ask you something about melville about mobbee dick. >> yeah. >> stephen: that's a big book, okay. i've got a buchl copy of it, hand tooled leather, everything. i don't really want to crack it open because it will ruin the resale value. is moby dick a metaphor for the struggle of trying to read moby dick? (laughter) (applause) >> you missed your calling as a literary critic. >> stephen: i've got a fallback position. how does that pay? (laughter) >> i thought we already covered that. >> stephen: well, professor, thank you so much for joining me. >> thank you. >> stephen: the president of duke university. be an english major. we'll be right back.ñoñoñooçoço )bb0f[p"p"4dpÑ

ask you something about melville about mobbee dick. >> yeah. >> stephen: that's a big book, okay. i've got a buchl copy of it, hand tooled leather, everything. i don't really want to crack it open because it will ruin the resale value. is moby dick a metaphor for the struggle of trying to read moby dick? (laughter) (applause) >> you missed your calling as a literary critic. >> stephen: i've got a fallback position. how does that pay? (laughter) >> i thought we already covered that. >> stephen: well, professor, thank you so much for joining me. >> thank you. >> stephen: the president of duke university. be an english major. we'll be right back. >> stephen: that's it for the report, everybody. we'll be back in september 3rd. and on september 10th we will have the second installment of the colbert book club, this time dedicated to j.d. salinger. now your reading assignment is anything other than catcher in the rye. i'm going to hold you to that, don't be a phoney. salinger is saying captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org from co

you think of herman melville changing the shape of the novel. he changed it so much in fact in 1858, 1851 "moby dick" was published he torpedoed his career and went from being a bestseller right to security. but he believed he could change even if they know how to lead change for a little bit, but didn't like what the change is going to bring. he himself has gone to the talking community. as a time of tremendous exit tatian, huge expert patient and great failure as well. the expansiveness of hopefulness have agreed. let's not forget bottled american greed among which is very much part of this. in one of many things i learned while doing this focuses the gilded age in the 70s because it's not ticketed the dog. the narrative nightmare as allstate to you about. so as i suggested, i came to this book and away from two earlier books. one i've written a biography of hawthorne as nick mentioned it to me, hop learned was a very abusive 19th century figure because it seemed as though he lived in a 20th century. in a couple of things about him were so out

you think of herman melville changing the shape of the novel. he changed it so much, in fact, in 1850 when moby dick was published, he torpedoed his career and became -- he went from being a bestseller right to obscurity. but he believed you could change even nathaniel hawthorne believed in change for a little bit but didn't like what the change was going to bring. but he himself had gone to the utopian community brook farm. so it's a time of tremendous expectation, huge expectation and great failure as well. it was a time of boisterousness, of expansiveness, of hopefulness and greed. oh, let's not forget good old american greed which is very much part of this period, and one of the things, one of the many things i learned while doing this book is that the gilded age didn't start in the 1870s. ly's so neat and consecutive -- history's so neat and consecutive. it's a their tef nightmare, as i'll speak to you about. so as i suggested, i came to this book in a way from two earlier books. one, i'd written a biography of hawthorne as nick mentioned,

september then he's off to do a world of james mobile book no it's actually this is the story that inspired melville to write moby dick it really occurred and so this is based on a book called in the heart of the sea another true story a true story is from is also going to star chris hemsworth is in rush in fact he brought me this script it's a script that had been around both willing but you know about whaling and a sperm whale actually sank a ship. you know a thousand miles from the galapagos and their survival story is harrowing and heroic. and very very revealing the good issue will move we're going to shoot a movie they have survival story at sea and an ocean movie which every director friend of mine says ron would already you know what are you doing that's the toughest thing you can you can you can shoot shooting in england and then we're shooting in the can. arlen's we have some social media questions for you sure i had but i live with my bed he wants to know what's the most interesting thing you learned about f one toto making rush this combination of science and and this and the athleticism

september then he's off to do a world of james mobile book no it's actually this is the story that inspired melville to write moby dick it really occurred and so this is based on a book called in the heart of the sea of the true story a true story is from is also going to star chris hemsworth is in rush in fact he brought me this script it's a script that had been around vote but you know about whaling and a sperm whale actually sank a ship. you know a thousand miles from the galapagos and their survival story is harrowing and heroic. and very very revealing the good issue we'll move we're going to shoot a movie a survival story at sea and an ocean movie which every director friend of mine says ron would already you know what are you doing that's the toughest thing you can you can shoot shooting in england and then were shooting in the can. on and we have some social media questions for you sure had i live with my dead he wants to know what's the most interesting thing you learned about f one toto making rush this combination of science and and this and the athleticism of of competition especially i

melville in "bartleby the scrivener" --the story boils down to this, a story of wall street them and do we care about our fellow citizens? we have to decide, do we care about our fellow citizens? there is a war being waged on the working people -- host: all right, lawrence, we got your point. janice in washington, remember that the question is about the president's handling of the syrian crisis. caller: hi i think president obama has done a good job handling the syrian crisis. i believe without the forces being in an off the coast of syria, i don't think we would have seen this offering by russia to syria. i just think it has gone very well i think obama has done just the right thing. host: would you support military intervention if necessary? caller: yes, i would. host: thank you for calling in. andy is in flagstaff, arizona. you are on "washington journal." morning.ood i've been a lifelong democrat and a huge supporter of president obama. however, i feel like there is definitely some loss of communication in what exactly is going on in syria. this is an issue that has gone since th

when melville wrote mow by dick by the light -- wrote moby dick by the light of the whale oil lamp now we have the forefront of a revolution. our electricity is cleaner, we're using it smarter and it is getting cheaper. massachusetts is now the number-one state in the country when it comes to energy efficiency, and just yesterday boston was named america's most energy-efficient city. our shores will host of the first offshore wind energy farm in the nation. the same winds that brought the pilgrims to plymouth rock will now power a new generation of jobs in massachusetts. massachusetts is seventh in the nation in solar-installed person in the whole country, even in a state more known for the perfect storm than for perfect sunny days. in massachusetts alone, clean energy now employs 80,000 people across 5,000 businesses in our state. if we continue our commitments to clean energy, we will put steelworkers and ironworkers and welders and electricians to work building a new backbone for a new energy economy here in the united states and across the world. massachusetts is the hub for biotec

believe the american people want their elected representatives to focus on helping the economy, the melville class, and certainly -- the middle class, and avoiding self-inflicted wounds. >> [indiscernible] constructive, contentious -- >> i think, as has been true since i got to washington under the clinton and bush administrations, this is a , and partiesiness hold different positions. everidual lawmakers hold positions. congress and the occupant of the oval office sometimes are at odds, and that is our system and you work within the system. jay, can the white house give us a heads up on this op-ed, and i'm not clear whether president himself has read it. >> i have given the white house response. the president reads widely, including "the new york times," so our response is what i have said about it. he is the head of the white house. >> [indiscernible] >> i am not aware of any heads up. i did not talk to anyone about it. >> in the op-ed, at the very end, president clinton said over time there has been growing distrust with his relationship with the president. a month ago, that white house c

when they left nantucket in august, just a few days after the birth of herman melville in new york, she had just left the island when she was lambda i a squall in the gulf stream. she lost two of her whaleboat. and they were virtually disposable. the whale had just destroyed it with a flick of its tail. toulouse two of these votes boats was a terrible thing to have happen. captain pollard decided to go back for repairs. he had an opinionated first made by the name of owen chase, 22 years old. this was his third voyage and he felt that he was really, that he really had the background that he needed for a command and he was a little bit impatient with his first time captain. he convinced them not to go back but to push on. to find another whale boat, where they routinely stop for positioning and two push on. the word is reversing this and this was known on the quarter deck of a whale ship. the ethics would round up on after picking up leaky whaleboatboats. on november 20, in a poorly lacr voyage, it was west of the galapagos islands. thomas had just had a birthday and was at the helm. tho