MDDM Comparing Wicks and Ishmael as narrators

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Otto wrote:

> What about the language?
> Pynchon's narrative agency, "the one who narrates Wicks," uses 18th-language
> too like Wicks.
> So of course there is still a big difference between the real living author
> and his narrator.

Right, though I would make that the difference between the "other" narrator and
the "implied author" (even though I failed to apply that distinction in my last
reply to Rob). It is not by accident that my girl friend frequently calls me
"Korinthenkacker"...

> Is "Moby Dick" written in the same 19th-century English the author Melville
> has spoken?

Partly, yes, I assume. But there is also a lot of Shakespeare and the Bible in
it. Generally, I think that Melville's or Ishmael's language in MD for the most
part is rhetorically more elevated than common 19th Century English, thus
foregrounding the mythological and allegorical aspects of the novel. But native
speakers are more qualified to answer this question  than I am.

Thomas

P.S. I got to be going, so I cannot reply to Terrance's last messages right now.
But thanks a lot.