I QUIETLY TAKE TO THE SHIP.

March 10, 2018 9:30 PM

So you want to read... let's say... Moby Dick or Jane Eyre onscreen. You have a few choices. You could read the hyper-annotated versions [PREVIOUSLY], and understand more of what underlies the text; or, you can let it float a clause or two at a time in Arial 72-point bold underlined font. Also available in other classics.
[A tip from the github page of the creator: add "?wait=[n]" to the URL to auto-advance forward every [n] seconds. A counter-tip from this OP: I don't know how to stop it in that mode, but it is hypnotizing.]
posted by not_on_display (12 comments total)

Needs a funky jazz soundtrack when you have the auto-advance on.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:37 PM on March 10, 2018

I think I need this feature for my ebook reader.
posted by smidgen at 11:55 PM on March 10, 2018

You can bookmark it to "pause" it. Reopening the bookmark should put you back in the same spot.

This is kind of neat.
posted by redrawturtle at 12:00 AM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

this is so very addictive - even in the click-forward version, I found myself reading several pages of Moby Dick - a book I've never read or desired to read. It also makes me really pay attention to each phrase, without moving ahead as I am wont to do.
posted by jb at 1:10 AM on March 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Isn't this Mefi's Own dphiffer? Or am I imagining that? He seems like a very MetaFilter kind of a guy.
posted by adamgreenfield at 1:36 AM on March 11, 2018

Moby Dick is single-handedly responsible for my never actually getting my English degree, despite having written a thesis and being generally brilliant – I just noped out of American Lit. One day I will read it, even if what it takes is force-feeding it to my brain one 72-point bold underlined sentence at a time, and hopefully it will bring me peace.

Today is not that day.
posted by Vesihiisi at 1:44 AM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

not_on_display

Eponyoxymoronical!
posted by chavenet at 1:48 AM on March 11, 2018

Also available in a convenient single page ClickHole Post.

I keep that page bookmarked to shame my work into fixing page load times. "If ClickHole can load all of Moby DIck faster than our single page article we can do better."
posted by Space Coyote at 3:13 AM on March 11, 2018 [5 favorites]

So you want to read... let's say... Moby Dick. Don't do it. Pick something else.
posted by StephenB at 7:10 AM on March 11, 2018

Alternatively you can get Moby Dick and Jane Eyre adjacent by reading Railsea and The Eyre Affair.
posted by brook horse at 7:39 AM on March 11, 2018

So you want to read... let's say... Moby Dick. Don't do it. Pick something else.
posted by StephenB at 7:10 AM on March 11 [+] [!]

I’d prefer not to.
posted by chavenet at 10:39 AM on March 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Moby Dick is really, really good in small doses: Melville could really turn a sentence. It becomes deadly if you read too much of it at once -- most specifically the momentum-killing chapter on taxonomies of whales. But you really, really shouldn't let that put you off.

Two more recommendations:

* The Twitter account @mobydickatsea tweets random sentences from Moby Dick and they're often brillant.
* The Moby Dick Big Read, a podcast series in which each chapter has a different reader; much more interesting than a regular audiobook as each reader brings their own personality and -- in some cases -- their own baggage to the reading.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:32 PM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]