Jake Bartolone

In my last installment, I nominated three actors as avatars for chapters I had read to date, but noted that I did not expect my taxonomy to remain comprehensive. I admit that I expected it to take a little longer to break down completely, so allow me to introduce a fourth avatar to represent...
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“Nobody can be more clownish, more clumsy and sententiously in bad taste, than Herman Melville, even in a great book like Moby-Dick. He preaches and holds forth because he’s not sure of himself. And he holds forth, often, so amateurishly.” D.H. Lawrence, A.D. 1923. Three installments into this series of enthusiastic but ill-informed ramblings,...
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On (almost) the occasion of the Big M-D’s birthday, we’re pleased to bring you our third installment of a Smart Dude.  (Click for episodes one and two.) We promise that we are inviting the Smart Dude back out of genuine enthusiasm and not because his dick analysis is really stiring up some big, hard...
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Editor’s note: as promised, Smart Dude Jake Bartolone returns with an update on his Moby-Dickery.  Check out the first installment here, and  comment away if you have thoughts on Jake’s questions (or his non-questions).  Avidly’s questions for  Jake  follow!   I’m now on page 111 of 547 (according to Kindle for iPhone), or 27...
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Editor’s note: When Avidly learned that smart dude (and Avidly contributor) Jake Bartolone was reading Moby-Dick for the first time, we jumped at the chance to get an annotated account of the “first encounter with Moby-Dick” experience. We are approaching this scientifically! We are hoping that Jake will provide regular updates on his Melvillian encounter...
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This is a story I haven’t told before, but my reasons for not telling have changed a few times over the years. At first, I didn’t think it was significant. Then, a few years later when I realized it was, it seemed a bit too late. After that it felt vaguely embarrassing, and then...
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