The Moby Dick Read-a-Long: Week One

Well, it's week one and I'm already behind... not in reading, but in posting!

1) So, first impressions. What do we think of the novel?
I love the novel so far. It is surprisingly easy to read and his writing is SO BEAUTIFULLY DESCRIPTIVE. It starts off slow, but Melville's all about building context here.  He crafts the scene in such a picturesque way that I don't mind it one bit.
Example of flowery language.  Literally:

And the women of New Bedford, they bloom like their own red roses. But roses only bloom in summer; whereas the fine carnation of their cheeks is perennial as sunlight in the seventh heavens. - Chapter 6.

I also appreciate that there are only a handful of important characters introduced at a time, so it's easy to keep track. The War & Peace readalong was particularly difficult because just learning the characters mentioned in the first ten pages felt like drinking out of a fire hose!

2) What about Ishamel's attitude to Queequeg? Is his tolerance ahead of its time or just a form of casual racism?
It was interesting to see Ishmael start out as a narrow-minded Christian who saw things as black and white. He divided the world into secular and spiritual; Pagan and Christian.  Christians are Good; Pagans are Savage.  However, that mindset somewhat shifts when he befriends Queepueg, shares a bed and pipe with him and even takes part in worshipping Yojo, Queepueg's black wooden idol.  I'd like to think that his "tolerance" was ahead of its time, as he launched into a debate with himself where he reconciled his knowledge of Presbyterian theology with his personal beliefs on respecting your fellow man.  Yet still, "tolerance" is the key word here, because there's patronizing in the relationship, like being a different race or religion is something barely acceptable that one merely tolerates.

3) Do you think Ishmael should have heeded Elijah's spooky warning?
We wouldn't have had much of a story, and the book would have been 450 pages less if Ishmael decided to listen to Elijah's creepy spiel.  However, Ishmael and Queepueg are "married" and are off to quite the bromantic start, so maybe Melville would have just written about their adventures traveling the east coast together in search of the best clam chowder in America.

4) Captain Ahab! He's almost with us. What do you expect from him?
I'm expecting to meet a gimpy, feisty, and weathered curmudgeon.  I expect nothing less!