Not P but Moby-Dick (5)

[Mike Jing]

Thanks for the reply, Mark and Ian.


On Sun, Aug 27, 2023 at 10:06 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> You have it right, Mike. Boat and sailors are simile of fate itself.
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Aug 26, 2023, at 9:39 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > The following excerpt is from Chapter 22:
> >
> > Ship and boat diverged; the cold, damp night breeze blew between; a
> > screaming gull flew overhead; the two hulls wildly rolled; we gave three
> > heavy-hearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone
> Atlantic.
> >
> > Does the last sentence mean that we blindly plunged like fate does?
> >
> > Some of the previous translations interpreted "like fate" as "as if
> > determined by fate" or "as if resigned to fate", but neither seems right
> to
> > me. The former may be implied, but probably shouldn't be made explicit,
> > while the latter just seems wrong.
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>