1.0Lafayette Magazine Summer 2011https://magazine.lafayette.edu/summer2011gaulahttps://magazine.lafayette.edu/summer2011/author/gaula/Riding Melville’s Whale - Lafayette Magazine Summer 2011rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="907CNPbRpi"><a href="https://magazine.lafayette.edu/summer2011/2011/07/12/riding-melvilles-whale/">Riding Melville’s Whale</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://magazine.lafayette.edu/summer2011/2011/07/12/riding-melvilles-whale/embed/#?secret=907CNPbRpi" width="600" height="338" title="“Riding Melville’s Whale” — Lafayette Magazine Summer 2011" data-secret="907CNPbRpi" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
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https://magazine.lafayette.edu/summer2011/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2011/07/FmevilleSummer2011FEATURED.jpg960400by Geoff Gehman ’80 There’s something about Moby-Dick that makes normally sane writers hunt its meaning almost as insanely as Captain Ahab hunts the white whale that swallowed his leg. They write about marathon readings of Herman Melville’s ultra-marathon novel. They write about the notes Melville made in the margins of whaling books he read to research his own book. They rewrite his epic, chapter by chapter and, sometimes, word for word. Three literature professors with Lafayette allegiances recently tossed their harpoons into the ring and took Melville’s whale for a Nantucket sleigh ride.