This past weekend marked the inaugural Moby Dick Marathon in New York. Dustin Kurtz, one of the 160 readers, reflects:
What do we gain from reading the book out loud? If it is only the excuse to say "harponeer" fifteen times in a minute, that would surely be enough. But there is more here. First, the work benefits. Melville is a storyteller, and as I’ve said, his writing, at least in the seafaring stories, has a rhythm to it that is only highlighted when eyes are chained to tongue and the reader is forced to speak the man’s silly dialogues, his grandiose heights of descriptive prose, and more than anything, his somber exaltations of humanity.
More broadly, the readership benefits. We were not critiquing the book, or even discussing it. We didn’t perform it. We were not there to buy it. We had just come together as a readership to do only that: to read the thing, together. That’s a rare and proudly contrary instinct when it comes to books, if a happy one.
For those not in NYC, Cassandra Neace recommends the website Moby Dick Big Read, "a read-a-long, or, rather, a listen-a-long version of what they refer to as the 'great unread American novel.'" Recent Dish on how to read Moby Dick like a scientist here. Previous Dish on the intimacy of reading aloud here.
The Dish 