{"id":68390,"date":"2016-01-08T02:42:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T07:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=68390"},"modified":"2016-01-08T02:42:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T07:42:08","slug":"moby-dick-fans-worldwide-are-getting-ready-for-their-own-grueling-quest-a-marathon-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/01\/08\/moby-dick-fans-worldwide-are-getting-ready-for-their-own-grueling-quest-a-marathon-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Moby Dick’ fans worldwide are getting ready for their own grueling quest a marathon reading"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Wikipedia<\/a>
(Wikipedia photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BOSTON\u2014\u201cMoby-Dick\u201d fans from around the world are getting ready for their own grueling quest\u2014a marathon reading of Herman Melville’s classic.<\/p>\n

The New Bedford Whaling Museum this weekend is holding its 20th annual nonstop reading of the seminal man vs. whale novel, with a few new twists to mark the anniversary.<\/p>\n

What started with just \u201ca couple of die-hards and some grog,\u201d according to museum president and CEO James Russell, has grown into a four-day event that culminates in a cover-to-cover, 25-hour reading of the book aloud by about 150 volunteers. Hundreds attend the live event, and thousands more watch a live stream.<\/p>\n

The event has become so popular that this year’s reading spots were snapped up within an hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my favourite museum event of the year,\u201d Russell said. \u201cIt touches on so many dimensions: the literary experience, the physical works of art, the theatrical performance, the workshops and focus groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

The readers are teenagers and nonagenarians. They include Melville scholars and Melville descendants. They come from across the country and overseas. This year’s celebrity reader, who traditionally kicks things off by reading what has been called the most famous opening line in literature, \u201cCall me Ishmael,\u201d is award-winning author Nathaniel Philbrick.<\/p>\n

Portions will be read in foreign languages including Spanish, French and Dutch.<\/p>\n

The reading starts at noon Saturday and moves through different galleries of the museum, even at one pointing sailing up the cobblestone street to the Seamen’s Bethel\u2014the Whaleman’s Chapel in the novel.<\/p>\n

New for this year are a four-hour reading of a Portuguese adaptation of \u201cMoby-Dick,\u201d and a two-hour children’s version, read by kids ages 8 to 12.<\/p>\n

Philbrick, who wrote \u201cIn the Heart of the Sea,\u201d which won the National Book Award for nonfiction and was made into a movie of the same name, called it an honour to get things started.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s written with such force and complexity and beautiful language,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Philbrick confesses he didn’t read \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d until he was \u201cforced to\u201d as a senior in high school, even though his father was a university English professor who specialized in American maritime literature. Now, he estimates he’s read the book a dozen times.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIshmael was the best friend I had not met and I was completely harpooned,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s become like my personal bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year about 25 to 30 caffeine-fueled Melville aficionados manage to stay awake for the entire reading, Russell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an immersive experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSTON\u2014\u201cMoby-Dick\u201d fans from around the world are getting ready for their own grueling quest\u2014a marathon reading of Herman Melville’s classic. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":68393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-68390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","tag-original","mauthors-mark-pratt","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}