I recently had the pleasure of reading the classic, Moby Dick.  I was very proud of myself for finishing it as, while everyone has heard of the book, most people I meet have only read sections of it or they only made it to that first famous sentence, "Call me Ishmael."

Call me crazy, but I feel this book gets unfairly put down by many people, including avid readers.  Sometimes it is seen as an "elitist" book that only professors or literary snobs enjoy.  I have heard people call it many things, although the main criticism seems to be that it is "boring" and "nothing happens."  One specific time comes to mind when I was reading it on the bus.  Someone asked me if I was reading it for school or fun.  The answer was fun and she went on to tell me how much she hated the book.  Then another person joined in on the criticism.  Luckily my stop was next but as I departed they told me to quit now because it will only get worse as the pages turn.

Both these people said they read it in high school and it struck me that they shouldn't bother teaching this book to teenagers.  If I had read this in high school, a 600+ page book full of explanations on everything from the anatomy of the whale to biblical references on whaling, it would have been nothing but a bore and a thorn in my side.  It would have been a work with no relevance to my life, yet something I still had to read because it was deemed a classic.  There are many great books written for high school kids, books that kids can relate to, which would in turn have a far greater impact on their lives.  Novels by Chris Crutcher or Slam! by Walter Dean Myers are just a couple of examples.

Instead, Moby Dick should be read when people decide for themselves that they want to tackle it.  This is a thick, complex work and like anything of value, you get what you put into it.  If someone just browses the pages, waiting for that next big whale chase or vicious argument between the main characters, they will be sorely disappointed.  To enjoy the book, one has to soak the work up as a whole, reading between the lines to find the depth and intensity that is crafted into each chapter.  Nearly every page has a sentence or two that can be applied to some other facet in life, so in this way the reader must stay on their toes and be thinking about the material put in front of them.

I can see why people would hate the book.  It seems there are parts that should certainly have been edited.  Some sections lack the level of depth and philosophy the rest of the book contains and this is when it drags on.  Today however, over a hundred years after the book was written, these imperfections only make the entire novel more dazzling because you see the heart and gut of Melville, a writer who wanted to put it all out there, at the complete risk that readers would be turned off by such a vast amount of content.  Unfortunately for Melville, this is exactly what happened.  Readers were overwhelmed, critics hated the book and the author's rising career began to decay.

For those who are intrigued by this classic novel, who want to be entertained by a monster whale but don't want to spend months reading chapter after chapter, sometimes with very little plot development, all the while being presented with deep philosophy and writing that is reminiscent of Shakespeare, I hear they are working on a new Moby Dick movie.  This is going to take the focus off of character development and the anguish of a mad captain.  Instead the audience gets to see the whale in all his glory, conquering the seas and destroying ships.  I'm sure this movie will be "Jurassic Park in the ocean with long rantings from a psychotic one-legged old man." Maybe the only philosophy behind the flick will be, "don't mess with bad ass whales because they will eat you!"

I'll still be front and center, gobbling down Raisinettes as fast as Moby munches his victims.