Moby Dick in 1712

Moby Dick 6 Audio CDs

Never had to read Mody Dick in school, Andrew had to but not me. When I saw the book tape at the library the guilty school boy said I should "read" the book now that I am old enough to actually understand the wisdom of this "great American novel".

I found it hard to listen to for a couple of reasons. First, the recording's sound level was to low to hear over the mini road noise (when driving > 60 MPH). Second, the language of the book is foreign to my ear and required more effort then this old brain wanted to exert. Dutifully I listed to the whole thing thinking that I would be able to say, Oh why yes, I've read Melville. How could anyone expect young people to be able to grasp the depth and breath of such a work? Duh! Did I missed something or something, shouldn't great art transcend the limitation of time? When I listened to Beowolf last year it's strength withstood translation. I don't get the big white deal.

***BULLETIN*** the abridged book may be somewhat less than the whole. [A third of the whole.]

1712 Overture & Other Musical Assaults Music CD

From time to time the reading of Melville reminded me of a piece that Prof. Peter Schickele, assistant substitute night school instructor at the U of SND at H, performs on the his 1712 Overture recording. The specific composition that sounds like Moby Dick was written by Prof. Schickele to commemorate J.S. Bach's 300^th birthday, DOB March 21, 1685; Bach Portrait for speaker & orchestra. Hey, you think Schickele is comparing the great white composer to the great white whale that suck all in his wake down it the foamy vortex of his greatness?

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Moby Dick [UNABRIDGED] 19 Audio CDs

In doing the research for this blog entry I came across the unabridged audio CD of Moby Dick (135 frikkin chapters + epilogue) read by the same fine performer, William Hootkins. This 19 disk collection retails for $127. My guess is that the orchestration heard on the abridged version [above] was originally commissioned for this complete rendering. I don't want to tackle the unabridged tape at this time. Maybe I'll read the Cliffs Notes® first. :)