WG: Re: Not P but Moby-Dick (16)

[Hübschräuber]

"Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails,
whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the
rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush!
Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!”
 
The man surely is focused...
 
I agree that there is a larger general historical/philosophical meaning
here. I would not narrow it down to "economic forces of history". I
believe it is more about ideology (belief in a purpose of history,
restoring Eden, more generally a teleological view of the world) with
the economy only being one aspect. The "iron rails" in particular point
to the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Clearly, this is the opposite of
Queequeg's world view, and it is not hard to tell where Melville's
sympathies lie.

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> Am 29.09.2023 um 06:55 schrieb Ian Livingston:
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> > In order to change Ahab's course, any that come to deter him from his
> > "fixed idea" will suffer the consequence of their attempts. The economic
> > force of history determined with the advent of capitalism cannot be
> > deterred (swerved off its course) without destroying whole populations.
> > Melville at his most prophetic.
> > 
> > On Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 8:52 PM Mike Jing gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > Also from Chapter 37:
> > > 
> > > No, ye’ve knocked me down, and I am up again; but ye have run and hidden.
> > > Come forth from behind your cotton bags! I have no long gun to reach ye.
> > > Come, Ahab’s compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve
> > > me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there.
> > > 
> > > What does "ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves" mean? And what
> > > is "man has ye there"?
> > > --
> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > 
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l