I think the reason I like this book so much is that in response to a whale-related traumatic situation, I too would incessantly regale anyone I could corner with whale trivia

@mouse The whale trivia was not my favorite part and at times i found it incredibly frustrating because I liked the story and wanted to get back to it. At the same time, I was fascinated by what Melville may have been trying to do with the whale facts and how they must have seemed to a reader from the 1850s. I think of Ishmael as an unreliable narrator but also our knowledge of whales at the time was very limited. I couldn't tell if Melville was genuinely relating whale facts or if sections were meant to be a parody of encyclopedias of the day. Also he calls whales fish, which I was taught in school was wrong, but now we know that fish is an absurd classification.

@mouse one category. Very effishcient.