"This sunken eyed young Platonist will tow you ten wakes round the world, and never make you one pint of sperm the richer..."
This is a SECRET SOCIETY
Good evening, whenever you are.
That sentence above is yet another TOP SENTENCE from a book called MOBY DICK (or THE WHALE) which I read to you in SECRET at the top of the stairs.
In today’s reading, Melville/Ishmael discusses the meditative pleasure and fearsome discomforts of standing watch for whales while clinging for life to the top of the main mast.
It’s truly a rollicking chapter full of alarming and bracing words and sentences. “Sperm” above refers of course to the waxy and valuable non-sperm substance found in the head cavity of the Sperm Whale.
But if you want a sentence that does not require inadvertent euphemism to delight you, there’s also this one: Ishmael’s explanation for why he was so bad at keeping watch atop the mast…
“With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how could I—being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude,—how could I but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whale-ships’ standing orders, ‘Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time.’”
I’m not sure which problem distracted Melville in 1851, but I appreciate him capturing the very contemporary feeling I have, and which I bet you share, which is:
HOW CAN YOU ASK ME TO WATCH FOR WHALES OR DO ANYTHING RIGHT NOW? CAN’T YOU SEE EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE? DON’T YOU KNOW THE PROBLEM OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS REVOLVING IN ME?
Thanks Melville!
Meanwhile, if you would like some brief distraction, may I remind that I will be playing SIM CITY 2013 tomorrow, and you can watch and chat with me over on the JUDGE JOHN HODGMAN Youtube channel right HERE.
If you feel like subscribing to the channel while you’re there, that would be great.
But now my reading from M. Dick is waiting for you at the top of the stairs, and so please ascend with me if you are ready to receive the message…
