A Marathon of 135 Chapters and an Epilogue

Reading “Moby-Dick” as Public Performance and Literary Heritage Event

Abstract

In a way, Moby-Dick occupies a special place in American literary history and popular imagination. Seemingly cursory references to the difficulty or failure to read Moby-Dick abound in American popular culture, ranging from such diverse cultural media as cartoon series to films. M. Thomas Inge calls Moby-Dick “the great unread American novel,” thus echoing a widespread notion that the novel is hard to read and therefore not widely read. This article investigates Moby-Dick not so much in its capacity as a novel that is “unread” by the individual but rather as a piece of literature at the center of a collective act of reading. So-called Moby-Dick reading marathons, organized at various locations along the American East and West coasts, ultimately turn the novel into a performance and into a visitor attraction. Unlike more conventional sites of literary tourism where the author’s house and biography lure tourists, these marathons are a form of literary tourism in which the text itself figures centrally. Framed by diverse event programs and sometimes connected to living history, with a Melville impersonator present, these marathons, by inviting visitors to take turns reading the novel publicly, transform the notoriously challenging novel Moby-Dick into an interactive, participatory literary heritage event.