by Richard Subber | Jun 19, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language
Moby-Dick and stuff….
I know whale tales aren’t for everyone.
If you’re still with me, you might be interested to know that Herman Melville’s iconic whale story was published 174 years ago in London, and then, a month later, in New York.
The original title is Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. Melville actually went to sea as a crewman on a whaling vessel, and based his novel in part on a real sperm whale named Mocha Dick, known to South Pacific sailors in the 1840s.
Early in his career Melville was briefly acclaimed for some of his South Pacific stories, such as Typee, but he was obscure during the last 30 years of his life. He earned only $1,200 or so from the sale of about 3,200 copies of Moby-Dick, which was out of print when he died in 1891.
A first American edition of the book can easily be secured if you have about $80,000 to spend.
Melville wrote in a variety of genres—again, not for all tastes. I’m a big fan of Moby-Dick, and I’m also an advocate for Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. Nothing of the South Pacific in this one. The circumstances of this desiccated short story are curious, even eccentric, incredulous. The withered and aloof Bartleby is presented, examined and disdained, until his very dispirited isolation makes him the object of the narrator’s genuine but increasingly troubled caretaking.
Don’t overlook Billy Budd, Sailor. It’s a searing morality play.
You may be surprised to know that Melville also wrote poetry. One critic has somewhat ponderously suggested that Moby-Dick is filled with Melville’s incipient poetry. I certainly believe that a story can contain a poem, but I don’t see anything like that in Moby-Dick.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
A Farewell to Arms (book review)
classic Ernest Hemingway
with relentlessly realistic dialogue…
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 17, 2025 | Poetry, Reviews of other poets, Tidbits
being a buttonhole…
“I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.”
Keep on doing what you can do.
quote from “Famous” by Naomi Shihab Nye (b1952)
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review:
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
The Bard was the lucky one…
by Bill Bryson
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 14, 2025 | Joys of reading, My poetry, Poetry
…only small shadows…
Dreamery #1
The scraggly disarray of an old farm yard
was the milieu,
not a real place in my memory,
but a scene I could understand.
The dream was realistic in its detail,
jumbled in its action.
I’m no farmer, I had no impulse
to harvest any dream theme,
I was there in fact.
I was a witness without a question.
I felt no urge to end it.
I had no curious thought.
In the old barn I sensed
a history in every damp corner,
an unfinished story in every heap
of debris that marked a process without progress,
in remnants of machines,
in the gear of abandoned projects
that made only small shadows
on the untidy floor.
The cowgirl and the kids who urged
their clattering horses
through this carelessly cluttered scene
were noisy,
but I couldn’t make out their words…
Outside a squad of ragtag soldiers
shambled into view,
wearing remnants of antique uniforms,
maybe they had guns,
with no fierce mien among them…
these were militia, maybe,
with no impulse to rush to battle,
no inspiration to huzzah,
no flag to die for…
Their leader was a faded heroine of dream time,
a broad-hipped fat woman
in some style of tunic,
no memorable face,
yelling for services and a campsite and supplies,
in some style of a martinet, it seemed,
but not convincing…
I sensed that there was no apparent reason
for this ersatz troop to be there,
it seemed that they wanted
to be somewhere else.
For a moment, I felt some sympathy.
July 27, 2017
Often I don’t remember my dreams. I was aware that there was no particular reason to remember this one. It was not a particular dream. This is one particular way of saying that.
My poem “Dreamery #1” was published in my second collection of 47 poems, Seeing far: Selected poems. You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, click here
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
A poet is a “maker”
…and it doesn’t have to rhyme…
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In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Jun 12, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Reflections
let’s talk about relevance…
Book review:
The Fabric of Reality:
The Science of Parallel Universes—
and its Implications
by David Deutsch
New York: Penguin Books, 1997
The Fabric of Reality is intriguing, but it’s also hard work.
I think I “understand,” to use Deutsch’s word, that he likes to talk about the Big Bang and the so-called Theory of Everything.
Personally, I find it interesting to know something about his “four main strands,” namely, quantum physics, epistemology, the theory of computation, and evolution.
Nevertheless, I embrace a willingness to suspect that the esoterica of physics and a philosophy of physics are essentially irrelevant to the lives that nearly all of us lead.
You can read the whole book if you want to.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review:
Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene
sincere, but off the mark…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 10, 2025 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
looking up has no avail
Void
No trace, a void,
the trees embrace
the empty vault,
no whispered breeze,
no hint of dawn,
the dark can tell no tale,
and looking up
has no avail…
The ancients saw such sky,
and had scant words
for such nothingness,
and took their time
to wonder:
had their gods fled?
or mused on magic
still unknown,
or turned to scrape
another stone,
they did not know of
and had no care
for moons and star things.
March 14, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Chosen
Life: exuberant, and otherwise…
by Chaim Potok
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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