Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Moby Dick Quotes, Part I
"Here was a man... thrown among pepole as strange to him as though he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship;always equal to himself." (On Queequeg, pg. 56)
I like the statement "always equal to himself". How does it feel to be unequal to yourself? I think I've felt that before, an uncomfortable, shaky feeling...
"... no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part." (60)
I remember when I was a teenager, I always spent an hour and a half falling asleep at night, spending time with myself and dwelling on things. Sometimes we do find ourselves better in the darkness.
"Oh sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt" (on clam chowder, pg 74)
nom nom nom...
"A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that." (on Pequod, pg. 78)
True, I always feel a little noble when I'm sad.
"I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious obligations, never mind how comical, and could not find it in my heart to undervalue even a congregation of ants worshiping a toad-stool; or those other creatures in certain parts of the earth, who with a degree of footmanism quite unprecedented in other planets, bow down before the torso of a deceased land proprietor merely on account of the inordinate possessions yet owned and rented in his name." (90)
Ha! This reminds me a bit of Douglas Adams (or does Douglas Adams remind me a bit of Melville?). Brilliant, though one gets the feeling that he's a little less tolerant than he'd have you believe... but then again it might just be the climate of the times.
"But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to think of nothing."
Ugh. Much better to face the facts Ishmael, Ahab's a loon.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick, or The Whale.New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
Thanks Dr. Richard.
I like the statement "always equal to himself". How does it feel to be unequal to yourself? I think I've felt that before, an uncomfortable, shaky feeling...
"... no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part." (60)
I remember when I was a teenager, I always spent an hour and a half falling asleep at night, spending time with myself and dwelling on things. Sometimes we do find ourselves better in the darkness.
"Oh sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt" (on clam chowder, pg 74)
nom nom nom...
"A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that." (on Pequod, pg. 78)
True, I always feel a little noble when I'm sad.
"I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious obligations, never mind how comical, and could not find it in my heart to undervalue even a congregation of ants worshiping a toad-stool; or those other creatures in certain parts of the earth, who with a degree of footmanism quite unprecedented in other planets, bow down before the torso of a deceased land proprietor merely on account of the inordinate possessions yet owned and rented in his name." (90)
Ha! This reminds me a bit of Douglas Adams (or does Douglas Adams remind me a bit of Melville?). Brilliant, though one gets the feeling that he's a little less tolerant than he'd have you believe... but then again it might just be the climate of the times.
"But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to think of nothing."
Ugh. Much better to face the facts Ishmael, Ahab's a loon.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick, or The Whale.New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
Thanks Dr. Richard.
On the Awesomeness of Puns
Puns are great. People don't realize just how amusing a pun can be... puns are a form of wordplay that can involve references to different ideas and thoughts that others don't know about. For me at least it's like a huge network of inside jokes. Sometimes puns are obvious on the outside... take the Merit Badger in the post below. Outwardly we can all have a giggle over the goofyness of having a badger instead of a badge, but since badgers are of cultural significance to me in a way most people don't know of, the Merit Badger takes on a deeper meaning. If to me badgers are loyal, faithful, compassionate, trustworthy creatures (through over a decade of reading children's and adolescent novels about these critters... "Redwall" and "Animals of Farthing Wood" anyone?), the merit badger gains deeper metaphorical meaning. And add on top of this different meanings of the word "badger". Who do we badger? On what topics do we badger them? Perhaps badgering is, in a way, a trait of someone who is loyal and compassionate (at least, I hope so, I do a lot of badgering). Which leads to the next idea: puns don't have to be funny. In fact, puns are more meaningful if they're not funny. In fact, puns can evolve, through that network of inside jokes and metaphors, into something that is deep and layered in nuances.
When I pun, I do not always joke. The joke is just a side benefit of the pun. :)
Therefore, puns are awesome.
When I pun, I do not always joke. The joke is just a side benefit of the pun. :)
Therefore, puns are awesome.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Books and other texts
For me, books are very sacred, special things. I love cracking their spines, dog-earing their pages, highlighting favorite passages, and generally making a mess of them. If a book is especially special, pages will fall out upon picking it off the shelf.
The best sorts of books are those that make you think of things in a new way. I had an excellent professor as an undergrad, who taught both Milton and Science Fiction, and who would go off on a passionate rant whenever he came to a passage like this. "Argh!" he would say (paraphrased) "I'm nothing man! These guys were thinking of things no one had ever thought of before! Isn't that incredible?" So from that point on, I have loved books which have described things in a new way. Traditional literature is full of this, but in this day and age I believe that science fiction is becoming especially poignant in this sense.
One thing I hated doing in grade school was writing book summaries. Why the heck would you write a summary of a book you could just pick up and read? When I got older, I realized that summaries were just the start of writing ABOUT books. In college, I came to the realization that the reason to teach and read literature is to learn things about yourself. For me, life is a constant search for and reworking of my identity. When I was a kid (I was perhaps the most awkward individual ever) my mom told me that one day I'd burst forth from my cocoon (I'm assuming this cocoon was somewhere between my heart and lungs) like a butterfly. But no, I can see now that that is a cliche. Identities are not absolute. Ever moment of every day reforms my identity. I changed myself to be this here, and now I'm changing myself to be someone completely different. What changes me of course includes life experiences, but in my case also involves a lot of books. I think about what I read ad nauseum, and if I decide something is important enough, construct walls and pathes of my identity around and through it.
This blog is about important concepts I find within (mainly books) but also movies, games, TV shows, and so on. It is also about the construction of my identity.
The best sorts of books are those that make you think of things in a new way. I had an excellent professor as an undergrad, who taught both Milton and Science Fiction, and who would go off on a passionate rant whenever he came to a passage like this. "Argh!" he would say (paraphrased) "I'm nothing man! These guys were thinking of things no one had ever thought of before! Isn't that incredible?" So from that point on, I have loved books which have described things in a new way. Traditional literature is full of this, but in this day and age I believe that science fiction is becoming especially poignant in this sense.
One thing I hated doing in grade school was writing book summaries. Why the heck would you write a summary of a book you could just pick up and read? When I got older, I realized that summaries were just the start of writing ABOUT books. In college, I came to the realization that the reason to teach and read literature is to learn things about yourself. For me, life is a constant search for and reworking of my identity. When I was a kid (I was perhaps the most awkward individual ever) my mom told me that one day I'd burst forth from my cocoon (I'm assuming this cocoon was somewhere between my heart and lungs) like a butterfly. But no, I can see now that that is a cliche. Identities are not absolute. Ever moment of every day reforms my identity. I changed myself to be this here, and now I'm changing myself to be someone completely different. What changes me of course includes life experiences, but in my case also involves a lot of books. I think about what I read ad nauseum, and if I decide something is important enough, construct walls and pathes of my identity around and through it.
This blog is about important concepts I find within (mainly books) but also movies, games, TV shows, and so on. It is also about the construction of my identity.
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