Why Read Moby-Dick?

Recently, I was relaying to a friend that I am rereading Moby-Dick, and my friend said Moby-Dick was his father's favorite book. "But I've never read it," my friend said. "Too big a reputation."

Indeed, the reputation of the book overshadows the book itself. The very notion of a great book, especially one regarded as the great American novel (Moby-Dick is), is likely to scare away readers. A shame, because good books, not only great ones, ought to be enjoyed.

Moby-Dick is a pleasure to read. A passive narrator, writing under an assumed name, recounts a whaling voyage he took in which the ship and crew were lost to sea on account of a Great White Whale. And were it not for the monomaniacal pursuit of the Whale by the captain, a Quaker named Ahab who lost his leg to the selfsame whale, then the crew might not have perished.

As for the reading experience, the delight is in the details. The book is largely written as though you're engaged in a conversation with a talkative sailor who wants to let you know exactly what whaling is like. He wants to tell you everything he knows about whales, the true accounts and legends alike.

Plato's Symposium

Plato's Symposium is Western literature's greatest contribution on the topic of love. It recounts a conversation at a house party of a pretentious Greek playwright, a composer of tragedies, named Agathon. At the party, the guests drink wine and take turns conveying their encomiums to love.

Socrates is among the guests. Usually, he's disheveled, but he's all spiffed up for this occasion. And he's excited about the topic, too, because he says if there's one thing he knows about, it's love.

Predicting Presidential Elections

One month before the general election, political scientist Peter K. Enns published data calling the 2024 presidential election for Trump.

The situation was volatile at the time. Biden had dropped out of the race 100 days prior and the Democratic leadership had nominated Harris. While Enns had expected a head-to-head between Biden and Trump, he guessed that since Trump already stood a 75% chance of winning according to his model, the only way the Democrats could win would be if Trump squandered the lead. He didn't.

In the end, Enns appears to have correctly predicted the presidential election.

The 2024 Presidential Election

Every election cycle is a referendum on the performance of the governing party. 2024 saw a vote of no confidence in the Democratic party, which lost the House, the Senate, and the presidency. Current voter dissatisfaction is largely due to the state of the economy, particularly the deleterious effects of inflation. In 2024, millions of disaffected voters chose not to vote.

Kendrick Lamar's "Gloria"

The most interesting hip-hop artist of our times is Kendrick Lamar. It was evident he was a rap star from his sophomore album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), which told of the crime and violence he witnessed in his neighborhood during his upbringing in Compton, California. He next spoke on his struggles growing up a black man in America in To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). Then in DAMN. (2017), he took his own ego to task, an ego we see him try to conquer through family life a la Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022), and sublimate through the creative process a la GNX (2024). Both these recent albums speak to the most challenging question an artist must face: whether he or she is first a person or an artist. In GNX, Kendrick lays down his cards. He loves his family, he loves his friends, but he's an artist first.

Kendrick's declaration that he is devoted to his art above all else comes with the final track on GNX. The track title "Gloria," short for "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Glory to God in the highest), is also Kendrick's nickname for his pen. It's a complicated relationship, he says.