Talk:Billy Budd

message: With a book like this, there might be those who argue that it properly belongs in the 1891 novels category, however the trend seems to be to categorize novels based upon the year of their first publication, never mind when they were written. Precedent includes the Margret Mitchell novella Lost Laysen which is listed in a 1990s category but was written around 1916 (but unpublished for 80 years), or more recently Octopussy and The Living Daylights, an Ian Fleming short story collection that was published in 1966 and categorized thus, even though Fleming died 2 years earlier. 23skidoo 05:21, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: 1924 novels category

message: The article includes the entry:
A story ultimately about good and evil, Billy Budd has often been interpreted allegorically, with Billy interpreted typologically as Christ or the Biblical Adam, with Claggart (compared to a snake several times in the text) figured as Satan. 
This is indeed one frequently heard interpretation. It seems though, that Melville wished to confront his readers with a some (fairly transparent) ambiguity, as we also encounter the complementary interpretation, in which the name 'Billy Budd' was chosen to stand for Beezelbub, with Claggart's desperate and rather erring actions (a la Jesus) being undermined behind the scenes by BB. (This is a well known critical interpretation, not original thinking, although I am momentarily at a loss to supply a reference). Perhaps it merits reference in the body of the article. What do you think?
--Philopedia 23:19, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Deliberately Ambiguous 

message: Any particular reason the interpretations precede the plot summary?  A reader with no knowledge of the subject would be confused by the interpretation before the plot.  I'll move it if there are no objections -- Vonfraginoff 13:21, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You're right, I moved it up.--Cúchullain t/c 14:28, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  organization? 

message: I added the "unreferenced" template to the page, as there are several statements that could use some referencing. Some examples:
*"Vere claims to be following the letter of the Mutiny Act and the Articles of War, but recent scholarship suggests otherwise." (which is also extremely vague and tells the reader almost nothing)
*"The story may have been based on events onboard USS Somers, an American naval vessel; one of the defendants in the later investigation was a distant relative of Melville."
*The entire "popular interpretation" section.
*The penultimate paragraph of the "other contemporary interpretations" section regarding "other critics".
Discuss, remove inaccurate or sourceless statements as necessary, change stuff around - whatever will improve the article. --V2Blast (talk) 02:10, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Added "unreferenced" tag 

message: Shouldn't there be something about the fact that almost every page bears reference to the physical beauty of the Billy, commented on by the author and male characters?  I'm not trolling - read it and see. 74.191.67.11 (talk) 19:28, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: There should be... it's a matter of someone taking the time to find the standard sources and expanding the article.--Cúchullain t/c 19:40, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Homo-eroticism 

message: Where is this in the book? I can't find it, needs citation.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.117.83.58 (talk) 21:04, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  "We're talking about law not justice" 

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thread_title:  External links modified