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Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury's Adventures Making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland

Average customer rating:

Not his best
The best of both worlds, fact and fiction
Not the best Bradbury, but still worth while.
Great prose.
Excellent Read. Funny, entertaining, though provoking.

Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury's Adventures Making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland
Ray Bradbury
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0380789663

Book Description

In 1953, the brilliant but terrifying titan of cinema John Huston summons the young writer Ray Bradbury to Ireland. The apprehensive scribe's quest is to capture on paper the fiercest of all literary beasts -- Moby Dick -- in the form of a workable screenplay so the great director can begin filming.

But from the moment he sets foot on Irish soil, the author embarks on an unexpected odyssey. Meet congenial IRA terrorists, tippling men of the cloth impish playwrights, and the boyos at Heeber Finn's pub. In a land where myth is reality, poetry is plentiful, and life's misfortunes are always cause for celebration, Green Shadows, White Whale is the grandest tour of Ireland you'll ever experience -- with the irrepressible Ray Bradbury as your enthusiastic guide.

Customer Reviews:

Not his best.......2006-08-29

Ray Bradbury was a science fiction icon, but there's a reason he didn't write "The Playboy of the Western World" or "Finnegan's Wake." The dialogue is all you get from this book. The rest of the book is a thin vehicle to get you from one conversation to the next. There are few descriptions and few insights. The dialogue itself is very humorous at parts, and in others it's obvious that this is Bradbury writing how the conversations should have gone, not how they really went. I've thoroughly enjoyed other works by Bradbury, but this wasn't one of them.

The best of both worlds, fact and fiction.......2003-05-31

Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston's Moby Dick. It is a hysterical account of his exploits in Ireland where he wrote the piece. It is also a work of fiction because he combined some of his previous short story writings about Ireland into the book. Bradubury masterly weaves both fact and fiction into a enjoyable tour-de-force. If you are an avid Bradbury fan, you will remember some of his earlier work and recognize the stories. If not, then I envy you because you will not be able to distinguish fact from fiction. Bradbury does both a wonderfull job of catching Irelands essence and terrible poverty of which he covers lightly. He also hints at the terrible genious of John Huston without going into the gory details. This book is a very fast read and is wonderfull. It is certainly deserving of the national book award it recieved.

Not the best Bradbury, but still worth while........2001-02-18

This didn't grip the same way Fahrenheit 451 or The Martian Chronicles or Something Wicked This Way Comes did. There are many entertaining and quite often fun stories and of course it is beautifully written. Bradbury is one of the best prose stylists and short story writers in American Lit, after all. It's not one of his classics but it's worth a consideration.

Great prose........2000-01-05

Green Shadows, White Whale is a tale about Ray Bradbury's travels in Ireland while helping John Huston write the screenplay for Moby Dick. The writing is absolutely wonderful. I have read many books in my life but I have rarely read one so beautifully written and well composed. There were paragraphs and passages that I read over two and three times simply because they were so tasty. The story is broken up into chapters which comprise little subplots of their own. This makes for easy reading because you can read a chapter or two at a time and still enjoy the entire book. Read this book.

Excellent Read. Funny, entertaining, though provoking........1999-03-03

Ray Bradbury has done it again. Green Shadows, White Wales is the! best book i've read this year, or two years for that matter. From Finegan's pub and it's guild of drink lovers to a crazy fox-hunting director the book is neverending humor and good sprit. The book isn't that hard to read at all (maybe highschool level) good humor, interesting plot, historicaly teaching and a wonderful exploration of Ireland's funny side. Odd'ly enough though, the main character does resemble Ray Bradbury slightly, but I think Bradbury uses his own life to create fantastic tales and stories. A little bit of profanity but not much that would offend anyone (in other words, nothing on and on or harsh). I would definately recomend this book to teachers (of high school) and anyone who wants a good laugh and intriguing read.

In Search of Moby Dick: Quest for the White Whale

Average customer rating:

not terrible, but not exactly what it presents itself to be
Start Your Search Here
Something's Missing Here
Finding Moby
A FASCINATING SEARCH FOR THE ROOTS OF A MYTH

In Search of Moby Dick: Quest for the White Whale
Timothy Severin
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 030681045X

Amazon.com

Historian and adventurer Tim Severin has made a career of retracing epic voyages. He crossed the Atlantic in an open boat of stretched leather to test whether a sixth-century Irish monk could have made a fabled journey to North America, and later explored the Spice Islands of eastern Indonesia to see how the archipelago has "evolved" since 19th-century naturalist Alfred Wallace first surveyed it. The quest for the white whale, however, lands Severin in different territory: the shifting currents of fiction. Following tenuous evidence of pale sperm whales, Severin embarks for the South Pacific and the birthing grounds of Melville's masterpiece. On Nuku Hiva, the setting for Typee, he finds that the island harbors "many of the sources that Melville had raided to embellish his own, rather thin, experiences." Also thin is any evidence of a white whale, so he moves on to Pamilican, a dirt-poor little scrape where the locals subsist on jerry cans of imported fresh water and by "jumping" the sea's bounty. Their principal prey is the whale shark, the largest fish in the sea. Artists of the jump actually wrestle these plankton eaters underwater by hand, hooking the beasts with a massive grappling hook before coming up for the fight on board. One ancient hunter speaks vaguely of having jumped a white whale shark, but there are also rumors of giant white manta rays and other fantastic creatures.

The centerpiece of the book is a visit to the little-known island of Lamarala, the "last community on earth where men still regularly hunt sperm whales by hand." An old-timer with 60 years of whaling notched into his harpoon explains enthusiastically that the white whale "has visited us many times. Sometimes it can be a wicked fellow." Severin's gripping firsthand account of an actual hunt gives credence to a 1993 report of 34 Lamaralese fishermen being towed out to sea for four days by a big bull sperm whale. But does he find Moby-Dick's kin? In a manner of speaking. What surfaces in these pages is not so much the white whale as the idea of the white whale--a creature bathed in mystery and the people that speak knowingly of it, all of whom give meaning to the sea. --Langdon Cook

Book Description

First time in paperback: "A riveting traveler's adventure....Original, audacious, and exuberant-signature Severin." -New York Times.

Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick immortalized the idea of a mammoth sperm whale roaming the seas, wreaking havoc on all that crossed its path. But could such a creature actually exist, then or now? To find out, the acclaimed adventure writer and explorer Tim Severin set off to the islands of the South Pacific in search of one of our most iconic modern myths. From the Marquesas Archipelago, where the twenty-one-year-old Melville deserted his whaling ship in 1842, through the Philippines, Tonga, and Indonesia, Severin follows a trail of ocean legend and lore to the last surviving islanders who hunt the great whale by hand, shadowing a victorious hunt from Stone Age boats and uncovering tantalizing evidence of the existence of a Great White Whale. In this captivating account of his voyage, Severin traces not only the origins of Melville's legendary literary creation but also something of the spiritual relationship between the islanders and the creatures of the sea, the hunter and his prey.

Customer Reviews:

not terrible, but not exactly what it presents itself to be.......2002-09-02

Before I describe what this book is, I should describe what it is NOT, because I feel that it is definitely (and perhaps deliberately) mistitled, and if I had known was it was, I probably would never have chosen to read it.

I bought this book without bothering to riffle through it, being under the impression that it was an investigation into whatever facts lay behind the Moby Dick legend upon which Melville based his well-known novel. Although Severin partially covers this angle in the last (and definitely most engrossing) chapter, this is certainly NOT what this book is about on the whole.

Severin himself touches on this [p. 52]: "The animal Melville had in mind was probably inspired by reading a short story in an American magazine, The Knickerbocker, in 1839. The piece was called `Mocha Dick or the White Whale of the Pacific' and it was a yarn about a big bull sperm whale regularly encountered off the coat of Chile. The animal was said to be `as white as wool', though whether because it was an albino or from old age was not known."

But this is virtually the only mention Severin makes of this mysterious beast.

So what is it about? For a period of about a year and a half the author roamed through Oceania staying and talking with various whale-hunting communities, for the most part learning about their lifestyles but occasionally exploring the subject of a white sperm whale, which, as Severin is eager to demonstrate, is not limited to Western literature, but makes an appearance in the myths and legends of societies far different from our own.

Unfortunately, the lifestyles of these primitive whaling communities, for the most part, do not make for interesting reading (the section on Lamalera is especially yawn-inducing), and several times during my reading I wondered why I was even bothering to finish it.

Other sections leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, such as when Severin digs up and exposes Melville's many exaggerations. Every author's worst nightmare! Here's a sample:

"[In Typee], Melville describes how the natives of Taipivai were very keen to tattoo their sailor visitor. They point out that his white skin would make such a perfect canvas for their art. Mehevi also wants him to be tattooed, and suggests suitable patterns. The tattooer-in-chief pursues Melville about the village waving his instruments, the sharp-toothed combs and tapping mallet. Yet somehow Melville avoids the operation, and he does not explicitly state how. It is another example of Melville building up suitably colourful ordeals while `living among the cannibals', but then sidling away from any clear explanation of how he emerged intact. Certainly Melville had no tattoos to display when he returned to new England and told an intrigued audience about his `four months' on the Marquesas, though tattoos were already common enough among Western sailors of his day."

Just what every writer needs. A good deal of the book consists of ill-spirited detective work of this kind, most of which is not even germane to Severin's stated purposes.

Conclusion: if you are looking for extra information on the facts behind white whale legends of the mid 1800's, don't look here. The closest book I know of that addresses the question of whether a white whale actually existed (an actual white whale, not just an ordinary black, though perhaps unusually aggressive, sperm whale-like the one that famously smashed up the Essex) would be Norton's "Moby Dick as Doubloon," and even that book only touches on the matter.

Having said that, the book is far from awful. The writing style is brisk and deft, and what Severin has learned on his travels/studies can on occasion be absorbing. It's just that you should know what you're getting into.

Moreover, the soft cover edition is handsomely printed, though it could really have used some maps.

I should also note that this book can boast a top-notch first paragraph. Don't let that fool you, though.

Start Your Search Here.......2001-08-29

Severin's varied accounts of South Pacific whaling compliment Melville's novel wonderfully. His book provides excellent supplemental reading to support Melville's classic AND add to the lore of the sea. Like the novel, Severin concludes his searching by recording a whale hunt that has incredible action and danger.
What fascinated me in this short book was his description of the whiteness of the whale. Nature allows white for only a few examples of whiteness and they are esteemed highly; their significance has spiritual and metaphysical associations. Severin states that whiteness and the sea are common, but in the whale, the shark, the manta ray and in other species, the contrast in seeing a white member "contradicts" our assumptions. I endorse this book for several reasons: Severin's anthropological recording is astute; he carefully respects Melville's accounts; and he is an excellent writer in his own right.

Something's Missing Here.......2001-07-16

I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it. It has been well reviewed by others here on this page.

I was disappointed to find that the still pictures the author took and the drawings by Patturson mentioned in the credits were not found in the paperback De Capo Press book. I guess one has to buy the hardback. I found it a bit odd that the author often referred to Melville's copying (plagurizing) passages of other texts in the production of his book Moby Dick, but did not mention that in the times of its publication it was not uncommon to plagurize other books. Maybe he just didn't know.

Finding Moby.......2000-12-29

Herman Melville based his gigantic masterpiece _Moby Dick_ on fact. This is one of the most fascinating parts of that magnificent book. As mystical and symbolic as the parts and the whole may be, they are all firmly grounded in fact, in the world of nineteenth century whaling as it was. Facts crowd into the chapters, even the most novelistic ones. Tim Severin has made a career of replicating historic vessels, using them to trace the supposed routes of their historic sailors, and then writing about the results. In _In Search of Moby Dick: The Quest for the White Whale_ (Basic Books), he does not plunder Melville's great work, but actually expands it. Using _Moby Dick_ and other Melville texts, he has gone on an adventure to find the white sperm whale, and although he never brings home the fabulous creature, he does indeed find it in ways that demonstrate that even a century and a half after the white whale entered literature, he still exists as fact as well as fable.

Severin's curious quest takes him first to the island Melville described in his bestseller _Typee_, and then to islands where Melville never visited, but where there are still whalemen who still harpoon whales. The descriptions of the dangers of the hunts on which Severin accompanied the islanders are vivid and memorable. He finds, intriguingly, that the island legends of the white whale are in many ways the same as those of Melville's whalemen. He conveys vividly the excitement of the hunt, both of physical prey by contemporary whalemen and his own search for Moby Dick. The islanders know there is a white whale out there. Ahab was not able to destroy him, and the islanders revere and respect him. Severin's vibrant book shows that the whale hunters will surely pass away before Moby Dick, secure in legend and literature, is ever finally caught, or finally known.

A FASCINATING SEARCH FOR THE ROOTS OF A MYTH.......2000-05-21

Tim Severin has a gift for creating wonderfully colorful reasons for writing a book -- he sailed in a skin-covered coracle to establish the background to the fable of St. Brendan, and navigated a dhow to recreate the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, in just two of his odysseys. In this one, he searches for the mythic roots of the great white whale that provided the theme and tumultuous climax of Melville's classic, Moby-Dick. In a journey that spans the vast reaches of the Pacific, he first of all explores the island in the Marquesas where Melville deserted the whaleship Acushnet, travels to Tonga in search of the tattooed harpooner, Queequeg, and then moves on to the Timor Straits and the Flores Sea,in particularly haunting passages that describe his encounters with primitive whale-shark and sperm whale hunters, where harvesting great animals from the teeming tropical waters can mean the difference, for clans and families living on the edge of want, between survival and death.

Book Description

In vivid and compelling language Geraldine McCaughrean retells the story of the crazed Captain Ahab and his relentless hunt for the great white whale. She moves the story along at a cracking pace while retaining the spirit of Herman Melville's original language. Her text is beautifully complemented by Victor Ambrus's evocative pictures of ships and the sea and of the fiendish white monster, Moby Dick.

Customer Reviews:

A Perfect Introduction to Moby Dick.......2003-01-02

I recently read this book to my 7th grade lit. class. They loved it and I enjoyed reading it to them. It not only tells the story of Moby Dick,it is a gem unto itself.Ms. McCaughrean's literary language enables the reader (and listener) to have a perfect image of characters and events.

Fabulous retelling and illustrations.......2002-10-22

Geraldine McCaughrean's retelling of Melville's Moby Dick provides welcome and rewarding access to the plot and characters of this classic. Victor Ambrus' illustrations are wonderful. For several years now we have been turning to this jewel!

Children's book.......2001-09-18

This is an illustrated version of Moby-Dick for children.

Moby Dick or The White Whale (Photoplay title: The Sea Beast)

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Moby Dick or The White Whale (Photoplay title: The Sea Beast)
Herman Melville
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Product Description

Book is illustrated with scenes from the photoplay, The Sea Beast starring John Barrymore and released by Warner Brothers.

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Moby Dick or the White Whale
Rockwell Kent
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S0L9V6

Moby Dick: Or the White Whale (Oxford Illustrated Classics)

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Moby Dick: Or the White Whale (Oxford Illustrated Classics)
Herman Melville , and Geraldine McCaughrean
Manufacturer: Rebound By Sagebrush
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

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Eye to eye: painting White Whale: Moby Dick I. (Artists' Forum).: An article from: Leviathan

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Eye to eye: painting White Whale: Moby Dick I. (Artists' Forum).: An article from: Leviathan
Aileen Callahan
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Leviathan, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 2796 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Eye to eye: painting White Whale: Moby Dick I. (Artists' Forum).
Author: Aileen Callahan
Publication: Leviathan (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Page: 52(6)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Moby Dick or the White Whale
herman melville
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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MOBY DICK or The White Whale
Herman Melville
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Herman Melville Redburn His 1st Voyage: White-Jacket or the World in a Man of War Moby Dick or the Whale

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Herman Melville Redburn His 1st Voyage: White-Jacket or the World in a Man of War Moby Dick or the Whale
Herman Melville
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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