Question about the intro to "Moby-Dick"

[pecksniff]

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

"Hypos"? This book dates from 1851 -- didn't think intravenous-injection drugs were in use that far back. Or does the word mean something else?

 

[mark_j]

"Hypos"? This book dates from 1851 -- didn't think intravenous-injection drugs were in use that far back. Or does the word mean something else?

The meaning you need is: "Morbid depression of spirits." (Taken from the OED.)

It's the only one that fits in that context, if you read again the passage, it will be much more understandable now.

 

[Champakian]

I hate that book.

I have no idea how it ended up on the must read lists...

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

It's a derivative of hypochondria, not hypodermic.

 

[rae121452]

what!? all of this time i've thought moby dick was an std!!!

 

[stickygirl]

If you want to be especially picky, the first line of the book is
"The pale Usher—threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now." but it doesn't have the same ring.

Of course these days we'd have an entirely different take on whale killing bastards like these but to them, like a pig, the only good whale was a dead one.

Interesting side note are that Orca's are becoming a hazard off the coast of Portugal, where there have been numerous reports of attacks on yachts in the last couple of years. Boats have had their rudders bitten off, so do they have a grudge or simply playing?

 

[pecksniff]

Of course these days we'd have an entirely different take on whale killing bastards like these but to them, like a pig, the only good whale was a dead one.

In those days, the sole product of the whaling industry was lamp oil. It died out when cheaper petroleum-derived kerosene came on the market.

 

[JohnnySavage]

In those days, the sole product of the whaling industry was lamp oil. It died out when cheaper petroleum-derived kerosene came on the market.

It is impossible for someone to be wrong so consistently so I'm thinking you are a performance alt. You keep making these grand pronouncements as if they were straight from the Gods' lips; but are almost always nonsense.

https://www.nps.gov/nebe/learn/historyculture/whaleproducts.htm

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Call me Fishmeal . . . .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa7pDgF8rrY

 

[pecksniff]

It is impossible for someone to be wrong so consistently so I'm thinking you are a performance alt. You keep making these grand pronouncements as if they were straight from the Gods' lips; but are almost always nonsense.

https://www.nps.gov/nebe/learn/historyculture/whaleproducts.htm

The American whaling industry did die out when kerosene came along, and not because of Greenpeace. Apparently, meat and baleen and ambergris were not enough to sustain it profitably.

Nowadays, such few whalers as still sail are after meat -- which seems less objectionable somehow than blubber, so long as the targeted species is not endangered. It's no different than hunting deer for venison.

 

[stickygirl]

The decline of whale meat eating in Japan, where all of Norway's and Iceland catches were sent, meant that 3500 tons of whale meat were sitting in freezers unsold. The interest in whale watching in Japan generated $8 million in 2015.

I doubt the Faroe islanders managed to eat or store the 1400 dolphins they killed in one day in 2021. Cunts

I get it that Innuit populations can carry on eating whale meat.

 

[pecksniff]

Interesting side note are that Orca's are becoming a hazard off the coast of Portugal, where there have been numerous reports of attacks on yachts in the last couple of years. Boats have had their rudders bitten off, so do they have a grudge or simply playing?

Just say to them, "Sea World."

 

[pecksniff]

TI doubt the Faroe islanders managed to eat or store the 1400 dolphins they killed in one day in 2021. Cunts

In that climate, they can store them for centuries just by leaving them outdoors -- they'll still be good to eat.

 

[thør]

I get it that Innuit populations can carry on eating whale meat.

It's traditional harvest.

 

[pecksniff]

I get it that Innuit populations can carry on eating whale meat.

Considering how much meat you can get out of just one whale, how could they pass it up?

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

In those days, the sole product of the whaling industry was lamp oil. It died out when cheaper petroleum-derived kerosene came on the market.

Every part of the whale was used for a vast variety of things.

Are you just making shit up hoping it's real?

 

[stickygirl]

It's traditional harvest.

Plenty of things go under the guise of traditional - doesn't make it right. In the case I already agreed it was fair enough for them to kill whale for their own consumption.

As for our less fact-based colleague claiming dolphins can be stored for centuries. No, the Faroe Islanders fucked up badly by slaughtering 1400 in one day - there was no way they could eat that and most was dumped.

 

[AZDryHeat]

In that climate, they can store them for centuries just by leaving them outdoors -- they'll still be good to eat.

Whoever said they could use the outdoors as a freezer for dolphins knows nothing about the Faroe Islands. Average high temperature there for December is 45 degrees and the average low 39 degrees. Hardly cold enough to preserve meat.

 

[JohnnySavage]

The American whaling industry did die out when kerosene came along, and not because of Greenpeace. Apparently, meat and baleen and ambergris were not enough to sustain it profitably.

Nowadays, such few whalers as still sail are after meat -- which seems less objectionable somehow than blubber, so long as the targeted species is not endangered. It's no different than hunting deer for venison.

But you do agree, that oil wasn't the sole product.

Maybe I should not read your posts so closely. A quick glance to get the gist may save me some eye-rolling

 

[Champakian]

Baleen was used for hoop skirts.

 

[pecksniff]

And then there's the persistent literary theory that Melville, despite fathering four kids, was gay. Why would anyone think that, I wonder?

That whale of Stubb’s, so dearly purchased, was duly brought to the Pequod’s side, where all those cutting and hoisting operations previously detailed, were regularly gone through, even to the baling of the Heidelburgh Tun, or Case.

While some were occupied with this latter duty, others were employed in dragging away the larger tubs, so soon as filled with the sperm; and when the proper time arrived, this same sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the try-works, of which anon.

It had cooled and crystallized to such a degree, that when, with several others, I sat down before a large Constantine’s bath of it, I found it strangely concreted into lumps, here and there rolling about in the liquid part. It was our business to squeeze these lumps back into fluid. A sweet and unctuous duty! No wonder that in old times sperm was such a favorite cosmetic. Such a clearer! such a sweetener! such a softener; such a delicious mollifier! After having my hands in it for only a few minutes, my fingers felt like eels, and began, as it were, to serpentine and spiralize.

As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, wove almost within the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as. I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma,- literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger; while bathing in that bath, I felt divinely free from all ill-will, or petulance, or malice, of any sort whatsoever.

Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,- Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.

Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side; the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.

N.B.: The "sperm" or spermaceti in a sperm whale's head is not actually sperm, though was at that time mistaken for it. Male whales, like other mammals, only have sperm in their testicles.

 

[pecksniff]

Baleen was used for hoop skirts.

And bustles, I think. And there was something called a "whalebone corset." (Don't try it if you like to breathe.)

 

[oneblueye]

hey...

"Hypos"? This book dates from 1851 -- didn't think intravenous-injection drugs were in use that far back. Or does the word mean something else?

hypodermic injection first used in medicine around 1640's....?

 

[stickygirl]

hypodermic injection first used in medicine around 1840's....?

I fixed it

 

[hobbit.]

N.B.: The "sperm" or spermaceti in a sperm whale's head is not actually sperm, though was at that time mistaken for it. Male whales, like other mammals, only have sperm in their testicles.

so its not a dickead or bollock brain?

some mammals (male) have been found with semen in weird places....