Not P but Moby-Dick (9)

[David Morris]

I think the word “conflicted” is a lot closer, but still too nailed down

On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 10:52 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I think, too, that in speaking of consciousness in Ahab’s case it is right
> to imagine him obsessing over the future tense and his doom with Moby Dick.
> That’ll mess with guy’s sleep.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Sep 8, 2023, at 7:19 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 
>
> I think the LAST THING Melville wants to reader to do with this passage is
> to conclude “BAD.”  That’s not the way one should read this book.
>
> On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 9:51 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> In the archaic sense, which I think applies here, "conscience" may mean
>> simply "consciousness." Of course, Melville would push the meaning a bit
>> to
>> include those thoughts of good or ill behavior that replay themselves from
>> memory into the present moments of his restless hours in the bunk where he
>> would be sleeping if his memory didn't outplay his present surroundings
>> for
>> his attention.
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 5:22 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > The following excerpt is from Chapter 29:
>> >
>> > Didn’t that Dough-Boy, the steward, tell me that of a morning he always
>> > finds the old man’s hammock clothes all rumpled and tumbled, and the
>> sheets
>> > down at the foot, and the coverlid almost tied into knots, and the
>> pillow a
>> > sort of frightful hot, as though a baked brick had been on it? A hot old
>> > man! I guess he’s got what some folks ashore call a conscience; it’s a
>> kind
>> > of Tic-Dolly-row they say—worse nor a toothache. Well, well; I don’t
>> know
>> > what it is, but the Lord keep me from catching it.
>> >
>> > Does "conscience" here mean "guilty conscience", or is it something
>> else?
>> > --
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>> >
>> --
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>>
>