Moby Bill and Captain Barack

There is something wrong about the man who wants to help. There is somewhere a deep defect, a want, a brief, a need, a crying need, some where about the man-
Herman Melville

Posted by james wilson at January 26, 2010 9:35 PM

Man, you're just burning lately.

And the bow to Melville is gracious of you, but if there's any justice people will be using your stuff in 150 years to flense the latest blowhard. Rave on.

Posted by Rob De Witt at January 26, 2010 10:39 PM

"WE WILL TRY 'EM IN NEW YORK, I TELL YA-NO MATTER WHAT YOU PIONS SAY. HA, HA, HA, HA, HE, HE, HE"-Eric Holder

"Th-th-the-th-the-th-that's all, folks."-Bugs Bunny

Posted by JD at January 27, 2010 5:10 AM

Bravo, Mr G. Let this post debut a literary series.
Next up, The N-word of the Narcissus"

"...like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries
to climb out into the air as inexperienced people
endeavor to do, he drowns." --Joseph Conrad

Posted by Robert at January 27, 2010 7:46 AM

"What I've dared, I've willed; and what I've willed, I'll do! They think me mad - Starbuck does; but I'm demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that's only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and - Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer. Now, then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That's more than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blinded Bendigoes! I will not say as school-boys do to bullies, - Take some one of your own size; don't pommel me! No, ye've knocked me down, and I am up again; but ye have run and hidden. Come forth from behind your cotton bags! I have no long gun to reach ye. Come, Ahab's compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!"

Posted by Russell at January 27, 2010 10:58 AM

Ah, Moby Dick. It was several years before I realized there was no apostrophe 's' after 'Moby.'

Kinda changed the perspective and meaning of the book for me (hey, I was a kid). The most intriguing character to me was Quequeg, the chief harpoonist, who got the job not because his tool was bigger, but because he knew how to use it better than the others did theirs. Sunnabitch had tatoos all over his body -- I think even on his Pequod.

Posted by Don Rodrigo at January 28, 2010 10:24 AM