Not P but Moby-Dick (54)

[Michael Bailey]

On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 4:04 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think it means the mothers would love to lay their sailors down in the
> bed where they ly with other sailors...
>


Where who lie? The sailors or the mothers?

(-;


> On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 3:37 PM Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>