Ishmael here! I went broke in NYC. ?? Super bored with land (damp drizzly soul). I’m going to sea! #callme #whalingvoyage.
That may not be the opening to “Moby-Dick; or The Whale” that you’re used to, but it’s how Mike Bezemek, MFA ’08, imagines Ishmael would have shared his news about his upcoming whaling voyage on Twitter. In a hilarious re-imagining of the classic text, Bezemek tells the entire story of the Pequod and its crew in tweets and emojis. The story is abridged (data plans not being what they should be out on sea and all) and an appendix includes the original passages which inspired the tweets.
“#Moby-Dick” offers fans of the original a new interpretation of the original and new readers a chance to get familiar with the classic before tackling the original tome.