Not P but Moby-Dick (15)

[Ian Livingston]

Great madness is solipsistic.


On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 1:54 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>>
>