Wednesday, May 8, 1996
27-hour marathon reading of ‘Moby Dick’ sets sail todayBy Cheryl
Klein
Daily Bruin Contributor
Candles, sleeping bags, and a gargantuan white whale. What could
be a more exciting way to spend a Thursday night?
Not much, according to the students and faculty who are
participating in a marathon reading of "Moby Dick." But they are
concerned about capturing the attention of non-English majors.
"This is not like an elitist ‘Oh, you have to be a fourth-year,
fifth-year English or graduate student,’" promises Heidi Hanzi an
undergraduate contributor. "I’ve been trying to inform sort of
south campus type  whatever that means  people of this
event."
Hanzi and other fans of Melville’s famous epic will set sail
this morning in the Rolfe Sculpture Garden Annex, and for the next
26 hours, follow the obsessive Captain Ahab on his pursuit of Moby
Dick. A new reader will begin every ten minutes, with actor
Charlton Heston performing the last chapter. UCLA’s English
department will use the money raised by the sponsored readers for
student scholarships.
"It combines our love of literature with our need for money,"
explains Karen Keely, president of the English Graduate Union. "If
we had a bake sale, we’d make money and eat a lot. But this is a
celebration of literature and of the department."
Hanzi feels that, in recent years, the humanities have been
particularly underfunded and de-emphasized as the public turns to
trendier subjects.
"The sciences are heralded as more important or perhaps have
greater significance in a technological age than literature. You
know: ‘Oh, who cares about Moby Dick? Who cares about 19th century
American literature? Melville’s dead and gone,’" Hanzi says.
"I think by having an event like this it really revives people’s
excitement about literature and about the humanities. And about
getting off their computer and coming out in the evening and
hearing a reading aloud. Because that’s what people used to do for
entertainment."
But in spite of the decline in reading for pleasure, "Moby Dick"
has held its own in the literary world for 145 years. Hanzi points
out that while harpooning one’s animal friends is hardly common to
life in the ’90s, some aspects of the novel are timeless.
"It’s a cultural artifact," she says. "I think we gain so much
from the characters and their endeavors and what they go through.
We identify with that human spirit."
However, Keely explains, the masterpiece that readers now relate
to began as something quite different.
"Melville began the book as a tribute to Edgar Alan Poe whom he
admired very much," Keely says. "He was all ready to send it off to
the publisher when, that summer, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne and
admired him even more. So he rewrote practically the whole book as
a tribute to Hawthorne. Originally there wasn’t even a Captain
Ahab."
The notorious peg-legged ship captain may be enough to draw some
audience members, but, Keely admonishes, "This is L.A. We love a
celebrity."
Hanzi agrees on the importance of Heston’s role.
"He’ll lend a sense of drama," she says. "Which we’ll need at
the end. When we’re all like (snoring noise)."
Sleeping bags will dot the grassy expanse of the sculpture
garden, but Hanzi hopes to keep the audience alert.
"I went out and bought six pounds of coffee yesterday," she
says.
Keely predicts that the atmosphere will change as the night
progresses and the Pequod ventures farther out to sea.
"It will be exciting at the beginning because it’s something
we’ve never done before," Keely says. "Then the undergrads will
come for the night and they’ll have a lot more energy than the
graduate students and faculty. And Friday morning will be fun
because the end will be in sight. "
As of now, all are waiting anxiously for the opening phrase,
"Call me Ishmael." Says Hanzi, "I sort of have the
night-before-Christmas syndrome."
EVENT: The Moby Dick Marathon Reading, put on by UCLA’s English
Department, will begin at 10:45 a.m. this morning and continue
through approximately 11:35 a.m. tomorrow in the Rolfe Sculpture
Garden Annex.
"This is not like an elitist ‘Oh, you have to be a fourth-year,
fifth-year English or graduate student'(to participate)."
Heidi Hanzi
Contributor to the marathon