right read moby dick? professor kotchman gives us a setting for that. what he says in the 1850's when the united states was just on the brink of the civil war it was also creating a national literature so american literature was coming io being as the self-conscious league american literature at the same time as the nation itself was starting to break aparp so reading moby dick along with the scarlet letter, along with the leaves of grass by walt whman, i can give you a sort of new understanding of wha each of those works is about singly and i also just want to say that the book, we didn try to legislate what would go into the book. we did not give them subject. the book is not encyclopedia. which is sort of happened the way it happened. >> guest: w ask people to touch on the subject tt forecloses to the core of their interests, the things they felt they could convey withashion to readers outside the academy, so when we have someone like thresher coachmen what is it that you love about the literature you are teaching, he said here is this moment right b