Not P but Moby-Dick (16)

[Mark Kohut]

I side with Ian...."iron rails" are obviously the railroad which
carried our goods...his soul was like them.

The prevailing meaning of Manifest Destiny only five years before Melville
started writing Moby Dick:

"Six years later, in 1845, O'Sullivan wrote another essay titled
*Annexation* in the *Democratic Review*,[21]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#cite_note-Annex-21> in
which he first used the phrase *manifest destiny*.[22]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#cite_note-22> In this
article he urged the U.S. to annex
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_annexation> the Republic of Texas
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Texas>,[23]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#cite_note-23> not only
because Texas desired this, but because it was "our manifest destiny to
overspread the continent allotted by Providence
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_providence> for the free development
of our yearly multiplying millions".[24]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#cite_note-24> Overcoming
Whig opposition, Democrats annexed Texas
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_annexation> in 1845. O'Sullivan's
first usage of the phrase "manifest destiny" attracted little attention.[25]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#cite_note-25>

O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. On
December 27, 1845, in his newspaper the *New York Morning News*, O'Sullivan
addressed the ongoing boundary dispute
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_boundary_dispute> with Britain.
O'Sullivan argued that the United States had the right to claim "the whole
of Oregon":

And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to
possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the
development of the great experiment of liberty and federated
self-government entrusted to us.[26]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#cite_note-McCrisken-26>

That is, O'Sullivan believed that Providence had given the United States a
mission to spread republican democracy
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_republic> ("the great experiment
of liberty"). Because the British government
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_government> would not spread
democracy, thought O'Sullivan, British claims to the territory should be
overruled. O'Sullivan believed that manifest destiny was a moral ideal (a
"higher law") that superseded other considerations.[27]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#cite_note-27>

O'Sullivan's original conception of manifest destiny was not a call for
territorial expansion by force. He believed that the expansion of the
United States would happen without the direction of the U.S. government or
the involvement of the military."

On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 5:40 AM Hübschräuber via Pynchon-l <
pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
> "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.
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Am 29.09.2023 um 06:55 schrieb Ian Livingston:
> >
> > > 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
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>