Not P but Moby-Dick (25)

[Michael Bailey]

“long, dreary, speechless processions
of slow-pacing pilgrims, down-cast and hooded with new-fallen snow?”


For what it’s worth -
That was pretty much the impression I had before looking Whitsuntide up
yesterday


- great excerpts, Mike - it makes me want to read Moby-Dick. I think I read
it as a teen but only took away “that Ahab was really a wienerhead” and
“glad old Ishmael got away”




On Tue, Oct 10, 2023 at 2:49 PM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Somebody who doesn’t know that Whitsuntide is in late spring - 7th Sunday
> after Easter, May 19 this year - so there wouldn’t really be snow, it’s
> actually described as having been a fun time particularly in olden times up
> through 19th century England and mingling with the pagan holiday Beltane.
>
> Wikipedia “…fetes, fairs, pageants and parades…Whitsun ales and Morris
> dancing”
>
>
>
> most likely the “man of untutored idealism”, getting the wrong impression
> of Whitsuntide, is also, as in the next sentence “the unread,
> unsophisticated Protestant of the Middle American States”
>
> So Melville is speculating that at the mention of “Whitsuntide” they think
> “mysterious & tedious Catholic doings” as well as imputing “snow” from the
> “Whit” (ie White) part of the word.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 10, 2023 at 4:06 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> From Chapter 42:
>>
>> Why to the man of untutored ideality, who happens to be but loosely
>> acquainted with the peculiar character of the day, does the bare mention
>> of
>> Whitsuntide marshal in the fancy such long, dreary, speechless processions
>> of slow-pacing pilgrims, down-cast and hooded with new-fallen snow?
>>
>> What does "the peculiar character of the day" refer to here?
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>