The criticism that was given towards Melville’s works differed by country, with English critics focusing on Melville’s stylistic choices while American critics rejected much more aspects of his works. I thought this was so interesting in relation to the hype Moby Dick gets as being the ‘Great American Novel’. There is definitely pride nowadays in Moby Dick and the fact it centers America, even if it is a critique on the events happening during Melville’s time.
It was also interesting to think about why certain works are popular and valued during certain time periods, obviously Melville was critiquing much of the way the United States functioned, e.g. slavery, amongst his critiques against capitalism and tyranny. It makes sense that people did not like it at this time because it was not something most people were willing to see about their own society and taking accountability for their roles in perpetuating everything Melville critiques. In reading this week’s readings, I definitely got the impression that literature is reflective of people and it’s important to ask ourselves what types of literature, or in a modern sense media, is being popularized and valued. More importantly, it’s important to ask ourselves what types of works are being ignored or hated, is it because people cannot admit that they see themselves in the things being called out? It’s not an easy ask for people to do, but after taking this class and learning about the journey of Moby Dick going from an ignored novel to a masterpiece I think it’s essential to question what we see when we consume popular literature/media today and what we see when we come across ignored works.
Hi, Graciela!
I really like your discussion on how the reflectiveness of books and the deeper messages can explain why certain books aren’t popular. This is possibly totally different, but I remember reading a self-help book on grief and absolutely hated it because it was too close to home at the time. I returned to it later and loved it because of the personal growth that I had undergone in the meantime. It makes me think about how we, as a class, have talked about how different a second or third read of “Moby Dick” would be because of the changes that we’ve undergone as people. Maybe the dislike of Melville’s novel stemmed from an unpreparedness for the sociopolitical and cultural critiques he forces the audience to acknowledge.
Hi Graciela! I really enjoyed reading through your blog post and I also found it extremely interesting that certain works had influence on society well others were ignored. Something I love about your post is “the impression that literature is reflective of people and it’s important to ask ourselves what types of literature, or in a modern sense media, is being popularized and valued”. This is something I noticed during my reading as well and I love how you explained it as a reflection of the people because those that could not except this novel were ignoring all of the aspects that they weren’t willing to accept in their lives. I also think it is important to pay attention to what types of literature/ modern media that we are popularizing and why that is. I find it interesting to think, what will be something that we all ignore but ultimately come back to? Great work here!