The New Bedford Whaling Museum's Moby-Dick Marathon is an annual non-stop reading of Herman Melville's literary masterpiece. The multi-day program of entertaining activities and events is presented every January. Admission to the Marathon is free.

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Forgotten but not gone...

One starts things moving without a thought of how to stop them. In order to speak. One starts speaking as if it were possible to stop at will. It is better so. The search for the means to put an end to things, an end to speech, is what enables the discourse to continue. ...But not so fast. First dirty, then make clean.
      - The Unnameable, Samuel Beckett

Covid aversion kept us away from the last three MDMs, but Michael Lapides & co. saw to it that the proceedings were broadcast and archived on YouTube. Many thanks for that!

Of the 2023 marathon reading (MDM27) I can say: some media figures are great readers, and some are less so.

Arun Rath, whose voice will be familiar to listeners of WGBH, could have read the entire book with no complaint from me. (Unlike the "volunteer" readers, the "invited" readers who open each MDM have a very good idea of the chapter, if not the passage, they will be reading. How can so many come so ill-prepared?)

No matter, no matter, let us go on as if all arose from one and the same weariness...
      - Molloy, Samuel Beckett

This just in: Michael J. Bobbitt (playwright, director, choreographer, and Executive Director of the Mass. Cultural Council) will be this year's opening reader.


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