1000 Books
@jeremyschaar.bsky.social
Currently Reading: Moby Dick by Herman Melville
What's going on is that classifying animals was this huge hard problem. The solution -- indeed the revolution -- has already been written and will be published in 8 years. I wonder if Darwin read Moby Dick. I wonder what he'd have thought of it.
January 13, 2026 at 4:41 PM
What's going on is that classifying animals was this huge hard problem. The solution -- indeed the revolution -- has already been written and will be published in 8 years. I wonder if Darwin read Moby Dick. I wonder what he'd have thought of it.
Also, (call me) Ishmael is convinced a whale is a fish. He knows about lungs and blow holes and all the variety of whale and porpoise and how much oil you can get and the quality of that oil. He tries, but at the end of the day, it's just his opinion, dude.
January 13, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Also, (call me) Ishmael is convinced a whale is a fish. He knows about lungs and blow holes and all the variety of whale and porpoise and how much oil you can get and the quality of that oil. He tries, but at the end of the day, it's just his opinion, dude.
… for we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included …
January 13, 2026 at 5:28 AM
… for we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included …
“moot point” being used to mean “open topic for discussion”. Wonder how it came to mean the opposite…
January 13, 2026 at 12:10 AM
“moot point” being used to mean “open topic for discussion”. Wonder how it came to mean the opposite…
Took a minute to meet Ahab… his leg is ivory! Was always wood in my head.
January 10, 2026 at 11:20 PM
Took a minute to meet Ahab… his leg is ivory! Was always wood in my head.
Here, “native American” means white dude born in America.
January 10, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Here, “native American” means white dude born in America.
I'm just 150 pages in. Laugh out loud funny at times and the build-up and launching of the ship was a thrill!
January 9, 2026 at 6:17 PM
I'm just 150 pages in. Laugh out loud funny at times and the build-up and launching of the ship was a thrill!
Melville throwing down in defense of whaling and creating the great whaling book the straw man says doesn’t exist
January 9, 2026 at 2:44 AM
Melville throwing down in defense of whaling and creating the great whaling book the straw man says doesn’t exist
Also, let's bring back palavering. (It means talking too much without saying anything.)
January 8, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Also, let's bring back palavering. (It means talking too much without saying anything.)
…plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.
(Such a thrilling section as the ship gets ready to sail! Nice work Mr Melville.)
(Such a thrilling section as the ship gets ready to sail! Nice work Mr Melville.)
January 8, 2026 at 5:19 PM
…plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.
(Such a thrilling section as the ship gets ready to sail! Nice work Mr Melville.)
(Such a thrilling section as the ship gets ready to sail! Nice work Mr Melville.)
(call me) Ishmael is just happy to have a place in the world for a while. Makes me think of the welfare state. He seems so at peace with the great owners getting all the money. So glad people raised the bar over the coming decades.
January 8, 2026 at 3:52 PM
(call me) Ishmael is just happy to have a place in the world for a while. Makes me think of the welfare state. He seems so at peace with the great owners getting all the money. So glad people raised the bar over the coming decades.
… am quite content if the world is ready to board and lodge me…
January 8, 2026 at 3:48 PM
… am quite content if the world is ready to board and lodge me…
Nothing wrong with this tbh. Actually good to know folks have always been bumpin' and grindin'. It's fun!
January 7, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Nothing wrong with this tbh. Actually good to know folks have always been bumpin' and grindin'. It's fun!
Queequeg and (call me) Ishmael sleeping cozily with each other and nothing sexual about it. It's just nice. Different times. Fewer beds and so on. Norms flow through the world like a spring through sand.
January 7, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Queequeg and (call me) Ishmael sleeping cozily with each other and nothing sexual about it. It's just nice. Different times. Fewer beds and so on. Norms flow through the world like a spring through sand.
… pressed his forehead against mine …
January 7, 2026 at 3:10 PM
… pressed his forehead against mine …
… sin that pays its way can travel freely …
January 7, 2026 at 6:13 AM
… sin that pays its way can travel freely …
"I have look'd for equals and lovers and found them ready for me in all lands" hits so true. I remember being in my 20s, setting off to foreign countries, wondering what strange things I'd find. Turned out no one was that strange. It was always easy to find joy in and receive love from others.
June 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM
"I have look'd for equals and lovers and found them ready for me in all lands" hits so true. I remember being in my 20s, setting off to foreign countries, wondering what strange things I'd find. Turned out no one was that strange. It was always easy to find joy in and receive love from others.
The whole poem is filled with exclamation points as Whitman shouts his love for every place and people he's ever heard of. I suppose there's a long history of people saying we should love everyone. Like, y'know, Jesus. Whitman is a fine torchbearer of that tradition.
June 17, 2025 at 3:45 PM
The whole poem is filled with exclamation points as Whitman shouts his love for every place and people he's ever heard of. I suppose there's a long history of people saying we should love everyone. Like, y'know, Jesus. Whitman is a fine torchbearer of that tradition.
No one has ever love the United States as much or as well as Walt Whitman
June 5, 2025 at 3:47 PM
No one has ever love the United States as much or as well as Walt Whitman
From “Facing West from California’s Shores”
Long having wander’d since, round the earth having wander’d,
Now I face home again, very pleas’d and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)
Long having wander’d since, round the earth having wander’d,
Now I face home again, very pleas’d and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)
June 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
From “Facing West from California’s Shores”
Long having wander’d since, round the earth having wander’d,
Now I face home again, very pleas’d and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)
Long having wander’d since, round the earth having wander’d,
Now I face home again, very pleas’d and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)
I wonder if Walt Whitman would be surprised that story of Alamo lives on in American lore while so many other things have faded. Or maybe it'd be obvious.
March 13, 2025 at 10:53 PM
I wonder if Walt Whitman would be surprised that story of Alamo lives on in American lore while so many other things have faded. Or maybe it'd be obvious.
Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth,
(I tell not the fall of the Alamo,
Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo,)
'Tis the tale of murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men.
(I tell not the fall of the Alamo,
Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo,)
'Tis the tale of murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men.
March 13, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth,
(I tell not the fall of the Alamo,
Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo,)
'Tis the tale of murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men.
(I tell not the fall of the Alamo,
Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo,)
'Tis the tale of murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men.
OK but wtf is this picture and caption😅
December 14, 2024 at 5:17 AM
OK but wtf is this picture and caption😅