Not P but Moby-Dick (15)

[Ian Livingston]

Great madness is most aggravated when confronted with rationality, and
finds calm in its own company, i.e., when alone.

On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 1:01 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
> >>
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>