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The spirit of the festival is not about getting the words right—Melville already did that—but about getting through them, sending the baton onward, keeping the spirit of the book alive, the whale if not still breaching or spyhopping or lobtailing, then still giving forth its steady, unceasing trickle. It’s the opposite of American Idol where everyone is under scrutiny. Thus when you see an elementary school student stand at the podium and read a passage, you just don’t worry about how much she grasps of what she’s reading or judge her on a stumble or two. Rather, you have the sense of her (and you) being part of an ongoing tradition, an instinct that one day she will better understand the words she’s dispatching forth with great care, leaning on their elegance rather than indulging in the chaos lurking at their edges. (via I Can Read for Miles and Miles: Field Report from the Moby-Dick Marathon « BIG OTHER) Tim Horvath’s write up of this year’s annual Moby-Dick marathon in New Bedford, MA. I attended last year and it was such a wonderful event—it starts on a (fake) boat, the sermon is in the actual Seamen’s Bethel and everyone sings the hymn, and cetology is read by a scientist in front of a whale skeleton, seriously it’s amazing—Melvillians, consider a trip in 2013.

The spirit of the festival is not about getting the words right—Melville already did that—but about getting through them, sending the baton onward, keeping the spirit of the book alive, the whale if not still breaching or spyhopping or lobtailing, then still giving forth its steady, unceasing trickle. It’s the opposite of American Idol where everyone is under scrutiny. Thus when you see an elementary school student stand at the podium and read a passage, you just don’t worry about how much she grasps of what she’s reading or judge her on a stumble or two. Rather, you have the sense of her (and you) being part of an ongoing tradition, an instinct that one day she will better understand the words she’s dispatching forth with great care, leaning on their elegance rather than indulging in the chaos lurking at their edges. (via I Can Read for Miles and Miles: Field Report from the Moby-Dick Marathon « BIG OTHER)

Tim Horvath’s write up of this year’s annual Moby-Dick marathon in New Bedford, MA. I attended last year and it was such a wonderful event—it starts on a (fake) boat, the sermon is in the actual Seamen’s Bethel and everyone sings the hymn, and cetology is read by a scientist in front of a whale skeleton, seriously it’s amazing—Melvillians, consider a trip in 2013.

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We are a nonprofit bookstore, cafe, and event space in downtown NYC. All proceeds from every show you attend and everything you buy, down to a record and a PBR, go directly to our mission of fighting AIDS and homelessness. 126 Crosby Street, NYC

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