Moby Dick question after seeing a movie
Hello everyone,
Well, I never thought my very first post would be about a novel I hated, but here it is!
I guess I shouldn't say that (not supposed to talk about the subtitles I work on), but I worked on a couple of bonus features for the DVD release of My Soul to Take, an awful movie by the way. Anyway, one of the extended scenes has this guy, in the forest, talking on a cell phone and he asks the girl whether she remembers, in Moby Dick, the sailor who, after killing a penguin just for the heck of it, is punished by God by making him wear the dead body of the penguin around his neck 24/7.
When I saw that scene, I was all like, what the heck? Why don't I remember that? Now, I did say I hated the novel (to quote a colleague's friend: "it's the biggest footnote ever") and I guess I should have read it in French, my first language, but I think I would remember such an image, especially since I read it just last year.
I can only think of three explanations:
1) I really don't remember that part;
2) my edition was somewhat abridged (though it REALLY didn't feel like it was);
3) the movie extended (pun intended) its mediocrity to the point of actually distorting what is considered a monument of modern literature.
In any case, I thank you all in advance for your answers!
Dany
