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Call me Ishmael (Original Post)
Lasher
Oct 2012
OP
Ishmael.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)2. just don't knock off my hat.
Lasher
(27,597 posts)9. I don't get it.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)13. Ishmael has a thing about knocking peoples hats off:
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.
Always struck me as a funny image, especially doing so 'methodically.' For all the complaints about Moby Dick being dry and boring, it has some pretty funny passages in it, like the one where Ishmael describes how they make a sort of robe out of a whale's foreskin (that someone actually wears) and compares it to priestly garments.
Lasher
(27,597 posts)15. OK, that one was way over my head.
I read the book many years ago and I didn't remember that.
Thank you for the education.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)3. Ishmael, congratulations on your 161 birthday. n/t
Your grand prize is unlimited access to DU2!
sarge43
(28,941 posts)11. I want to try that Nantucket Sleigh Ride. n/t
Lasher
(27,597 posts)12. Birds... the birds... He rises!
Last edited Thu Oct 18, 2012, 03:56 PM - Edit history (1)
Edit: Your sleigh ride is ready, sir.
turtlerescue1
(1,013 posts)4. Well okay Lasher...you're Ishmael.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)5. Opening sentence of "Moby Dick".
Lasher
(27,597 posts)10. At sea one day, you'll smell land where there'll be no land,
and on that day Ahab will go to his grave, but he'll rise again within the hour. He will rise and beckon. Then all - all save one shall follow.
Mornin', lads... mornin'. May the heavens bless you.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)7. If I were you, I wouldn't get on any ship named Pequod.
Lasher
(27,597 posts)8. A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy!
All noble things are touched with that.
graywarrior
(59,440 posts)14. Awesome book!