I'm what you might call a water man, Jack - that's what I am. And I can swear to you, my boy, swear to you, there's nothing wrong with my bodily fluids. Not a thing, Jackie.

It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved.
There's a reason why Nick was surprised that Tom had been been depressed by a book.

Carnivorous Danus makes a good point.

I enjoy churning butter and sleeping with cattle.

We all love Rabin, I think, but AO Scott just cracked me up:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2…

We can only assume that AG pines for Mr. Carrie Bradshaw.

Seneca & Seneca

Typee is based on Melville's own experience and it's a great read. I'm pretty sure that Typee was the only commercial success of his lifetime.

@FidelAstro
Seven Samurai actually has an intermission and can easily be split into 2 viewings. Although, I doubt you'll want to postpone the 2nd half after watching the 1st.

Thanks xochi; I'm definitely gonna give it a try. There's nothing I'd like more than to have a whole new oeuvre to jump into.

I don't know. Moby Dick is one of my favorites. I can definitely get into loose tangents in a long novel, but I guess I expect a novella to be more focused. Mainly, I love Melville's style on the micro level- his sentences are just gorgeous. It remains to be seen if I'll feel that way about V or Gravity's Rainbow.

I'm sorry alyxandr, I'm afraid I can't do that.

Unevenness is the point? A Pynchon fan couldn't agree with that, right? If that's the point, then you can count me out. I thought Lot 49 started out well enough, but it seemed to me like it got convoluted for the sake of convolution.

@Ruthlesscrit, Explicit romantic love? I don't remember anything like that. Ishmael is explicit about his love and admiration for Queequeg, but I read it as very obviously platonic.

The first one was great. He sold out with the sequel.

That Obscure Object of Desire is brilliant. Still, I'd put it behind The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Milky Way. But I guess that's nitpicking between masterpieces.

I recently read Lot 49 and I thought it was really uneven. It definitely discouraged me from trying out the bigger novels- maybe I'll give one of the big ones a try.

Dorothea's a good one. I'd totally stir her Slaw.

Boris and Natasha? You need to get a move on. I won't spoil it for you but you have a few Natasha couplings to go. Is it unhealthy that I'm in love with Natasha who would have been dead almost 100 years ago even if she weren't, you know, fictional.

I get the feeling that if I reread Pierre, I wouldn't love it nearly as much as I did when I was 20. The Confidence Man is fucking great though.