{"id":42893,"date":"2025-02-24T06:30:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T17:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=42893"},"modified":"2025-05-18T18:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T06:06:16","slug":"celebrating-openings-1-moby-dick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/02\/24\/celebrating-openings-1-moby-dick\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Openings: #1 — “Moby Dick”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It is a truth universally acknowledged…”<\/em><\/p>\n

Nope, not starting with that one, although it is indubitably one of the great opening lines. And it is<\/em> fairly universally acknowledged that a tale’s opening must reach out and grab the reader, hauling them headfirst—and with enthusiasm, i.e. no kicking and screaming—into the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This post series is going to look at some of my personal favourites, starting with the classics. But not Jane Austen’s classic, or ‘not this day’, anyway. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

Today, I’m taking a look at Herman Melville’s Moby Dick<\/em>, which both passes and fails the opening test.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Moby Dick<\/em> was a set text for a Lit course, many long years ago, and although (in those youthful and giddy times) I regarded its size with considerable misgiving* I dutifully set out to read—<\/p>\n

—and very nearly foundered on the opening section, which is titled “Etymology.” Not because of the opening line, which pricked my interest:<\/p>\n

“The pale Usher — threadbare in coat, heart, body and brain; I see him now.”<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Tell me more, I thought. Except the more was a list defining the word ‘whale’, followed by “Extracts”, which comprises a compilation of whale quotes from literature. Sixteen pages of quotes, no less. Not exactly riveting stuff and my youthful self was ready to throw in the towel at that point.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Original title page<\/p><\/div>\n

Until I turned the page to Chapter 1 and these fateful words greeted me:<\/p>\n

“Call me Ishmael.”<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Talk about reaching out, grabbing the reader by main force and hauling them into the book. I was also fortunate enough to immediately get the allusion to the original (Biblical) Ishmael, who was an outcast — and wanted to learn more about this<\/em> outcast.<\/p>\n

The main reason the opening compels engagement though (imho) is because it’s so personal: the narrator is speaking to the reader and inviting us into the story. Masterful! (Again, imho.)<\/p>\n

Fortunately, from that point on, the story did not disappoint. So when it comes to great opening lines, while I nod to the Usher, otherwise it’s straight to Chapter 1 and “Call me Ishmael.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Audio edition<\/p><\/div>\n

As for that asterisk* — by reading, I discovered that ca. one third of the edition’s 1015 pages was not the actual story, but comprised introductory matter (86 pages), a subsequent “Commentary” of 300 pages, and a map (2 pages.) The dangers of becoming a classic work!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It is a truth universally acknowledged…” Nope, not starting with that one, although it is indubitably one of the great opening lines. And it is fairly universally acknowledged that a tale’s opening must reach out and grab the reader, hauling them headfirst—and with enthusiasm, i.e. no kicking and screaming—into the story. This post series is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-writing","category-funstuff","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42893"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43058,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42893\/revisions\/43058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}