Quote of the Week

Now that Halloween is done we can get back to classic literature. I saw something that excited me last week. It was a short trailer for a new movie based on Moby Dick and I have to tell you, it looks like it could be really good. That is, if they stick to the book. If the ship bursts into flames then falls off of a cliff that magically appears in the middle of the ocean then blows up like it was full of tnt. . . wasted fifty bucks spent at the movies. I also saw a trailer for a new Frankenstein. Interesting.

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

 – Herman Melville, Moby Dick