Fear not! The "Moby Dick Lectio" is simply an experiment/exercise I will be doing over the course of this school year. The term Lectio come from Divino Lectio, a process of reading sacred texts, usually the Bible, where the goal is not necessarily aimed at discerning "Truth" from a passage, but simply taking some time to meditate and contemplate around a small sampling of writing.
For my purposes, I dropped the "Divino" part (although some would treat Moby Dick as a sacred text) and will be reading a chapter each day. The link hosts a document that I will update each day as well, with the goal being to keep a record of my observations and connections to the text in real time.
The basic idea come from a book by Nicholson Baker, "A Box of Matches." It chronicles the day to day life of a man who spends a small amount of time each morning making a cup of coffee without the use of any modern electrical technology. He simply lights the burner on his stove with a match, performs this ritual, and thinks about his day before it starts.
I hope that this ritual becomes a calming, meditative part of my day as well, and that my students can also observe that as I ask them to reflect on their reading according to Probst's Reader Response, that I am actively engaged in the same process.
I've invited my good friend and colleague John Madden to jump in when he can, as he represents the biggest Melville fan that I know, and have left a column open for him on the document as well. If you are interested in reading along, or attempting your own "Lectio", please let me know about it, and I'd be happy to promote or link to it.
Thanks!
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