Vent: Our book club nearly broke up over a weird fact about Moby Dick

We were arguing about the whale's symbolism last month, and I looked up something random online. I found out Herman Melville got paid only about $1,200 total for writing the whole book, which is like nothing today. I brought it up to make a point about art versus money, and it started a huge fight about whether that made the book more or less valuable. Half the group got super heated and almost walked out. Has your club ever had a meltdown over a random piece of book trivia?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosethompson19h ago

Oh man, that's a classic book club move. You find one weird fact and suddenly it's a fight about the soul of art. My group once spent forty minutes yelling about whether a typo in our paperback copy of The Great Gatsby was deep or just a printing error. It's amazing how a random detail can make people pick sides like it's a sports game. Sounds like your trivia was the real white whale.

jordanr427h ago

Totally get that, @rosethompson! Best move is to just bring snacks next time. A distracted book club is a peaceful one.