ahab as luddite

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 ahab's destruction of the quadrant (chapter 118), though perhaps not "luddite" 
 in the classical sense, is condemning modern technology for its misleading  
 promise of control and the corresponding social inequality: "'foolish toy! 
 babies' plaything of haughty admirals, and commodores, and captains; the world 
 brags of thee, of thy cunning and might; but what after all canst thou do, but 
 tell the poor, pitiful point, where thou thyself happenest to be on this wide  
 planet, and the hand that holds thee: no! not one jot more! thou canst not tell 
 where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet   
 with thy impotence thou insultest the sun! science! curse thee, thou vain toy 
 ..." hallways of pynchonian echoes here ... let's stop bio-technology now!

kai frederik //:: ps: on 4/22/40 klaus mann wrote into his diary: "in 'moby 
                  dick'. herman melville -: ein 'grosser amerikaner', der mir 
                  noch unbekannt war. grosser, rhetorisch-poetischer stil. 
                  sowohl thomas wolfe als auch joseph conrad scheinen, auf 
                  verschiedenen umwegen, von ihm her zu kommen ..." yesterday i 
                  read the epilogue ~~~ ~~~ ~~~