Xavier’s Reviews > Moby-Dick or, The Whale > Status Update
Xavier
is on page 2 of 720
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.
— May 13, 2019 10:42AM
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.
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Xavier’s Previous Updates
Xavier
is on page 198 of 720
So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.
— Sep 15, 2021 05:10PM
Xavier
is on page 99 of 720
"They didn't tell much of anything about him; only I've heard that he's a good whale-hunter, and a good captain to his crew."
"That's true, that's true ---yes, both true enough. But you must jump when he gives the order. ..."
— Jul 26, 2021 01:32PM
"That's true, that's true ---yes, both true enough. But you must jump when he gives the order. ..."
Xavier
is on page 24 of 720
Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself.
— Apr 20, 2020 08:26AM
Xavier
is on page 24 of 720
- though I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.
— Apr 20, 2020 08:26AM
Xavier
is on page 24 of 720
The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves [Melville references Adam and Eve here; for whom we must pay] entailed upon us. But being paid,—what will compare with it?
— Apr 20, 2020 08:22AM
Xavier
is on page 24 of 720
Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, passengers themselves must pay. And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid.
— Apr 20, 2020 08:19AM
Xavier
is on page 24 of 720
What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain’t a slave? Tell me that.
— Apr 20, 2020 08:18AM
Xavier
is on page 24 of 720
And more than all, if just previous to putting your hand into the tar-pot, you have been lording it as a country schoolmaster, making the tallest boys stand in awe of you. The transition is a keen one, I assure you, from a schoolmaster to a sailor, and requires a strong decoction of Seneca and the Stoics to enable you to grin and bear it. But even this wears off in time.
— Apr 20, 2020 08:18AM
Xavier
is on page 24 of 720
No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right before the mast, plumb down into the forecastle, aloft there to the royal mast-head.
— Apr 20, 2020 08:17AM
Xavier
is on page 23 of 720
And as for going as cook,—though I confess there is considerable glory in that, a cook being a sort of officer on ship-board—yet, somehow, I never fancied broiling fowls;—though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will speak more respectfully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled fowl than I will.
— Apr 20, 2020 08:15AM
