A Whale of a Book

Rereading Moby Dick for the first time in years. I had forgotten both the bizarreness (contrary to its reputation as highschool death-by-boredom, Doby Mick is hee-lair-ee-us), as well as the beauty in certain passages. Ahab's soliloquy to the whale's head in Chapter 70 is a particularly fine example of this mixture of madness and beauty, i.e. "where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home," and "O head! thou has seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!" Diva.

The cook Fleece's sermon to his "congregation," a swarm of sharks which he addresses as "belubed fellow-critters, concludes with the benediction "Cussed fellow-critters! Kick up de damndest row as ever you can; fill your dam' bellies 'till dey bust -- and den die."

Chapter 55 features a rant on "Monstrous Pictures of Whales," lamenting the woefully inaccurate representations of whales in art. Depicted Science compiled most of Melville's references here.

Also mentions the memoirs of Grigory Heinrich von Langsdorff (1774-1852), a naturalist who participated in the Russian circumnavigation expedition of Adam Johann Ritter von Krusenstern (Ива́н Фёдорович Крузенште́рн). Von Krusenstern wrote a detailed Reise um die Welt... (Erster Theil, Zweiter, Dritter), while von Langsdorff wrote his own Voyages and travels in various parts of the world... (here).

Orgie der Vernichtung

Reading the 1922 edition of Ernst Jünger's In Stahlgewittern. I think it's quite good; compares favorably to Der Weg zurück (Remarque), although they're about very different aspects of the war (Im Westen nicht Neues would probably be a better comparison, but I haven't read it.) Jünger's definitely a man's man, and not as much of a pout as Remarque &co. Speaking of certain comrades, he says "Hier war ein Element lebendig, das die Wüstheit des Krieges unterstrich und doch vergeistigte, das man bei den Leuten, mit denen man zusammen in den Trichtern lag, so selten fand, di sportsmäßige Freude an der Gefahr, der ritterliche Drang zum Bestehen eines Kampfes." Not really anything more than what an Allied soldier might say, but "der ritterliche Drang zum Bestehen eines Kampfes" has a more ominous ring to it in light of future events. Also fond of the (telling?) phrase "Orgie der Vernichtung," and likes to refer to modern war as Maschinerie quite a bit too.

Poetry's Swansong: T.S. Eliot reciting the Four Quartets

Thanks youtube!

Music, Life, the Universe and Everything

Having just finished George Steiner's Real Presences, and then having stumbled across R. Browning's Abt Vogler (via a YouTube comment quoting the same, no less), I am reminded of my longtime vow to actually write down some sort of tract-cum-testimony at some pt. G. Steiner's 237-page essay essentially argues that the "otherness" or "deja-entendu" of art (something like Joyce's epiphany) is an indication of the divine, &co., & co. Steiner often refers to music in this argument, since its extra-lingual emotionality suggests (acc. to Steiner) the extra-logical nature of emotionality. Then, we have Browning's Abt Vogler, which takes the form of an organist's monologue and, in addition to producing a spectacular approximation to music, manages to combine man's existential longing/a hope for a new creation with the tonic key. I need to read more Browning.

This comes on top of another recent kertwang moment, when I discovered the label of "fideistic skepticism" in reference to Montaigne, Rabelais and Cervantes (and, I argued in a paper for class a few days later, Shakespeare). Essentially: recognizing the limits of reason, one recognizes the need for faith (a common line among Christians I have heard). Thus it is a positive, optimistic skepticism and not wholly negative or deconstructive. I found a paper using the term in reference to Tristram Shandy/Laurence Sterne, oddly (but fittingly) enough -- it argued that Shandyism =  creative or regenerative chaos (again, a positive, rather than a nullifying aspect).

I now have backers. And material to rip off of.

le propre de l'homme

Picked up a copy of Rabelais' to read in the near future, noticed the introductory verses 'aux lecteurs' which conclude:

...
Mieulx est de ris que de larmes* escripre, [=tears]
Pour ce que rire est le propre de l'homme.

Roughly, " 'tis better to write of laughter than of tears / since laughter is the peculiar quality of man."

This should be the rallying cry/motto of all comedians.

Picked up Rabelais since it was apparently (Wikipedia-level apparent) one of Sterne's favorite works (I'm reading Tristram Shandy at the moment. Just finished Slawkenbergius's Tale.)

Estote ergo prudentes sicut serpentes, et simplices sicut columbæ

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections