Not P but Moby-Dick (54)

Michael Bailey michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
Fri Dec 15 22:40:23 UTC 2023


I would sketch the ship, the cabin or wherever with the (not dead, but
still alive) sailor in a hammock

the whale sleeping in the water next to the ship ( thanks Mark, I was
indeed picturing the whale sleeping on the ocean floor),
 little zzzz's coming out of his blowhole

The mother, back in Boston, tossing and turning - but what is in the
thought balloon above her head?
A picture of ????
her laying the sailor in a bed?
her laying herself down beside her son for a friendly mother-son chat?
(even in those days, kind of ewwww, isn't it?)
- the syntax does seem  to indicate that the mother is the subject, doing
some kind of laying


On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 5:31 PM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

>  that's a preferable meaning for sure, but can't see how you get there
> from the text - even allowing that "in their bed" is elided - even if
> "where" might be a non-physical "where" not referring to the sea bottom,
> but to something like "in which case"
>
> - still couldn't make a sketch depicting the passage
>
> On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 4:59 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I read the second line (after the semi-colon)  as that whales have slept
>> (in the water) by many a sailor's side--whales do not sleep on the ocean
>> floor---
>> and sleepless mothers---worried about their sons on a ship--- would
>> rather die so that they their sons could lay down again in their bed..."lay
>> them down" [in their bed] again is elided ...
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 4:35 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> *“*
>>> *Thou hast been where bellor diver never went; hast slept by many a
>>> sailor's side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them
>>> down.”*
>>>
>>> The context proceeding the mother’s desires focuses on accessibility, or
>>> the great privilege of the whale to access places no human has ever been.
>>> So it seems to imply that the mothers would be willing to throw themselves
>>> to the bottom of the ocean, if by doing so they could lay beside their dead
>>> sons.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 4:12 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...
>>>>
>>>


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