calculated madness on the way to the transit of Venus-

[Mark Kohut]

p. 39....Once again, I lead with "That Pynchon...always deepening the
jokes, always messing with us" Maybe.

So, I am LTM (Laughing to Myself) over the very likely wooden leg joke
at Ahab's expense with Cap'n Smith's "great Splinter in his Leg"
and his especially powerful resentment---so muted compared to Ahab's
Overwhelming Obsessive Rage.....

And then I thought on about a couple lines in M & D that intrigued me...
when Capn Smith sez he MUST give chase...and gets that French shrug
back "you must..and may"

And he starts to but calls it off--since the ship is too wounded.

He is NOT Ahab; his resentment can not o'erpower him;
he can act with common sense...and does.

Which increases the contrast between Ahab, the Captain of Amer lit's
most famous ship as symbol
and the frigate w M & D.

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 9:20 AM, Thomas Eckhardt
<thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:
> I don't think it is a stretch. And there is "mad Ahab" in there as well, of
> course.
>
> Am 28.01.2015 um 15:14 schrieb Mark Kohut:
>
>> LOL.....my post, rightly judged (probably) by you an allusion stretch,
>> comes back at me from you.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l