Not P but Moby-Dick (88)

[Mark Kohut]

It is the length of the arms....which are, in general, up to half the
height of a man....

On Sat, Mar 16, 2024 at 12:03 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From Chapter 108:
>
> Hold;  while Prometheus is about it, I’ll order a complete man after a
> desirable pattern.  Imprimis, fifty feet high in his socks;  then, chest
> modelled after the Thames Tunnel;  then, legs with roots to ’em, to stay in
> one place; then, arms three feet through the wrist;  no heart at all, brass
> forehead, and about a quarter of an acre of fine brains;  and let me
> see—shall I order eyes to see outwards?  No, but put a sky-light on top of
> his head to illuminate inwards.  There, take the order, and away.
>
> What does "arms three feet through the wrist" mean here? Is "there feet"
> the width of the wrist? Most of the previous translations interpreted it as
> the length of the arms, which doesn't seem right.
> --
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>