Not P but Moby-Dick (85)

[Mike Jing]

That was great. Thanks, Michael.


On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 1:01 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

>  I think you’re right - it’s the whale, not the terror
>
> The alternative would be that the terror existed before & will outlast the
> “humane ages” which doesn’t really make sense since it’s the humans who
> feel the terror.
>
>
> This is one of those passages where I wonder if Melville isn’t being a
> little tongue-in-cheek -
>
> If the mere sight of the skeleton arouses terror in him, then how do people
> steel themselves into hunting them?
>
> A little higher up I’m sure you noticed Melville having a little joke:
>
> when Leviathan is the text, the case is altered. Fain am I to stagger to
> this emprise under the weightiest words of the dictionary. And here be it
> said, that whenever it has been convenient to consult one in the course of
> these dissertations, I have invariably used a huge quarto edition of
> Johnson, expressly purchased for that purpose; because that famous
> lexicographer's uncommon personal bulkmore fitted him to compile a lexicon
> to be used by a whale author like me.
>
>
>
>
> - there’s a sprightliness about a lot of his mock-scholastic descriptions.
>
> My guess is that, among his many feelings of awe, fascination, businesslike
> hunting details, and even some Aristotelian “pity and terror”, he does feel
> a horror or at least a tingle when contemplating whales (etymologically,
> “horror” is related to “hair standing on end”) and includes that feeling as
> he’s grappling with & conveying mixed emotions.
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 11, 2024 at 5:55 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > From Chapter 104:
> >
> > I am horror-struck at this antemosaic, unsourced existence of the
> > unspeakable terrors of the whale, which, having been before all time,
> must
> > needs exist after all humane ages are over.
> >
> > Here, "the unspeakable terrors of the whale" refers to the whale itself,
> as
> > a symbol of terror, is that correct? So "which" actually refers to the
> > whale.
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
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>