Not P but Moby-Dick (38)

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, Michael and Ian.


On Mon, Nov 6, 2023 at 8:59 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston 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”
>
> 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
> >
> --
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>