The Clothes Make the Girl (Look Fat)?" by Brittany Gibbons, "Educated: a Memoir" by Tara Westover, and is watching Bored to Death.
- Pete is watching Disenchantment
- Jennie is watching early seasons of The Simpsons and is looking forward to reading Tessa Dare's new book, "The Governess Game."
- Alex is reading "Jell-O Girls" by Allie Rowbottom and "A Duke by Default" by Alyssa Cole.