Dive Deeper

Abstract

Moby-Dick looms large—gargantuan in size, themes, symbols, and influence. Its deep dives, comedic interludes, adventurous journey, and surface effects demand a new approach. Instead of a traditional academic analysis, this book grapples in novel fashion with this classic work. The book follows the flow of the original Moby-Dick and aims to bring new appreciation for the novel, its characters, and its readers. It captures the up and down history of the novel, from its original reception to its resurrection in the 1890s, to its becoming the central work in the canon of American literature in the 1930s. Great books such as Moby-Dick live outside the confines of libraries. They occupy a central place in popular culture. This book tracks the novel as it appears in various motion pictures (more than five major ones to date), comic routines and jokes, paintings, novels, songs (from rock to classical to rap), and in other cultural forms. In the process, the volume charts how, and why, this novel about a whale and its pursuer has captivated generations of American readers. And why it continues to do so today.

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