[continued from previous message]   
      
   there's nothing really new to comment on.   
      
   I can say that adding old books to my reading queue--and putting   
   them at the front of the queue--is not making it easier to write   
   the column.  But there is enjoyment in re-reading books.  Recently   
   a reviewer and editor was talking about books that they had liked   
   a lot and would recommend.  I asked them which of their favorite   
   books they re-read the most, and they said that what with their   
   reviewing duties and editing duties they really had no time to   
   re-read books.  That to me would be a real problem.   
      
   And I also relisten to audio books, but I've already said enough   
   about THE DAUGHTER OF TIME and THE MARTIAN and more than enough   
   about MOBY DICK.  Then again, can one ever say too much about   
   MOBY-DICK?  So I will fall back on a bit of a cheat and give you   
   my comments on Chapter 2 of MOBY DICK, since I have never included   
   those in the MT VOID.  (The comments on Chapter 1 can be found in   
   the 08/09/24 issue.)   
      
   CHAPTER 2: The Carpet-Bag   
      
   To say that Nantucket is "Tyre of this Carthage" to New Bedford is   
   to mean that Nantucketers were the founders of New Bedford (or at   
   least the progenitors in some sense).  Carthage (in present-day   
   Tunisia) was founded three thousand years ago by Phoenician   
   colonists from Tyre (in present-day Lebanon).   
      
   "The first thing I did was to stumble over an ash-box in the   
   porch.  Ha! thought I, ha, as the flying particles almost choked   
   me, are these ashes from that destroyed city, Gomorrah?"  The   
   ash-box was there to provide ashes to spread on icy steps, paths,   
   etc., during the winter.  The dark color helped absorb sunlight   
   (and heat) and melted the ice faster, plus the ash provided a   
   grittier surface.  In Melville's time, ash (from fireplaces,   
   cooking fires, etc.) was plentiful and free, while salt cost   
   money, and also did not provide a non-slip surface.   
      
   Gomorrah was destroyed along with Sodom for its wickedness: "Then   
   the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire   
   from the Lord out of heaven;  ...  And [Abraham] looked toward   
   Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and   
   beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of   
   a furnace. [Genesis 19:24,28]  It is interesting to note that in   
   the Bible, Sodom is occasionally mentioned on its own, but   
   Gomorrah is only mentioned in conjunction with Sodom.  So   
   Melville's choice of Gomorrah rather than Sodom here is intriguing.   
      
   Then Ishmael enters what he thinks may be an inn, and reports, "It   
   seemed the great Black Parliament sitting in Tophet.  A hundred   
   black faces turned round in their rows to peer; and beyond, a   
   black Angel of Doom was beating a book in a pulpit. It was a negro   
   church; and the preacher's text was about the blackness of   
   darkness, and the weeping and wailing and teeth-gnashing there.   
   Ha, Ishmael, muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at   
   the sign of 'The Trap!'"  Tophet was a shrine to Moloch in ancient   
   times: "And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in   
   the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their   
   daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it   
   into my heart." [Jeremiah 7:31].  It is also another name for   
   Hell.  There was no "Black Parliament" in either, but there were   
   several English and Scottish Parliaments given that name.   
   Ishmael's use of the words "blackness of darkness" emphasizes how   
   ironic it is for a black preacher to preach using those terms for   
   the representation of evil.  And Melville did not invent them; the   
   preacher's text was Jude 1:13: "Raging waves of the sea, foaming   
   out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the   
   blackness of darkness for ever."  With its "raging waves of the   
   sea," how appropriate a text for a sea-faring town such as New   
   Bedford!  And is it a prefiguration in miniature of Father   
   Mapple's sermon?   
      
   "Pea coffee" is just what it sounds like--a coffee substitute made   
   from roasted English (green) peas.   
      
   "It stood on a sharp bleak corner, where that tempestuous wind   
   Euroclydon kept up a worse howling than ever it did about poor   
   Paul's tossed craft."  This is a reference to the northeast wind   
   mentioned in Acts 27:14-18: "But not long after there arose   
   against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.  And when the   
   ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her   
   drive.  And running under a certain island which is called Clauda,   
   we had much work to come by the boat: Which when they had taken   
   up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they   
   should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.   
   And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they   
   lightened the ship; ..."  And of course, to New Englanders, the   
   nor'easter is the most feared storm.   
      
   There follows a long analogy to the parable of Lazarus and the   
   rich man from Luke 16:20-25.  (This is a different Lazarus than   
   the one who rose from the dead.)  When Ishmael refers to "old   
   Dives, in his red silken wrapper," that is the rich man, "Dives"   
   being a Latin appellation for wealth.   
      
   "... this is more wonderful than that an iceberg should be moored   
   to one of the Moluccas."  According to McWhorter, "wonderful" here   
   (and in many if not all the other instances) has the old meaning   
   of "curious", "peculiar", or "bizarre".   
      
   The Moluccas (now the Maluku Islands) are an archipelago in the   
   eastern part of what is now Indonesia.   
      
   Is the painting in the Spouter Inn a well-known painting, or just   
   a generic whaling painting?   
      
   [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
                         Mark Leeper   
                         mleeper@optonline.net   
      
      
              As democracy is perfected, the [presidency] represents,   
              more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.   
              We move toward a lofty ideal.  On some great and   
              glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach   
              their heart's desire at last, and the White House will   
              be adorned by a downright moron.   
                                              --H.L. Mencken [1920]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)