Moby Dick: Meaning in suffering | Sean Kelly and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Sean Kelly is a philosopher at Harvard specializing in existentialism and the philosophy of mind.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[colemanbandy]

Moby Dick is a wonderful novel. It’s literally “about” life itself, from self-doubt and faith to love and fury and obsession. It contains the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read in a novel.

[jesusmtz]

Getting through Moby Dick was beautiful and painful. Like life itself

[danielgray]

I could listen to this guy doing cliff notes of great literature all day long.

[garrettwarrick]

Finished reading Moby Dick for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I loved the part Sean brings up about the face of the whale and how one can never look a whale directly in the eye. The part this conversation made me think about is how Ishmael describes Ahab and how he’s sort of this “god among men” character. Like Ahab himself is this, in some ways, perverted interpretation of God’s likeness, but swallowed up by the sin of revenge.

[alexanderflores]

Gonna have to really listen to this one. Sean's got such a great way of explaining all these abstract ideas in a really simple and captivating way.

[ahabgaddis]

Moby-Dick is the best. All of life is captured within Mellville's austic enclyclopedic expositions on whaling, and it's beautiful

[ihavenohair]

Sold! Moby Dick is now next on my list. I love all these clips with Mr Kelly, he has a gift for explaining things clearly and in an engaging way

[TheNutmegStitcher]

"... damp, drizzly November in my soul..."

[ezequielcisneros]

I’m on chapter sixty four Stubbs Supper, so a little more than half way through and I have been reading it for months. I am very much enjoying it, but I do have to stop a lot to research words and things because I can’t just read it. I have to study the text. But I am 100% enjoying it.

[jackfox]

I've read Moby Dick twice. Once as a teenager, once in my early twenties. I'll read it again before I pass on. Illuminating explanation by Sean. I can see where Melville's 19th century prose and irregular sentence structure can be challenging for many. Lex, I found reading this like entering a dream. Try approaching it that way. Some of the chapters, like his "scientific" explanation of whales, are tedious.

[alexandermartinez]

4:20 - 4:52 Blew me away! And im not even religious. But the concept was really cool!

[Jimd]

Moby Dick is one of the unique novels, unlike every other book you've ever read. I see the story as a metaphor for humans trying to understand and go beyond God but fail and suffer. Great aul story

[falcodarkzz]

The whale face to god analogy was very interesting. So well explained

[TheTheOnle]

"He's a nobody, like you or me" 😂😂

[paulfrancis]

I agree. I totally love MD. It’s just so totally wild, even how Melville writes. If it ain’t for you, just read the final couple of paragraphs of chapter 42, “the whiteness of the whale” — again, forget the ideas, but just the shapes and sounds of his sentences.

[antonleimbach]

That was a great synopsis of Moby Dick.

[jimfrommars]

Why would he open with the line "Call me Ishmael"? It's because Ahab and Ishmael are one and the same. Ahab didn't drown, we are told of Pip's descent and survival so we know it of Ahab. Just a theory.

[jb]

I got through it by listening to it on audiobook at 1.5 speed. I really enjoyed it. Not sure I would've made it through if I'd had to read each page myself.

[frankbobtattoo]

Every time I hear somebody say in a nutshell I just picture Austin powers.

[pikiwiki]

Nobody ever talks about the whale's feelings. And how it didn't want to be killed