2023-07-27
47 分钟In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why "Moby-Dick" is still worth reading. (Part 3 of "Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.")
How many times have you read Moby Dick?
50 is probably reasonable.
I'm 50 years old.
I read Moby Dick for the first time at the age of 17.
What was your impression on your first reading at 17 years old?
Well, that was the launch event of really, my whole life.
Your life, not just your academic career, your life.
It's pretty central to my life.
I mean, I have a tattoo of a historic harpoon on my arm.
It's pretty.
It's been pretty formative.
Part of that was out of the kind of perversity of the kid who wanted to love the book that all of my classmates were groaning about having to read.
I could not believe the book.
If it were not for Moby Dick, wailing would be one of a series of interests.
But because Moby Dick has loomed so large.
You went all in on whaling then, huh?
Yes.
Yeah.
It's impossible to escape.
Hester Blum is a professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University.