Not P but Moby-Dick (11)

[David Morris]

“If beggars had horses…”

Imagining reality as it MIGHT BE?
As it REALLY IS?

On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 9:09 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I agree with Mark, and add that Melville's hyperbole here is ironic. That
> is: any subjective sense of 'royalty' is to be taken lightly, as 'mundane
> grandeur'.
>
> On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 2:57 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > First, what does "To have been Belshazzar, King of Babylon" indicate? Is
> it
> > a wish, or something else entirely?
> >
> > Mike, I think this can be best seen as the subjunctive case as you
> > translate.....
> >
> > And, I think Yes those two lines beginning with "that man's"....are in
> > parallel....
> > Two aspects of presiding over one's own private table of invited
> guests....
> >
> > Melville equalizing everyman vs a King........
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 3:15 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > The following excerpt is from Chapter 34:
> > >
> > > Wherefore this difference? A problem? Perhaps not. To have been
> > Belshazzar,
> > > King of Babylon; and to have been Belshazzar, not haughtily but
> > > courteously, therein certainly must have been some touch of mundane
> > > grandeur. But he who in the rightly regal and intelligent spirit
> presides
> > > over his own private dinner-table of invited guests, that man’s
> > > unchallenged power and dominion of individual influence for the time;
> > that
> > > man’s royalty of state transcends Belshazzar’s, for Belshazzar was not
> > the
> > > greatest.
> > >
> > > First, what does "To have been Belshazzar, King of Babylon" indicate?
> Is
> > it
> > > a wish, or something else entirely?
> > >
> > > Second, in the last sentence, are "that man’s unchallenged power and
> > > dominion of individual influence for the time" and "that man’s royalty
> of
> > > state" in parallel? Melville’s liberal use of the semicolon is
> confusing
> > > sometimes.
> > > --
> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > >
> > --
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> >
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>