Ahab Lives!

[Steven Maas (CUTR)]

(At the risk of offending the Pynchon-only crowd. . .)

Because the oher MD gets regular mention here on the list I thought some
might find this intersting/amusing.  My copy of Moby Dick is a 1925
hardcover (three bucks at the late lamented Blue Chair here in Tampa).
This edition was apparently issued as an early version of synergistic
marketing to publicize the WB "Photoplay" _The Sea Beast_, the first
filmed version of the book, starring John Barrymore. The book is
illustrated with stills from the Photoplay, mostly of the Great Profile
hisself.  The book itself is an unaltered edition, but an introduction
discusses some small changes made in the movie "dictated not by an aimless
unprincipled desire for melodramatic heightening, but by the bald
limitations of the camera."  One of these changes is that Ahab's madness
was caused not by the whale but by--you guessed it--a woman!  Quite an
understandable bit of artistic license, nicht wahr?  And it's only
reasonable that after all of his travails, Ahab should survive with sanity
restored!  Ahh, Hollywood. 

	Steve Maas