Hester Blum

I wish I could tell you that I have consumed any other culture/thought about anything else in six months but I haven’t, and here’s a little bit about why. Thanks to @publicbooks.bsky.social and anyone who has allowed me to talk at them about HR and MD: www.publicbooks.org/heated-rival...

Philly people, I'm speaking at the Material Texts Workshop at Penn on Monday November 2: "Polar Erratics, Arctic Ephemera." Hope to see you there.

Exploring Moby-Dick episode 13 is up! Chs 79–86, from "The Prairie" to "The Tail"--we get into phrenology, Mar-a-Lago face, LOST (the ambergris of prestige tv, @robdelaney.bsky.social says correctly), and the difference between interpreting liberally and literally: exploringthegreats.com/moby-dick

Well my Whalefall impulse-bought popcorn bucket is more of a duodecimo popcorn bucket than a folio

Rob on reading Moby-Dick: it allows you "to become more porous, to let the world affect you with its darkness and its light" Thank you @katekilla.bsky.social & @bostonglobe.com for talking with @robdelaney.bsky.social and me about the Exploring Moby-Dick podcast! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/22/a...

Tonight--join us!

Today and every day 

Ep 12 of our 𝐌𝐎𝐁𝐘-𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐊 podcast is up! We discuss chapters 73–78, "Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk over Him" through "Cistern and Buckets." Tashtego falls in a sperm whale’s head in this ep! Messy! 🐳🚣🏾‍♀️🫟 exploringthegreats.com/moby-dick

Never have I ordered anything faster

Happy 4th anniversary to the night in Svalbard when my phone took this unedited photo of a giant lunar halo over the glaciers of Svalbard to which the only response was to fall into hysterical laughter, serially taken up by each shipmate, how else to respond to such outlandish, annihilating beauty

Another great week for Melville content:

Huge

Live Dick! On Nov 12 @hesterblum.bsky.social & I will host a live Q&A about Moby-Dick & our read-along podcast about the same. Limited spots for subscribers to zoom with us but anyone can watch the broadcast. 🐳📚💻💙 🌈 exploringthegreats.com/moby-dick

This is going to be so much fun—join us, and on behalf of team fish, thank you for listening! 

Next Wednesday, October 21st, we’ll be celebrating the 175th anniversary of Moby-Dick with @tinhouse.bsky.social, @hesterblum.bsky.social, and @mattkish.bsky.social, whose cult classic Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page was just rereleased by Tin House. Register here: buff.ly/OQj8pIN

The brilliant Caroline Shaw:

Announcement!!! Big news!!! 📢📢📢 My book, The Racialization of Print, has a cover (!!), and a webpage, and pre-orders are now available! Coming in Spring, 2027, from @uncpress.bsky.social and @oieahc.bsky.social Use code 01SOCIAL30 to save 30% uncpress.org/979889313492...

@robdelaney.bsky.social new pod merch?

Messy and sumptuous, nothing better! 

Of the two movies my oceanic/polar/environmental humanities-ass self will have to see for the good of the discipline which will I be more charmed and annoyed in equal measure by, Digger or Whalefall?

My French-speaking husband informs me that this title translates to “Swallowed Up” which tells me we left a lot of jokes on the table, Rob #whalefallfail

Fleece's (coerced) sermon to the sharks in Moby-Dick is an astonishing moment in long US histories of love and theft; @robdelaney.bsky.social and I try to bring our well-governed selves to sharkish waters. It's been such a gift to be in conversation with Rob and with listeners about M-D's worlds!

6-8 sperm whales to hate would be a real headache for your classic monomaniac 😞

Massive apologies to those affected by our viral marketing stunt gone wrong 😬🐳 exploringthegreats.com/moby-dick @hesterblum.bsky.social

Thursday! Polar STEAM Summit prax.oregonstate.edu/events/creat...

🐳📖🌊 Ep 9 is up! Chapters 54-58: “The Town-Ho’s Story” to “Brit.” Endless gratitude to everyone reading & listening along. exploringthegreats.com/moby-dick @hesterblum.bsky.social

“The females’ mother also tried making balls but failed, the researchers said, seemingly because she was drunk.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/s...

Join us, fellow lounging gentlefolk of Lima! “Brit” was my favorite chapter when I first read Moby-Dick at age 17. (I went to my 35th high school reunion last weekend and more than one classmate noted that not everyone makes their high school summer reading assignment their entire personality.)

No time to lose! We’re less than a month out from our event with @mattkish.bsky.social and @hesterblum.bsky.social Register today!

Episode 8 is up! In which @robdelaney.bsky.social and I get into the unexpectedly frequent references to cheese in Moby-Dick (with a sideline in Aubrey & Maturin & toasted cheese)

This is why I have now embraced my unadulterated, cringe-worthy, faith and belief in the truly unique ability of humans to be humans and to express their humanity in art and self-reflection. And I include all humanities disciplines in the “self-reflection” part.

So exciting to see this big blue fish come closer into view!

Whiteness of the Whale! Midnight, Forecastle! Wild, mystical, sympathetical feeling! Episode 7, and do listen to Rob as ever, the accompanying blog is great: exploringthegreats.substack.com/p/episode-7-...

wow

This fall Oregon State's PRAx has a terrific series of events on polar art and science, the history of the Arctic and Antarctic, and the polar environment. The art exhibition opens today, and I'm speaker there on October 1. Full schedule: prax.oregonstate.edu/initiatives/...

This is so exciting, Jamie K Taylor and @samanthapinto.bsky.social will be writing an advice column for Avidly: "mid. (advice for and from tired feminists" Submission form here--as Jamie says, "We'll help, or at the very least, we'll nod and sigh with you." docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, and nutty nutty Ahab, all in episode 6 of Exploring Moby-Dick with @robdelaney.bsky.social and me, yr knight and squire. Oh democratic god!

Authors who have filed in the anthropic suit: what is the allocation protocol for edited collections? are allocations divided between co-editors alone, or between all contributors?

I texted my kid the chair portrait of Melville's father for reasons and this was their response: