Not P but Moby-Dick (54)

[Ian Livingston]

Reading it over in context a few times, I'm inclined to back Michael on
this. The pining mother might just as soon be lying by her son in the
oceanic bower.

On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 1:12 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...
>
> 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
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>