But Melville is a national treasure.
Can you briefly describe what his books are like?
—
No not briefly like Moby Dick: 19th century whaler fanatically pursues white whale.
Its really not describable - Book is set millions of years in the future, where any future city you could imagine is fossilized. It follows one man for awhile, but then he enters a time line which is loops on itself, but changes.
The second set follows another man in a unimaginably huge generation ship, traveling to another solar system; the man is just an ordinary guy, an anti-hero if you will, who knows nothing of the Ship or its purpose until they arrive.
But all of that is just the surface story. Beneath is a rich realm of word play, allusion and illusion, drawn from the past history and the English language. Its a bit like reading Lawrence Durrell’s “Alexandria Quartet”. Or perhaps Lord Dunsany or Ruthven Todd’s “The Lost Traveler”
Which is why, to understand the deepest levels, you need to read Lexicon Urthus and Gate of Horn, Book of Silk
Before Wolfe, Durrell was the finest living writer of the English language. Now with both men gone, who knows who will pick up the mantle?