Not P but Moby-Dick (10)

[Mark Kohut]

Mike,

I have also read this as Melville's statement that writing (about America
and all Moby Dick is) is also
never completed. Never over really. Rewriting is always. [just read a good
essay by Gordon Wood on
the ongoing changes of American historiography].

An American pragmatism about reality in brief.

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 5:33 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> You are correct, Mike. It is a sort of prayer, if you will: God, please
> never let me complete anything [so that others may continue the work]. It
> is an aspiration to be part of something greater than oneself.
>
> On Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 1:51 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > The following excerpt is from Chapter 32:
> >
> > For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand
> ones,
> > true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me from ever
> > completing anything. This whole book is but a draught—nay, but the
> draught
> > of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!
> >
> > The previous translations treated "God keep me from ever completing
> > anything" as a statement, i.e. "God never allows me to finish anything."
> > That doesn't seem right, does it?
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>