Thank you Google, for the Google Doodle this morning.

I saw the Google Doodle this morning about Moby Dick and would love to write something erudite about it but you know, I never read it. Nope, not even when it was assigned in high school. That is not to say I didn’t learn a lot about writing from Melville. As soon as I realized Moby Dick was about hunting and killing a whale I made the decision not to go through the same anguish I suffered with The Red Pony, Old Yeller or Bambi. I invested in the Cliff Notes and checked a couple of books full of Melville & Moby Dick  literary criticism out of the library and got to work. I skimmed for quotations, word-play and literary devices without ever approaching immersion in the emotional impact of the work. The paper received a good grade as I recall but what I always remembered was how much I enjoyed writing it. Continue reading To Moby Dick, the best book I never read →