A Plum Island man will complete what he considers his “three-part pilgrimage” into the life of novelist Herman Melville at the 24th annual Moby-Dick Marathon this weekend in New Bedford.
Jack Garvey, a projectionist at The Screening Room and contributing columnist for The Daily News, will join scores of people at the annual read-a-thon of the American classic at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, 18 Johnny Cake Hill.
Readers are selected through a drawing with hundreds applying for the more than 200 reading slots between Saturday at noon and Sunday at 1 p.m.
The famously lengthy novel follows the journey of Captain Ahab as he seeks revenge on Moby-Dick, the giant white sperm whale who bit off his leg. The narrative is told by a sailor aboard the whaling ship Pequod named Ishmael.
Garvey first read “Moby-Dick” while attending Salem State College in the 1970s, and again as a graduate student in South Dakota in the 1980s. Since then, he has “referenced and quoted it many times,” and has read as much Melville as he can get his hands on.
His “three-part pilgrimage” began in February 2018 when he visited Melville’s grave in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. Garvey was particularly struck by the tombstone’s large stone scroll with not a single word engraved.
“It was like his ultimate middle finger to the world,” Garvey said, surprised that such a verbose writer wanted a blank scroll on his tombstone.
His journey continued in October 2019 when he visited Arrowhead in the Berkshires, the home where Melville lived during his most productive years, 1850-63.
Garvey said he didn’t expect to be blown away by his visit to the historical farm-turned-museum. But when he walked upstairs to see “the shrine” — a second-floor library where Melville found solitude to write — “I almost fell on my knees,” Garvey said.
So, when he heard about the application for the marathon, he knew it was the next step in his Melville mission.
Garvey, who is scheduled to be a reader about 12:40 a.m. on Sunday, is excited to read the section he requested, “Chapter 62: The Dart.”
Speaking on why he is so drawn to Melville and this chapter in particular, Garvey said he identifies with Ishmael and his voice.
Much like his work as a columnist, Garvey said Chapter 62 reads like “the form of an op-ed.”
It begins with a word on the previous chapter, makes a judgment, then concedes with the other side and concludes with a kicker, Garvey explained. “That’s an op-ed.”
Garvey, a former teacher, sees himself in Ishmael.
“I see him as a voice of character who could have been me if I was born 170 years ago.
“It’s not just what he does and his moods, but the very writing style: quixotic, mercurial, hyperactive, skittish,” he said. “These are qualities perhaps more often to be avoided than embraced, but there is a lot of excitement in them.”
He sees this identity in Melville’s “Confidence Man,” too, saying it’s “a book that helped turn me into a street performer, lessons on how to entice that were themselves enticing.”
Source: Local Melville maven to read at annual Moby-Dick Marathon | Local News | newburyportnews.com