Thursday, August 2, 2012

Not Actually Inherent in Substances



>>>Deleted bleggalgazing<<< >>>Deleted clusterfuckblarging<<< Instead, yes, I know Herman Melville was born 193 years ago yesterday.  Time to re-Confidence Man, re-Pierre, Moby Dick's xteenth rereading due 2014, every World Cup year, makes scheduling easier. From Moby Dick:

Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship's decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them; and though, while the valiant butchers over the deck-table are thus cannibally carving each other's live meat with carving-knives all gilded and tassled, the sharks, also, with the jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat; and though, were you to turn the whole affair upside-down, it would still be pretty much the same thing, that is to say, a shocking sharkish business enough for all parties; and though sharks also are the invariable outriders of slave ships crossing the Atlantic, systematically trotting alongside, to be handy in case a parcel is to be carried anywhere, or a dead slave to be decently buried; and though one or two other like instances might be set down, touching the set terms, places, and occasions, when sharks do socially congregate, and most hilariously feast; yet there is no conceivable time or occasion when you will find them in such countless numbers, and in gayer or more jovial spirits, than around a dead sperm whale, moored by night to a whale-ship at sea. If you have never seen that sight, then suspend your decision about the propriety of devil-worship, and the expediency of conciliating the devil.












Melville, Moby Dick

Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows- a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink? And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues- every stately or lovely emblazoning- the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea, and the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young girls; all these are but subtle deceits, not actually inherent in substances, but only laid on from without; so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within; and when we proceed further, and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge- pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear colored and coloring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?



7 comments:

  1. Link thanks & yeah, as far as fast food goes, there's worse, much worse, Night Terrors worse.

    We used to have one of those ZOMG TEH GAY places on campus (since replaced by incredibly overpriced bar food, way to know your demographic) and plenty of my liberal coworkers had no problem stuffing chicken sandwiches down their gullet though that was before finding out said peddler's owned by the devil.

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  2. Man you made me pissy today. First, one of these days I'm going to stand over you with a baseball bat until you learn to size pictures.

    Don't you know how much I fucking hate Moby Dick? It's a boys book for those who are so lulled by boredom that they think repetition is exciting. I knew a guy who read it once a year. I couldn't bear to sit in his presence for the length of one drink.

    Also, since I'm on a role, that crap about Chicken Man who supports murdering gays doesn't get off the hook because he's closed on Sunday. Here's a little piece on his cult from Forbes, 2007, that explains how he exploits his franchisees and workers keeping their pay low all in the name of Christianity. I'm sure that more than makes up for that Sunday thing. And he seems to have plenty to give away for great causes like preventing people from marrying, trying to 'cure' the gay, and trying to censor broadcasts that aren't Christian enough.

    Anything else you'd like me to rant on today? How I'm fed up with the narrowness of Greenwald who seems to have stopped thinking? What about Congresscritters who compare women being able to afford contraception to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor? The fact that Romney wants to cut the pay of all federal workers by 40% and start a thermonuclear war between Iran and Israel but you think they're all the same?

    Love, Sasha

    I'll try to do better tomorrow.

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  3. Here's that Forbes 2007 link since this dumb but free software won't let me edit my comment

    http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0723/080.html

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  4. I hope, Sasha, that by "try to do better tomorrow," you mean that you'll be even more completely correct.

    Sure, Beloved, eat mor chiken or don't, but if you do, you support discrimination against gays. And that's what "thousands" of people did on Chicken Hates Fags Day. Actively. But their opinion is every bit as inherently valid as mine, and it's okay if they take over from people who are measurably less fucking insane. Because it just doesn't matter, right?

    Also: Sperm! But you were fishing for that.

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  5. You guys just never do see the forest for the trees, do you?

    (also, the notion that Moby-Dick is a "boys book" is frankly offensive... I know I'm late to this thing and no one cares about late comments, but there you go)

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  6. And you guys, assuming you're talking to me and I think you are because I'm incredibly self-centered, never seem to get away from the notion that the only way to make things better is to make them much, much worse.

    Talk to the proprietor about the notion of Moby Dick being a pretty male-focused enterprise. He learned it that way too.

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  7. I think the "boys book" as offensive is about me. Although it seems to be quite a stretch to take offense unless Richard is the reincarnation of the author. Or if his view is that he feels free to take offense at views with which he disagrees.

    Seems that I might take offense at never being able to see the forest for the trees. But I just found that humorous as would almost anybody who knows me for more than 120 seconds.

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