Not P but Moby-Dick (100)

Mark Kohut mark.kohut at gmail.com
Thu Apr 4 16:05:51 UTC 2024


tarred fiber. Oakum is a type of rope made of tarred fibre. It is normally
used to fill gaps. The main traditional use of oakum was in shipbuilding.
It was used for caulking, It was used to fill areas between timbers in
wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships.

I think it means that the wooden mallet is like a cork as it pounds down
the oakum caulking.      As the mallet pounds it is like playing a
harmonica.

On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 10:52 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From Chapter 127:
>
> He’s always under the Line—fiery hot, I tell ye! He’s looking this
> way—come, oakum; quick. Here we go again. This wooden mallet is the cork,
> and I’m the professor of musical glasses—tap, tap!”
>
> Is the "cork" here a stopper for a bottle, or is it something else? What
> does it have to do with musical glasses (glass harmonica)?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>


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