Not P but Moby-Dick (46)

[Mike Jing]

Got it. Thanks, Michael and Ian.


On Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 2:12 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I think both *may* apply in that it can be read both ways, but it seems to
> me most likely that Melville’s use here indicates b, as in one who is
> somewhat obsessed with whales.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Nov 22, 2023, at 9:07 AM, Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > the chapter is "whales variously represented" so he mentions
> > "skrimshandering" & brass whale door knockers & other representations of
> > whales made by people
> >
> > then turns to seeing whales in rock formations and in constellations
> >
> > w/r/t to seeing whales in rock formations - i think both meanings apply -
> > in order to interpret rock formations as whales "you'd have to be really
> > into whales"
> > a) taking pains to watch for them everywhere
> > b) absolute, complete, all-out whale fan (fanatic)
> >
> >
> >> On Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 11:23 AM Mike Jing <
> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> From Chapter 57:
> >>
> >> Then, again, in mountainous countries where the traveller is continually
> >> girdled by amphitheatrical heights; here and there from some lucky
> point of
> >> view you will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of whales defined
> >> along the undulating ridges. But you must be a thorough whaleman, to see
> >> these sights;
> >>
> >> What does "thorough" in "a thorough whaleman" mean here?
> >>
> >> a. Chiefly in predicative use. That carries out or promotes something
> >> thoroughly; taking pains to do something carefully and completely.
> >>
> >> b. attributive. Chiefly British. That is fully the kind of person
> indicated
> >> by the noun; absolute, complete, out-and-out.
> >>
> >> All the existing translations I have at hand chose b., but a. seems to
> make
> >> more sense to me.
> >> --
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> >>
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