Here’s something on the upside.
This weekend is the 21st annual Moby Dick Marathon.
Each year in January the unabridged Moby Dick by Herman Melville is read at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford Ma with the goal of completing it within 24 hours.
People from all over the globe show up for this, and last year there were 2,500 people who attended the event whole or in part. Some even bring sleeping bags so they can be in the museum for every minute, and these stalwarts get an award for that.
Last year was my first time reading. My turn was at 4:10 a.m. on the Sunday morning, and I got to meet quite a few interesting people since I had decided to attend all of the festivities from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Although living just a few blocks from the museum, I did walk home for a nap.
At the opening dinner I sat at a table with members of the Melville Society, and, having taught Moby Dick, had the opportunity to tell them how it went with my students, especially the landlocked ones who had never seen an ocean, except in movies and on television, and of a grimed with whom I taught in the 1970s taking me o Riverside Cemetery in the Bronx so I could see Melville’s grave.
This year, as a museum volunteer, I am exchanging that sort of involvement with doing two shifts on the information desk and am looking forward to meeting even more people.
This is not just an event for those who are able to attend in person. It is going to be live-streamed this year so unlike last year when only the audio was available this year the audio-visual can be experience worldwide.
Here is how the weekend will go for those who will be participating.
First I skipped the Friday evening events as they involved pre-purchased tickets.
Before the actual reading begins there is the chance to try to “Stump the Scholars” with questions for Melville Society Cultural Project members. This game show like experience starts at 10:00a.m.
While this is going on for the adults, the children’s mini-marathon is going to be held where children take their turns reading from the abridged child friendly version of the novel.
At noon the ship’s bell will be rung, and the opening lines to Moby Dick will be read by Herman Melville’s great-great-grandson, Peter Gansevoort Whittemore.
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When the reading reaches the chapter containing the sermon by Father Mapple, the audience walks across Johnny Cake Hill to the Seamen’s Bethel where a local member of the clergy delivers it.
When the reading resumes in the Harbor View Room on the top floor of the museum overlooking, the second annual reading of Tiago Patricio’s abridged version of Moby-Dick in Portuguese (Junte-nos para a segunda leitura anual de versão abreviada de Tiago Patricio de Moby-Dick em Português) is held from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00p.m.
The Azores area in the Lagoda Room has been remodeled thanks to the Azorean Maritime Heritage Society and the Portuguese Consulate of New Bedford, and his is where the Portuguese reading will take place.
People do have to eat, so again this year, starting at 5:00 p.m. there will be free clam chowder and kale soup provided by various local restaurants. For those who are convinced kale is a new thing recently discovered by millennials, I would suggest bringing any millennial you might know and let them sample an age old soup.
Another break in the reading will take place when all who wish to will gather to toast to Herman Melville’s 21st birthday as this is the 21st Marathon and he was 2i when he boarded the Acushnet and went on his first, last, and abbreviated whaling voyage. He jumped ship in the Pacific having not found the romance in seafaring, and later produced two books, Omoo and Typee, based on that post ship jumping experience. He was not, by the way, unique in this sudden change of heart.
The beer for the toast will be supplied by the local pub, The Pour Farm.
By 1:00 p.m. on Sunday the reading should be complete, and awards will be given to those who never left the museum the whole weekend.
If you can’t make it, the entire marathon will be broadcast via livestream, viewable online on the Museum’s website
www.whalingmuseum.org/programs/21st-annual-moby-dick-marathon-2017
and Facebook page.
If you are close enough, drop in. The event is free.
If you live far away, no matter how far, drop into the live-stream.
