Not P but Moby-Dick (79)

[Michael Bailey]

The position of the Sun at the autumn equinox on the coin differs from the
Sun’s position as Stubbs finds in his almanac

(Of course it does - being stationary, the coin’s only exactly right once a
year)

But - mimicking Ahab’s idee fixe and pretending to take the coin as correct
- Stubbs mockingly says the book is wrong (lies)

I couldn’t really get a mental picture of where the almanac says the sun
is, but even if it’s literally the equinox that day, the graphic
presentation in the almanac differs from that on the coin -

“Here's the book. Let's see now. Signs and wonders; and the sun, he's
always among 'em. Hem, hem, hem; here they are—here they go—all
alive:—Aries, or the Ram; Taurus, or the Bull and Jimimi! here's Gemini
himself, or the Twins. Well; the sun he wheels among 'em. Aye, here on the
coin he's just crossing the threshold between two of twelve sitting-rooms
all in a ring. Book! you lie….”

- evidence cited tongue in cheek, of course




On Mon, Mar 4, 2024 at 2:04 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From Chapter 99:
>
> Here’s the book. Let’s see now. Signs and wonders; and the sun, he’s always
> among ’em. Hem, hem, hem; here they are—here they go—all alive:—Aries, or
> the Ram; Taurus, or the Bull;—and Jimini! here’s Gemini himself, or the
> Twins. Well; the sun he wheels among ’em. Aye, here on the coin he’s just
> crossing the threshold between two of twelve sitting-rooms all in a ring.
> Book! you lie there; the fact is, you books must know your places. You’ll
> do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the
> thoughts. That’s my small experience, so far as the Massachusetts calendar,
> and Bowditch’s navigator, and Daboll’s arithmetic go.
>
> In "Book! you lie there", "lie" is used in the sense "to tell a lie or
> lies", is that correct?
>
> If so, where is the lie exactly?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>