Not P but Moby-Dick (100)

[Mike Jing]

The only problem is that you don't pound a glass harmonica, and there's no
cork involved in it, as far as I can determine. The other possibility is
that he was tuning the glass harmonica, but I don't know how that works
either.



On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 12:06 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>
>