Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements

Ben Klug and Mark Sokolov
  • 4.1 (7)
  • BOOKS

Join Ben and Mark as we explore Moby Dick! Now that we’ve completed the novel itself, in the Appendices we’re plunging like fate into the many ways people have adapted it. Whether as film, anime, musical theater, or theme park ride, whether faithful, reinterpreted, or just plain bizarre, we’re here to see Moby Dick in whatever form culture can provide it to us.

  1. 08/24/2023

    Special announcement: Detect or Die!

    A quick update about Detect or Die, a new TTRPG Ben wrote and Mark edited, that’s going to be available on Ben’s Itch Page HERE, and then the project page HERE starting August 25th! Also, if you are interested, August 25th is Itch.io Creator Day, so Ben would certainly appreciate first-day downloads! There’s an example of play HERE, and in this audio update, Ben explains how SF studies influenced his design for a Disco Elysium inspired amnesiac detective tabletop role-playing game.  Ben will also be posting on Twitter and Bluesky - both @silkandstone - with more information about the game and its design this Thursday and Friday.   Thanks for listening!  P.S. There’s a quotation from Darko Suvin in Detect or Die, so it even connects directly to our upcoming Starboard Vineyard Tours episode - Ben

  2. 06/15/2023

    Not Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements: Starboard Vineyard Tours!

    No appendix today, but we have something else for you. We’ve started a new podcast, called Starboard Vineyard Tours! It's the same two overthinking goofballs talking about literature, but this time we'll be reading academic works of science fiction studies, which is a field with a lot of depth and some surprising relevance to Moby Dick. Our first episode, on Samuel R. Delany's essay "About 5,750 Words", is up now. We hope you give the show a try!

  3. 02/28/2023

    Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 8: Whalecore

    This time around, we delve into one of the least rigorously defined musical genres, whalecore. From the classic of the genre, Mastodon’s Leviathan, to a period-accurate sea shanty collection, your hosts Mark and Ben discuss a wide variety of Moby Dick inspired, nautical, or simply whale-flavored music. In all, we talk about: Leviathan (Mastodon), The Call of the Wretched Sea (AHAB), Of Sailors and Whales (W. Francis McBeth), Whaling and Sailing Songs From the Days of Moby Dick (Paul Clayton), Concertato “Moby Dick” (Peter Mennin), and Moby Dick (Bernard Herrmann). There’s a lot of whale music out there. We don't have another Appendix lined up right now, but that doesn't mean you won't hear from us. Stay tuned!

  4. 08/17/2022

    Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 7: Hakugei/White Cyclone

    This episode is a real roller coaster ride, and by that, we mean that in it we experience (virtually) a literal roller coaster! We’re joined by Hannah Yoleau to discuss Hakugei, a Moby Dick-themed roller coaster at Nagashima Spa Land in Kuwana, Japan, and its history as White Cyclone. We live react to POV videos of the two roller coasters! It’s a fun time, and we discuss what it means for a roller coaster to be an adaptation of a 19th century novel. You can find the videos we watched at these links.

  5. 06/16/2022

    Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 4: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (Dawn of the Final Day) (Cursed Recording Remix) (Send Help)

    Here it is: The last episode of our coverage of Dave Malloy’s Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). Due to technical issues, we actually had to re-record this whole thing, which only adds to the list of Malloy’s crimes against us specifically. That ‘us’ once again includes our wonderful guests Clay (@ClayDanteT) and Danny (@BerserkerDanDan), who stuck it out until the bitter end of this musical.This section covers Part 4: The American Hearse. Analogies will be made achingly overt. The musical will have opinions about trauma. The musical will have opinions about America. We will struggle to handle it, and ourselves. In the end, though, we are still around, while this musical has been sent to the bottom of the cultural ocean, where it should forever remain. You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions! Next episode: The Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendices will return! Malloy could not defeat us! It will be a shorter episode though.

  6. 05/18/2022

    Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 3: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (The Pip Part) (Oh No)

    We’re back for round three of our review of Dave Malloy’s Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). This time, your hosts (including eminent guests and friends of the podcast Danny (@BerserkerDanDan) and Clay (@ClayDanteT) reach the point of no return, after cleaning up the end of Part II. Part III: The Ballad of Pip. It’s where Malloy started, and it’s almost where we finished, because it’s a half-hour-long section about the ship’s boy, Pip. A large portion of that is a spoken word piece. Friends, shipmates: It’s dire. We were not prepared. And you can witness us attempt to make sense of it! You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions!

  7. 05/10/2022

    Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 2: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (Again)

    We may have bitten off more blubber than we can chew here, but the crew of Whale Statements forges on with our review, and extensive discussion, of Dave Malloy’s Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning (2019). That crew also continues to include Danny (@BerserkerDanDan) and Clay (@ClayDanteT), our guests, who are as baffled as we are by the musical being perpetrated here. Having chewed through the introduction, the narrator, and most of the crew in the first section, we’re now facing down what the musical itself calls “a sort of a cooking show vaudeville” as well as an entire stand-up act by Fedallah, one of the novel’s strangest characters and one of the musical’s most uncomfortable points of ambiguity between the character, the actor, and Dave Malloy. Hey, at least this part has some actual whaling, and also audience participation! And sperm. Audience participation and sperm, together at last. You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions!

  8. 05/03/2022

    Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements Appendix 6, Part 1: Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning

    We have returned from a long journey. Our skin is weathered by salt spray, our hair shaggy, our spirits subdued, but we bring an oily bounty to you, our listeners. We have drawn out Dave Malloy's 2019 musical version of Moby Dick with a fish-hook, taken it alongside for butchery, and now come to you with the first of four episodes rendered and stored for your consumption. The sea-beast was simply too large and full of sperm for less. Joining us in this titanic undertaking we have two redoubtable fellow whalers, Clay (@ClayDanteT) and Danny (@BerserkerDanDan), who had the greasy good luck of attending Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning at the American Repertory Theater in person. With them on board, we had context and expertise in musical theater, the specific production, and a generally wider horizon. So sit back, follow us through the first part of this musical, and consider: Is it possible to make a Moby Dick musical? And specifically, would it be possible to make one that isn't this, please? You can find more of our guests Clay & Danny and their own work on Instagram @wastelandradioproductions!

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Join Ben and Mark as we explore Moby Dick! Now that we’ve completed the novel itself, in the Appendices we’re plunging like fate into the many ways people have adapted it. Whether as film, anime, musical theater, or theme park ride, whether faithful, reinterpreted, or just plain bizarre, we’re here to see Moby Dick in whatever form culture can provide it to us.

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