Not P but Moby-Dick (15)

[Mike Jing]

Three previous translations rendered it as "Only someone who is completely
mad can calmly comprehend his own madness", which doesn't seem right to me.
Another interpreted it as "Such ridiculous madness is only the calmness
needed in order to comprehend itself", which makes even less sense. I'm
still not quite sure what it is saying myself.


On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 4:56 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> If madness can be doubled or squared---as in "madness maddened"---then
> stepping down
> from that, simple madness leaves enough mental space---so to speak---to
> comprehend itself.
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 9:44 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> From Chapter 37:
>>
>> What I’ve dared, I’ve willed; and what I’ve willed, I’ll do! They think me
>> mad—Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild
>> madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I
>> should be dismembered; and—Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I
>> will
>> dismember my dismemberer.
>>
>> What does "That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself" mean?
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>