A young bearded sailor will appear at noon Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, in the 19th-century garb of a whaleman on the deck of the New Bedford Whaling Museum's half-scale whaling bark Lagoda and say, "Call me Ishmael." Thus begins the Museum's 11th annual Moby-Dick Marathon, a nonstop reading of the great American classic commemorating the anniversary of the departure from the whaling port of New Bedford of the Fairhaven ship Acushnet with 21-year-old Herman Melville aboard.
Rebecca called at exactly midnight on November 15 to ensure a prime spot in the reading line-up (last year, by the time she called, all that was available was middle-of-the-night shifts). Sure enough, she scored the 12:50 p.m. slot, which, she had calculated, would consist of the second half of Chapter iii, "The Spouter-Inn," and that contains her favorite Melville line of all: "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."
She said it was standing-room only, and there were many approving nods and smiles as she descended the stage after her reading. She killed, as they say. Brava!
She invited me to go with her, but I feared traveling all the way to New Bedford with my kids still not feeling 100% healthy; if I got a call from the school nurse, I'd have more than an hour's drive home. Next year, though, for sure!
"Better sleep with a drunken cannibal than a sober Christian," makes more sense to me.
Posted by: Maribel | January 04, 2007 at 06:39 PM
Either works -- cannibal trumps Christian every time!
Posted by: Karen | January 04, 2007 at 07:02 PM
What a blast! Thanks, Karen. I think I've slept with a few drunken cannibals, but I can't remember.
Posted by: Rebecca Miller | January 04, 2007 at 08:14 PM
Am I a geek if I confess I loved Moby Dick?
Lots of whaling info, but a good story.
Posted by: Anne Glamore | January 05, 2007 at 08:25 PM
If you're a geek, then so am I. Senior year in high school I had an amazing teacher who somehow managed to make a roomful of 18-year-olds LOVE Moby Dick. What a gift!
Posted by: Karen | January 05, 2007 at 08:31 PM
Bring your kids next year. People do take their kids out of school for this.
I've been to all but one of the 11 years of Moby Dick Marathons (missed in 2000 with a really bad flu) and love love love being with others of my kind. There are more Moby Dick lovers out there than one could ever guess. And all those folks who pretend to hate it? They secretly love it too.
Posted by: Captain Peleg | January 06, 2007 at 01:24 PM