Not P but Moby-Dick (25)

[Mike Jing]

OK, I was asking because the existing translations went completely off the
rails here. However, I thought the "snow" was figurative, but it seems it's
meant to be real snow.

Thanks, Michael.


On Tue, Oct 10, 2023 at 2:50 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
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>