Melville was born 150 years ahead of his time

One of the (many) ways in which "Moby-Dick" was ahead of its time then and maybe still is the cutup nature of the narrative. It's not a plot-driven novel, though you hardly notice that because there is so much narrative within it - narrative in the absence of plot. Lots of sea stories, told by passing ships (during the "gams"), anecdotes, episodes - just read the really strange (this word keeps coming up re Moby-Dick) one of in which Tashtego is scooping the buckets of spermaceti from the head of the whale and he slips on the oily blubber and falls into the head casing head first and almost drowning in oil, the head swings and falls off the tackling and into the sea, Tashtego rescued by Queequeg who dives into the ocean, cuts a hole in the bottom of the head and pulls the nearly lifeless Tashtego through as if he's helping to give birth - I'm that this scene has been much commented upon! An example of a narrative nugget. But is there really a plot to Moby-Dick? Not much - just an obsession, Ahab in pursuit - you could probably tell the plot in a few sentences. And remember how Melville shifts the tone fairly early on - totally giving up on creating Ishmael as a strong character - after the first chapter he's barely a character at all but more of a lens through which we see the Pequod - and completely giving up the buddy-story narrative, as we never really see Ishmael and Queequeg interact once their on the Pequod. Could you rearrange (most of) the chapters and still have Moby-Dick? I think you could - it's a book that could just as well be presented in a clickable online format. Melville was born 150 years too early.