Not P but Moby-Dick (40)

[Mike Jing]

Hammock would indeed explain the "swinging" part. Thanks all for replying.


On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 12:30 PM 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
> >
> --
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>