The 16th New Bedford Moby-Dick Marathon -- First Day

Gansevoort and I arrived at the New Bedford Fairfield Inn within minutes of each other on Friday afternoon.  He had driven down from Waltham, and I had taken the train from Wilmington to Providence, where my sister (who was also heading to the Marathon) picked me up for the drive from Providence to New Bedford.  We dropped our bags and walked over to Freestone's (a/k/a "The Marathoner's Rest") for a pre-Marathon-buffet drink.

Melville fans arrive early to get good seats for the lecture

This was our first year attending the Marathon buffet dinner, a pleasant, communal way to kick off the Marathon activities. Our table included my sister and brother-in-law, the Dutch Melvilleans Tjitske Zwerver and Tonnie Schakenraad, and RISD professor Burton Van Name ("Van") Edwards, with whom I had a nice chat about parchment, papyrus, and points.

After dinner and a quick trip to the museum shop, we headed into the Cook Memorial Theater for this year's lecture, "Moby-Dick in American Popular Culture," by Timothy Marr of UNC.   The lecture -- illustrated with photos, videos, and music -- earned lots of laughs, as we watched clips of cartoons, video games, and movies, very, very loosely inspired by Moby-Dick.  (Professor Marr omitted one Moby-Dick by-blow, however: Age of the Dragons, starring Danny Glover as Ahab.)  Among the photos were some intriguing, and some just plain odd, covers of editions of Moby-Dick from the collection of our blogging compatriot Bill Pettit.

After the lecture, we strolled back to the hotel to rest up for the main event.