Hi Everyone! I wanted to say thank you to Professor Pressman, and everyone in class for providing such a wonderful experience reading this book. I can’t lie and say that it was not a challenge, because it definitely was, but I think that this epic monstrosity of a book and its difficulty made the experience all the more amazing. My experience with this book is far from over, and I know that even after getting through this book this semester, I’ll need to come back to it eventually. I’m already planning on watching a bunch of film adaptations during winter break!

I consider myself lucky to have read this book in such a supportive setting, where even if I struggled to understand, our discussions in class assisted in helping me to not only decipher the confusing places Melville would take us, but to look deeper into the text and see the symbolism and references that made this novel so wonderful. It was truly a Jigsaw puzzle of a of a book, but one that I was not alone in completing! I felt pushed and pulled in my effort to take this book further in our discussions, which although was difficult, encouraged me to better writer and reader.

I confess, that if I had been reading this book alone I would have put it down and not have returned for a long time, which would have sucked! Reading and discussing this novel in a group setting felt so much like a book club, rather than a typical english class, and I felt it was so much more engaging, to the point that I looked forward to coming to class, and hearing everyone’s thought’s and ideas! Thank you for sharing this space with me, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! I hope you all have a happy holiday season!