Starting the year off right by signing on for an epic voyage with Herman Melville's MOBY DICK; OR, THE WHALE, published in 1851, and widely considered to be the great American novel.

It's quite the beast so we're dividing it into three parts, with this first convo covering chapters 1-40.

Call me Ishmael: Dissecting the iconic opening line, why we love Ishmael as a narrator, on the optimal strategy for getting snuggly in bed, the precise nature of his relationship with (we claim) our fellow New Zealand native Queequeg, and the question of race and class politics onboard a whaling ship.

The mysterious Captain Ahab: various ominous warnings, initial thoughts on Ahab's motivations, punching through the pasteboard mask, and a climactic ritual atop the Quarter-deck.

Infamous infodumps: Benny's eyes glazed over at times, Cam skimmed the Cetology chapter, but Rich makes the case for soldiering through. Plus we look at some of the interesting formal choices Melville makes, the early seeds of modernism, and can't help but make some comparisons to Blood Meridian and Butcher's Crossing.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) Ahoy shipmates (00:03:20) Call me Ishmael analysis (00:11:33) NEW ZEALAND MENTIONED!!! (00:17:32) Race politics in international waters (00:23:51) Perilous adventures for young men (00:29:29) The infamous cetology chapter (00:34:44) Jonah and the whale/biblical allusions (00:42:20) We need to talk about Ahab (00:54:48) Infodumps, genre mashups and the roots of modernism (01:01:10) Listener mail: Adam G in NYC

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We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.

NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

??

Yeah fuck this book. After much blood, sweat, tears, and other unspeakable bodily excretions, we've had enough.

This is our first ever DNF after 50+ titles, so we thought we should do a postmortem of what went wrong.

Did we not try hard enough? Is Pynchon basically an asshole? Do we have a problem with postmodernism as a tradition? Or the maximalist writing style? How is that we (mostly) love David Foster Wallace, who copied so much of his schtick from Pynchon, but not the master himself?

And several other theories for why this book ultimately defeated us:

(00:00:00) Theory 1: we chose the wrong Pynchon to start out with (00:06:45) Theory 2: we are straight-up too dumb for this book (00:11:35) Theory 3: GR is intended for literary masochists (00:19:34) Theory 4: Postmodernist disorientation spiral (00:30:30) Theory 5: Pynchon is painfully unfunny (00:38:10) Theory 6: Maximalism is just too much, man (00:49:20) comparison vs DFW, the New Sincerity, and irony poisoning (00:56:50) Listener mail: In defence of Woolf and the modernists (01:01:51) Next book announcement

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We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. We would especially love to hear from any Pynchon heads out there (or haters).

NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

Moby Dick — Herman Melville

Some festive chit-chat and navel gazing on the year that was.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) big tiddy goth gfs and rival podcast recs (00:10:09) DYEL wrapped stats analysis (00:19:39) Third best book of the year (00:23:41) Second best book of the year (00:29:01) Best book of the year (00:33:11) Biggest stinker of the year (00:40:13) Best non-book club book or blog (00:56:25) Favourite movie or TV show of the year (01:03:53) What we're gonna do differently next year

WRITE US:

We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.

NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

Moby Dick by Herman Melville