Not P but Moby-Dick (38)

[Ian Livingston]

“[it would be] high times [a jolly circumstance - said with some ridicule]
indeed if whaling captains were wheeled about … in … chairs”

Yeah. What he said.

On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 8:47 PM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
> >>>
> >>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>