Not P but Moby-Dick (38)

[Michael Bailey]

Oops - reading further, I see that the harpooneer is the steersperson,
leaving the captain to, I surmise, strike poses (“being conscious of the
eyes of the whole visible world resting on him”)

On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 11:38 PM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Unless he’s referring to the American magazine “High Times”, a
> pro-cannabis counterculture publication. But that’s unlikely (-;
>
> On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 11:35 PM Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> “[it would be] high times [a jolly circumstance - said with some
>> ridicule] indeed if whaling captains were wheeled about … in … chairs”
>>
>> He is making much of the fact that Ahab is standing up, very erect, an
>> exemplar of sternness and steadfastness, in the rear of the boat, no doubt
>> barking orders (since there is no tiller and he’s the only one facing
>> forward, he has to tell them to bear left or right)
>>
>> “High times” is what it isn’t.
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 11:18 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> From Chapter 53:
>>>
>>> But the whale-boat has no seat astern, no sofa of that sort whatever, and
>>> no tiller at all. High times indeed, if whaling captains were wheeled
>>> about
>>> the water on castors like gouty old aldermen in patent chairs.
>>>
>>> What does "High times" mean here? One translation confused it with "high
>>> time", which seems clearly wrong.
>>> --
>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>>