Gansevoort and I lived through another challenging and exhilarating Moby-Dick marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum this weekend. Sadly, as a result of bad weather on the road, we missed the pre-marathon lecture Friday evening. But by Saturday morning, we were back on schedule. "Stump the Scholars," a new event, gave six Melville scholars a chance to display their learning in response to audience questions. We also took in the new "Visualizing Melville" exhibit. I bought a marathon T-shirt, offered for the first time this year, and a copy of David Dowling's Chasing the White Whale: The Moby-Dick Marathon; or, What Melville Means Today (signed by the author, who was present).
Neither of us attended the entire marathon this year. I find it more enjoyable to break up the reading with meals and a little sleep. Gansevoort (who, unlike me, is a Barney Frank supporter) was on hand for the start of the marathon reading, back in the Lagoda Room after a year's hiatus. I returned to the museum later in the day and stayed until Sunday morning. Gansevoort hung in longer than I did on Sunday, but he did not stay for the last couple of frenetic hours.
The rest of Sunday was for recuperation, and today I traveled home.
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