Far Tortuga. It was Mattheissen's favorite book he wrote and it's an absolutely singular experience.

It's interesting to me how clear the show has been about its premise, and how persistently so many of the people watching it want to be something else. It's The Myth of Sisyphus, with zombies. The plodding, meaningless circularity *is* the point, not some flaw in the show.

My understanding was that the point is that if the audence doesn't establish trust with Rust and Marty, then their lying would seem more sinister or unacceptable to the audience, but by the time we see them telling a big lie, we're on their side despite the lying.

I read bits and pieces of Moby Dick and then the last couple of chapters. I saved myself a lot of time to read what turned out to be a fairly mundane story about a whale, as it turned out.