Tue feb 14, valentines 2012
"Reading" great audiobook of Moby Dick. Been sick for over a week.
Am continually amazed by how wondrous this book is, how modern, how personable, how knowledgeable, how deep, how brilliantly image-filled, how funny. And yet it was a flop and Melville was seen as a failure. Now we know its a masterpiece because it has survived and was rediscovered by some literati. Now we know it was simply TOO modern for its time (some reviewers said Melville was literally crazy and this book a maniac's ramblings). I wonder wonder wonder whether Melville knew his work was loved by some in his lifetime or whether he, too, saw it as a dud because it wasn't appreciated and didn't sell. All that work, after all. It MUST have repaid him as he did it. He must have chuckled at his characters and his own wit. I hope he did. I hope he was content in his job at the Customs office, writing poetry. Does our gratitude for a great and beautifully told story aid the universe? Tell Herman Melville thanks for this.
Sorry. I'm still sick and am filled with phlegm and philosophy. Don't know where to put this except here. P.S. happy Valentine's. Hugh texted me, "Be my Valentine, Please baby, please, please please, baby, please." Which references our first date 23 years ago(!), a Spike Lee movie, but not that one.