Is Moby-Dick worth reading?

Moby-Dick is incredibly and often unnecessarily verbose and puzzling

Question: Is Moby-Dick worth reading?
Position‹2 of 2: No, Moby-Dick is not worth reading
Argument1 of 2›: Moby-Dick is incredibly and often unnecessarily verbose and puzzling

The actual text of this novel is incredibly difficult to read, much less understand. In addition to this, the book is rather long and the topic often boring. Many readers don't care for such specific whaling knowledge nor have the patience to read through babbling and complicated passages on the subject.

The argument

"Moby-Dick" is difficult for the average reader to read, much less understand. Sentences are long-winded and filled with bizarre and esoteric language. References range from the Bible to Cicero to Shakespeare and everything in between. It is no wonder that the main criticism of "Moby-Dick" is its unreadability. "Moby-Dick" is also a century and a half old. The novel and its language reflect that in almost every way with highfalutin prose and often ungraspable classical references. In addition to being just plain difficult to read, the novel tests the limits of people's patience in many ways. With a total of one hundred thirty-five chapters and over six hundred pages, there is no doubt that "Moby-Dick" is a lengthy book. Many of the chapters do not pertain to the plot in any discernible way; instead, many describe the whaling industry or various obscure facts about whales. These chapters slow down the plot so much that it turns the reader off and causes many to stop reading. With pompous prose and an unnecessarily slow story, many readers may find this novel uninteresting and esoteric. Such hurdles ultimately make reading "Moby-Dick" not worth the time.

Premises

[P1]Moby-Dick's prose is long-winded, archaic, and laden with esoteric classical references that make it difficult for the average reader to follow. [P2] The novel is excessively long, with many chapters that digress from the plot into obscure whaling lore and slow the story to a crawl. [P3] A book whose density and digressions consistently exhaust readers' patience fails to repay the time it demands. [C] Therefore, Moby-Dick is not worth reading.

Counter-arguments

There is no doubt that this is a difficult book to read, but the incredibly long work is often thought to match/represent the arduous and onerous whaling voyage undertaken in the novel. The whaling chapters are not merely filler or encyclopedia material. Each of these chapters serves a specific purpose, whether it be providing context to whaling or using whaling as an elaborate conceit for metaphysical concepts.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Difficulty describes the reading experience rather than identifying a defect. The allusive range is what the novel is built out of, and a work is not badly written for demanding effort. [Rejecting P2] 'Digress' assumes the plot is the point. The cetology chapters are widely read as structural — the accumulation of classification against a creature that defeats it is the novel's argument rather than a lapse from it. [Rejecting P3] The premise generalises from readers who abandon the book to a verdict on the book. A standard on which demanding works fail to repay the time they ask would rule out most of the literature that has lasted. [Rejecting C] What the premises establish is that Moby-Dick is long and hard, which is a reason it does not suit every reader at every moment. 'Not worth reading' is a considerably stronger claim and does not follow.