Not P but Moby-Dick (7)

[Ian Livingston]

Indeed. We agree on that, on the surface.

On Sat, Sep 2, 2023 at 5:43 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks, Ian.
>
> The pun is definitely intended. On the surface though, it seems to me that
> the word "grave" is meant to contrast with "cheerily".
>
> On Fri, Sep 1, 2023 at 9:05 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Again I see a pun. The paragraph prior to the passage you cite here
>> dwells on Stubb’s apparent ease, reconciliation, if you will, with laboring
>> in close proximity to death. To set that image against the clerks peddling
>> fascination with and distraction from the fear of death common among
>> citizens such as themselves wasting time yearning after and resenting their
>> lives rather than living, like Stubb, in the fervor of the moment, Melville
>> gives grinning Stubb a truly fire breathing character.
>>
>> Thus the (morose) “grave peddlers” offer for sale the gravity of want and
>> fear of life and death, and Stubb grins over his pipe at them.
>>
>> All very existentialist, really. Again I find myself wondering if there’s
>> a trail to be found between Kierkegaard and Melville.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> > On Sep 1, 2023, at 4:09 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > The following excerpt is from Chapter 27:
>> >
>> > What, perhaps, with other things, made Stubb such an easygoing,
>> unfearing
>> > man, so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a world full of
>> > grave peddlers, all bowed to the ground with their packs; what helped to
>> > bring about that almost impious good-humor of his; that thing must have
>> > been his pipe.
>> >
>> > Several of the previous translations interpreted "grave peddlers" as
>> > "peddlers of graves", which I feel is wrong.  I think the word "grave"
>> here
>> > means "serious, not mirthful or jocular," is that correct?
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>