Not P but Moby-Dick (17)

[Mark Kohut]

"held to knowledge" is my new favorite phrase, i've just decided.....it
means, simplistically,
"foreknowledge"......the uses are mostly legal, earliest I can find
within a few years of Moby Dick,--1856--
in which the meaning is made clear: the person knew (or should have)
already when making certain decisions
such that the knowledge they are "held to" matters for contracts,
arrangements they enter into....one example
given is of a person who was at a vital meeting where the Minutes show
facts, knowledge was recorded as
known--or should be because they were there taking part---and therefore the
person can not claim they did
not know Whatever when they entered into a contract.....

A later in time use links it (as well) to eyewitness seeing of a fact (not
secondhand).......reverberating this morning
with the US congresswoman AOC who led her questioning with the law that in
an impeachment trial actual firsthand
witnessing of supposed impeachment acts is what is demanded of 'witnesses"
and getting all three testifiers, including the
lead attorney,, to go on record saying they have no such evidence......they
only have further "inquiries"....

On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 4:50 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

>  From Chapter 38:
>
> The long howl thrills me through! Peace! ye revellers, and set the watch!
> Oh, life! ’tis in an hour like this, with soul beat down and held to
> knowledge,—as wild, untutored things are forced to feed—Oh, life! ’tis now
> that I do feel the latent horror in thee!
>
> What does "held to knowledge" mean here?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>