I would rather feel your spine
than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never
yet upheld a full and noble soul. I rejoice in my spine, as in
the firm audacious staff of that flag which I fling half out to
the world. --Moby-Dick, chapter 80 - The Nut
Friend. — You are a monomaniac, by Jove! incapable
of argument, or even conversation.
" I detest argument! it is the favorite resort of fools,
to convince — themselves."
"I am only in a mood; buoyant and bitter; tameless as
the Arab coursing his native desert; free as yonder soaring
eagle! it's this wild mountain air ! Let us have a fling
at the world, — the poor dollar-dealing sinners, cooped
up in their great dens — "
Friend. — But you began by a fling at me —
"Only a love tap, Friend; my way of argument. Let
us with the desert's freedom joyously flout convention and
opinion—upstart usurpers!—let us make mocking sport
of the prosaic solemnity of ignorant prejudice;—let us
shoot popguns, at least, against the solid bulwarks where
folly and selfishness sit enthroned!"
Friend.—Then fire away—though hang me if I know
what you would be at.
"
-- Scenes and Adventures in the Army page 355.
The narrator's "fling at the world" was added in revision of the dialogue between C. and F. (for "Frank," the Captain's imaginary friend) that had been printed in the August 1852 installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border:
F. "When I have you committed, fairly pinned in contradiction,
you fly off into a maze of extravagant fancies, where I should be lost
as well if I followed."
C. "And get the best of it! Ah! my good friend, let this wild mountain air have fair play; let us with the desert's freedom joyously flout convention and opinion—upstart usurpers—let us make mocking sport of the prosaic solemnity of ignorant prejudice;—let us shoot popguns at least, against the solid bulwarks where folly and selfishness sit enthroned!"
F. "Then fire away!—though hang me if I know what you mean."
-- Scenes Beyond the Western Border, August 1852
I suppose in short fragments one can hear anything. Nevertheless, I hear the Catskill eagle in the mountains, and Ahab's fair play with the lightning in the typhoon -- what a glorious thing is the wind!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog! "Let us with the desert's freedom joyously flout convention and opinion..." reminds me of the song Out Where the Blues Begin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZj7WUZsfQc
ReplyDeleteIncredible band, thanks. "Take me where the men are plucky / where they guzzle Old Kentucky"; "Let me rage and let me riot / Eating cactus for a diet... " Hot, hot, hot!
ReplyDeleteWish I could make out all the lyrics to that great tune.
ReplyDelete