Not P but Moby-Dick (54)

[Michael Bailey]

I’m inclined to think that Ahab is saying that Moby-Dick in his deep dives
has seen the resting place of sailors whose mothers miss them so badly they
would give up their life to be with them.

We in the modern day are very sensitive to the incestuous overtones of a
mother “laying down” “by a sailor’s side” - imho - but I think he’s
basically just saying they’d like to hang with their missing offspring,
spend some time with them even if it meant drowning.

If I’m right about that, then maybe the unclearness is also intentional -
portraying Ahab as a master of hyperbole and rhetoric but not a clear
thinker.





On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 12:32 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From Chapter 70:
>
> Thou hast been where bell or diver never went; hast slept by many a
> sailor’s side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them
> down.
>
> What does "lay them down" mean here? I assume "them" refers to the sailors,
> not the mothers themselves.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>