[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”3%||||false|false” locked=”off”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Moby-Dick-Illustrated.jpg” alt=”Enjoy life” title_text=”Moby-Dick-Illustrated” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”original” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”rgba(0,58,81,0.75)” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”25%|20%||-40%|false|false” custom_margin_tablet=”0%|||0%|false|false” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_padding=”10%|5%|10%|5%|true|true” box_shadow_style=”preset2″]<\/p>\n
Dear Ishmael,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Let me begin this letter by confessing that I\u2019ve read Moby Dick<\/em> at least seven times. The first few times, I had to read it as an assignment for school. My education took longer than expected, 23 years if I\u2019m forced to count. If you are thinking that\u2019s absurd, you are correct. I just got stuck in an educational rut and found myself collecting degrees to attach to the end of my name. Call me “Doctor Robin,” if you want. No, actually, please don\u2019t!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” min_height=”361px” custom_padding=”||0px|||”]<\/p>\n Over-schooling only explains the first few times I read this tome on whaling. I\u2019d like the explain why I keep coming back. Moby Dick is considered one of those way-too-long books, like Middlemarch<\/em> or Finnegan\u2019s Wake<\/em>. Although considered excellent by those who specialize, let me tell you that I have stayed until the end of cocktail parties, when most of the guests have left, and I\u2019ve heard any number of noted professors admit they actually never read them. These books get labeled classics or great books, often, I imagine, by old dudes with beards and elbow patch jackets. But the world has changed, and I must admit I\u2019m usually drawn to the new and the now, the recent Booker Prize nominees or the latest from Wave Books. But there\u2019s an ineffable something about Moby Dick <\/em>that always draws me back.<\/p>\n I\u2019m thinking of you lately, Ishmael, because these pandemic days are hard and long, even though I\u2019ve avoided this virus so far. The isolation from friends and loved ones takes its toll. The suffering and inequity and unpredictability causes me pain and sadness each day. In an early passage in the novel, you explain why to are drawn to go to sea as a sailor:\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default” use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”#000000″ background_color_gradient_end=”rgba(224,153,0,0.27)” background_color_gradient_overlays_image=”on” background_image=”https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/tumblr_lpt8etPyoQ1qzipxso1_250Moby3.jpg” custom_padding=”||||false|false” locked=”off”][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default” header_text_color=”#ffffff” header_line_height=”1.3em” header_5_text_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.73)” header_5_letter_spacing=”1px” header_5_line_height=”1.6em” custom_margin=”5%|5%||5%|false|false” custom_padding=”10%|6%|10%|5%|true|false”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”contain” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”||2%||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”2%||0px||false|false”]<\/p>\n Today has definitely been one of those \u201cdamp, drizzly November in my soul\u201d days, Ishmael. I feel you. And today is not my first of such days. But instead of going on a whaling voyage, I guess I\u2019ve taken to reading long books instead.<\/p>\n I suppose that the loneliness of the quarantine has operated on each of us differently. Nine long months of limited interaction with other people has changed my reading habits. I hit my annual reading challenge goal on Goodreads months ago, and I had to ask myself, now what?<\/p>\n Lately I read mostly by listening to audiobooks, perhaps because of the comfort of being read to by another human, even if it is transmitted to me by phone. The experience of hearing a story in another person\u2019s voice feels warm and personal. It reminds me childhood or the way we read to our children at bedtime. Reading aloud to one another person is a powerful and authentically human ritual.\u00a0 It\u2019s comforting. For me, it suggests an innocent kind of love.\u00a0<\/p>\n The other thing I\u2019ve done is that I\u2019ve returned to reading long novels, which is, perhaps, akin to taking a voyage. I am drawn to strong narrators like you with an understanding of sadness that comes from experience. You and your dreamy afternoons, Ishmael, you, “lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie,\u201d as you stand at the highest point on the ship watching for whales, you touch me deeply, I have to admit. At this very particular moment, because I am in between jobs, in between lives, I can understand the appeal of the signing up for the regimented tour of duty on board a ship. I relate to you, Ishmael, as a fellow yearner.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Galveston-picture.jpg” title_text=”Galveston picture” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”rgba(1,58,81,0.75)” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” min_height=”628px” custom_margin=”10%|0%|7.5%|-15%|false|false” custom_padding=”7%|5%|5%|5%|false|true”]<\/p>\n The other thing I\u2019ve done is that I\u2019ve returned to reading long novels, which is, perhaps, akin to taking a voyage. I am drawn to strong narrators like you with an understanding of sadness that comes from experience. You and your dreamy afternoons, Ishmael, you, “lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie,\u201d as you stand at the highest point on the ship watching for whales, you touch me deeply, I have to admit. At this very particular moment, because I am in between jobs, in between lives, I can understand the appeal of the signing up for the regimented tour of duty on board a ship. I relate to you, Ishmael, as a fellow yearner.<\/p>\n The yearning, finally, has nothing to do with whales, does it? That is the quest of Ahab in Moby Dick<\/em> and yet that is not the point at all. Ahab did not understand that, but you did, Ishmael. You understood that the community of men working together was the highest achievement possible on the Pequod. And as you looked out onto the watery world surrounding you, your imagination took over. That was the real story.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”contain” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]<\/p>\n The yearning, finally, has nothing to do with whales, does it? That is the quest of Ahab in Moby Dick<\/em> and yet that is not the point at all. Ahab did not understand that, but you did, Ishmael. You understood that the community of men working together was the highest achievement possible on the Pequod. And as you looked out onto the watery world surrounding you, your imagination took over. That was the real story.<\/p>\n I, too, find solace in water. Doesn\u2019t almost everyone? For me the hour-long drive to Galveston Island is always time spent well. When my kids were young, I\u2019d take them to play in the sand; there are no temper tantrums on the beach. Now that they are older, I take my dog and my self in search of that \u201cenchanted mood,\u201d and so far it has never failed me.<\/p>\n Your friend at the Mast-Head,<\/p>\n (Call me) Robin<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”#003a51″ custom_padding=”2%|2%|2%|2%|true|true”]<\/p>\n You may read Millie Davis’ expansion of her November 25th post here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n We welcome additional “riffing” on her piece. Have any books (or all books) saved your life or the life of someone you know? Inspire \/ challenge us with your story of how and why.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NCTE blogger, Millie Davis, recently invited writers to explore the topic: “Writers Riffing on Why Books Save Lives,\u201d https:\/\/ncte.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/authors-riffing-books-save-lives\/ and this essay is my response.Dear Ishmael,\u00a0 Let me begin this letter by confessing that I\u2019ve read Moby Dick at least seven times. The first few times, I had to read it as an assignment for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":52286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off–then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.<\/h5>\n
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