IN PERSON: Moby-Dick: or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Moby-Dick: or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Please join us for The More-Than-Human Book Club’s monthly discussion group.

For our January session we will be reading the great epic novel Moby Dick: or, The Whale by Herman Melville (originally published in1851)

We will meet in person in the Barbican library from 2.15pm and the discussion will run from 2.30-3.30pm with an option of continuing more informal discussions over tea in the cafe afterwards.

On the day, after introductions, we will go around the group and each share our thoughts about the book in turn before engaging in a gently-guided group discussion.

Please don’t feel any pressure to finish the book before attending, and please know you’re very welcome to attend however little you’ve had a chance to read.

The book can be bought or borrowed as a paperback in the UK, or it can be listened to in its entirety as part of The Moby Dick Big Read (https://www.mobydickbigread.com), a project pulled together by nature writer and whale obsessive Philip Hoare.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

More About the Book:

“Moby-Dick is one of the most expansive feats of imagination in the whole of literature: the mad, raging, Shakespearean tale of Captain Ahab's insane quest to K*ll a giant white whale that has taken his leg, and upon which he has sworn vengeance, at any cost. A creation unlike any other, this is an epic story of fatal monomania and the deepest dreams and obsessions of mankind,” say Penguin publishers.

The Moby Dick Big Read says, “Moby-Dick is the great American novel. But it is also the great unread American novel. Sprawling, magnificent, deliriously digressive, it stands over and above all other works of fiction, since it is barely a work of fiction itself. Rather, it is an explosive exposition of one man’s investigation into the world of the whale, and the way humans have related to it. Yet it is so much more than that. It is a representation of evil incarnate in an animal – and the utter perfidy of that notion. Of a nature transgressed and transgressive – and of one man’s demonic pursuit, a metaphorical crusade that even now is a shorthand for overweening ambition and delusion.”

Please note: Some of the language used in the novel is outdated, to say the least. We will be engaging in a critical reading of the text, treating it as a historical artefact and a piece of nature-writing with possible/potential modern-day relevancies.

More about The Book Club:

The More-Than-Human Book Club is a group that meets monthly both at The Barbican Library and elsewhere to talk about more-than-human experiences, wildness and nature writing in its broadest sense. Each month we choose a different book, film, artwork, poem or essay to discuss, including a mix of classic and contemporary works. We hope the space will provide a place of sanctuary, exploration and discovery, and be a place where community and connections are forged and inspiration is found. If you are interested in nature, literature, wildness, ecology, science, art and/or ideas, please do join us. We would love to have you there!

Its co-founders, hosts and curators are:

Olivia “Lilly” Edward. Lilly is a writer who specialises in nature and the environment. After a career in journalism that took her around the world, she ran nature writing events and panel discussions at the Royal Geographical Society, and she continues to review and write regularly for their magazine. She volunteers as a ranger in Richmond Park and is endlessly enthralled by the natural world and its web of ecological relationships.

Rhona Eve Clews. Rhona is an Artist, Healer and Ecologist. Rhona has a background in Psychology and Photography, holds an MFA in Fine Art from Slade School of Fine Art and teaches independently and for Slade Summer School. Drawing upon her past of growing up a hippie she works across writing, photography, performance and filmmaking, aiming to expand them into somatic, eco-feminist practices and contribute to wider ecological ethics of care.

Any questions please email us at [email protected]

Host or Publisher Olivia Edward & Rhona Eve Clews