Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Triple Em Dash!

June 17, 2014 CHAPTER 127 Ahab and the Carpenter “Faith, sir, I’ve———” All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

"Snap!"—A rare onomatopoeia in Moby-Dick

June 17, 2014 CHAPTER 125 The Log and Line Snap! the overstrained line sagged down in one long festoon; the tugging log was gone. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?

I love that Ahab executes a child's science trick and it causes a bunch of tough sailors to slink away. June 17, 2014 CHAPTER 124 The Needle …“Look ye, for yourselves, if Ahab be not lord of the level loadstone! The sun is East, and that compass swears it!” One after another they peered in, for nothing but their own eyes could persuade such ignorance as theirs, and one after another they slunk away. In his fiery eyes of scorn and triumph, you then saw Ahab in all his fatal pride. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Monday, June 16, 2014

double em dash!

June 16, 2014 CHAPTER 123 The Musket I stand alone here upon an open sea, with two oceans and a whole continent between me and law.—Aye, aye, ’tis so.—Is heaven a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be murderer in his bed, tindering sheets and skin together?—And would I be a murderer, then, if”——and slowly, stealthily, and half sideways looking, he placed the loaded musket’s end against the door. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Sunday, June 15, 2014

This is no time for poetry!

June 15, 2014 Oh, thou foundling fire, thou hermit immemorial, thou too hast thy incommunicable riddle, thy unparticipated grief. Here again with haughty agony, I read my sire. Leap! leap up, and lick the sky! I leap with thee; I burn with thee; would fain be welded with thee; defyingly I worship thee!” “The boat! the boat!” cried Starbuck, “look at thy boat, old man!” All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Thou art too damned jolly. Sail on.

June 14, 2014 CHAPTER 115 The Pequod meets the Bachelor “Come aboard, come aboard!” cried the gay Bachelor’s commander, lifting a glass and a bottle in the air. “Hast seen the White Whale?” gritted Ahab in reply. “No; only heard of him; but don’t believe in him at all,” said the other good-humoredly. “Come aboard!” “Thou art too damned jolly. Sail on. Hast lost any men?” All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

so much sperm

June 14, 2014 CHAPTER 115 The Pequod meets the Bachelor …indeed everything was filled with sperm, except the captain’s pantaloons pockets, and those he reserved to thrust his hands into, in self-complacent testimony of his entire satisfaction. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

The species altered itself in a matter of decades?

June 10, 2014 CHAPTER 105 Does the Whale Diminish? Because, as has been elsewhere noticed, those whales, influenced by some views to safety, now swim the seas in immense caravans, so that to a large degree the scattered solitaries, yokes, and pods, and schools of other days are now aggregated into vast but widely separated, unfrequent armies. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Sunday, June 8, 2014

to accomplish something without a precise objective, and reluctantly

June 8, 2014 DOR ( ROMANIAN ) The notion of dor is widespread in popular poetry and arises in many idiomatic expressions, such as dor de ducà ( the desire to leave without a particular destination—to go wandering ) and în dorul lelii ( to accomplish something without a precise objective, and reluctantly ). All Excerpts From Cassin, Barbara. “Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon.” Princeton University Press, 2014. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.

The asymptote! Such a metaphor…

June 8, 2014 DOR ( ROMANIAN ) …dor suggests the impossibility of attaining that object in this life. The tension is positive, but the desire remains unsatisfied and fulfillment impossible. The geometrical figure that best illustrates this tension is the asymptote. All Excerpts From Cassin, Barbara. “Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon.” Princeton University Press, 2014. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.

"A Bower in the Arsacides" puts me to sleep every time…

June 8, 2014 CHAPTER 102 A Bower in the Arsacides Hitherto, in descriptively treating of the Sperm Whale, I have chiefly dwelt upon the marvels of his outer aspect; or separately and in detail upon some few interior structural features. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Friday, June 6, 2014

"to whisper" transitive, obj=listener

June 6, 2014 CHAPTER 100 The Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby of London “Good God!” cried the English Captain, to whom the question was put. “What’s the matter? He was heading east, I think.—Is your Captain crazy?” whispering Fedallah. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug!

June 5, 2014 CHAPTER 100 The Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby of London “Hast seen the White Whale?” “See you this?” and withdrawing it from the folds that had hidden it, he held up a white arm of sperm whale bone, terminating in a wooden head like a mallet. “Man my boat!” cried Ahab, impetuously, and tossing about the oars near him—”Stand by to lower!” All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

"bye-play"—curious spelling

June 6, 2014 CHAPTER 100 The Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby of London “What became of the White Whale?” now cried Ahab, who thus far had been impatiently listening to this bye-play between the two Englishmen. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Another use of "man" in “For Whom the Bell Tolls”

June 5, 2014 Chapter 3 “You have not God any more?” “No. Man. Certainly not. If there were God, never would He have permitted what I have seen with my eyes. Let them have God.” All Excerpts From Hemingway, Ernest. “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Scribner. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

"Yes, man." — intended to sound stilted?

June 5, 2014 Chapter 3 “You like to hunt?” “Yes, man. More than anything. We all hunt in my village. You do not like to hunt?” All Excerpts From Hemingway, Ernest. “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Scribner. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

"ye" = "y'all"?

June 5, 2014 CHAPTER 99 The Doubloon “I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look.” “Upon my soul, he’s been studying Murray’s Grammar! All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Why can't we do the ball thing all the time?

June 4, 2014 CHAPTER 98 Stowing Down & Clearing Up Oh! my friends, but this is man-killing! Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from this world’s vast bulk its small but valuable sperm; and then, with weary patience, cleansed ourselves from its defilements, and learned to live here in clean tabernacles of the soul; hardly is this done, when—There she blows!—the ghost is spouted up, and away we sail to fight some other world, and go through young life’s old routine again. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

What is an "icy"?

June 3, 2014 CHAPTER 98 Stowing Down & Clearing Up This is the reason why the decks never look so white as just after what they call an affair of oil. Besides, from the ashes of the burned scraps of the whale, a potent icy is readily made; and whenever any adhesiveness from the back of the whale remains clinging to the side, that icy quickly exterminates it. Hands go diligently along the bulwarks, and with buckets of water and rags restore them to their full tidiness. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Ale was commonly presented in punch bowls?

June 3, 2014 CHAPTER 97 The Lamp See with what entire freedom the whaleman takes his handful of lamps—often but old bottles and vials, though—to the copper cooler at the try-works, and replenishes them there, as mugs of ale at a vat. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

97 chapters before we glimpse the forecastle! (unless I missed something)

June 3, 2014 CHAPTER 97 The Lamp Had you descended from the Pequod’s try-works to the Pequod’s forecastle, where the off duty watch were sleeping… All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Monday, June 2, 2014

What does it mean, to squeeze case?

A strange way to put it… June 2, 2014 CHAPTER 94 A Squeeze of the Hand Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side, the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally. All Excerpts From Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Available in iBooks Store

Sunday, June 1, 2014

The intense concentration of self in the middle of such a heartless immensity

June 1, 2014

CHAPTER 93 The Castaway

Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore. But the awful lonesomeness is intolerable. The intense concentration of self in the middle of such a heartless immensity, my God! who can tell it? Mark, how when sailors in a dead calm bathe in the open sea—mark how closely they hug their ship and only coast along her sides.

All Excerpts From

Melville, Herman. “Moby-Dick.” Harlequin, 2009. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.