Not P but Moby-Dick (40)

[Ian Livingston]

Right. Context. Didn’t take the time this morning to pick up the book. My bad. The grass mats remain grass mats at least. I note, just the same, the several flaws in my response. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 8, 2023, at 9:30 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Don Sebastian isn’t a sailor, he’s one of the listeners in Lima & I think
> he probably is indeed lying in a hammock -
> 
> 
> This passage is “the Town-Ho’s Story” (Town-Ho being the name of the ship -
> hope it isn’t too uncultured to note that in some quarters of current
> American slang, “Ho” means “whore”, thus a small amount of subliminal
> snickering may ensue whilst reading it) and Ishmael was telling it in Lima
> to an attentive audience, including Don Sebastian.
> 
> I was trying to read it, it’s pretty rambly (like the novel as a whole) it
> concerns a whaling ship, a rebellious crew, a tyrannical captain (whose
> name never seems to come up), a first mate named Steelkilt (Scotsman) and a
> “canaleer” from Buffalo named Radney. Also, a sighting of the white whale.
> 
> After the telling, Ishmael has the Dons fetch a local priest so he can
> swear to the veracity of the story.
> 
> 
> 
>> On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 5:24 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> From Chapter 54:
>> 
>> “Lakeman!—Buffalo! Pray, what is a Lakeman, and where is Buffalo? ” said
>> Don Sebastian, rising in his swinging mat of grass.
>> 
>> What is this "swinging mat of grass" exactly? Is it a mat made of grass?
>> Then how is it swinging?
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> 
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l