Originally Posted by bounty
It may do so though the Douay-Rheims Bible renders it,
For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.
Desire? Need? We don't know if some of those crew men were impoverished or perhaps they weren't. Whatever the case, I'm sure Ahab knew it would serve as some incentive for the men to pledge their unending support for his evil quest.
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
So I’ve got this white whale of a rat living in my barn. He chews through feed bags. Poops in the horse trough. He climbed up into the engine of my truck, chewed up a bunch of insulation, made a nest under the intake manifold, and then…started chewing through wiring bundles. I’ve been trying to get that sucker for months now — catch and release traps, snap traps, glue traps, 5 gallon bucket traps, barn cat, fast dog — no luck. I even sealed up the barn tight and ran a gasoline generator in there for a couple of hours trying to gas him out. Nope. He’s unworldly. He’s a super rat.
I guess I didn’t find Ahab to be evil. Maybe a little obsessed, a bit of an autocrat, not a real people person, but hey it’s lonely at the top. I actually kind of liked the guy. He was a highly competent sailor and he was relatively up-front about his intentions with his crew, after a few days at sea anyway. As captains/colonels/bosses go, I’ve seen worse. Getting the men behind him by nailing the doubloon to the mast was brilliant. It made it that much harder for the mates to go against him. But then it was Ahab who spotted the whale first. It seems like half the crew is up on the yard arms looking for the whale. So here’s Ahab right after he called the spout:
I cringed a little there. I couldn’t believe Ahab was going to cut everybody out. The chase for the whale ensues but by the end of the day, Moby had skunked them. So with everybody back on the Pequod, Ahab rallies the troops:“And did none of ye see it before?” cried Ahab, hailing the perched men all around him.
“I saw him almost that same instant, sir, that Captain Ahab did, and I cried out,” said Tashtego.
“Not the same instant; not the same — no, the doubloon is mine, Fate reserved the doubloon for me. I only; none of ye could have raised the White Whale first. There she blows!— there she blows!— there she blows! There again!— there again!”
Ahab was in it for vengeance not gold. Ismael wasn’t in it for gold either. He was in it for the adventure, and of course to prevent him from “deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking people’s hats off.” I was still a little disappointed, though, to see Ishmael let Peleg and Bildad take advantage of him like that. I expected more from a New Yorker.— Aloft! come down!— Mr. Stubb, send a fresh hand to the fore-mast head, and see it manned till morning.”— Then advancing towards the doubloon in the main-mast —“Men, this gold is mine, for I earned it; but I shall let it abide here till the White Whale is dead; and then, whosoever of ye first raises him, upon the day he shall be killed, this gold is that man’s; and if on that day I shall again raise him, then, ten times its sum shall be divided among all of ye! Away now! the deck is thine, sir!”
The chapter where everybody walks by the coin that’s nailed to the mast and contemplates it, is interesting and as I was reading it, I remember thinking — I’ll bet professors of interpretive literature have a field day with this chapter.
So a day or two ago I was out in the barn, mucking out a stall, when I noticed one of the road apples I was shoveling into the wheelbarrow looked a little funny — Hey, that horse turd has hair! Hey, that’s no horse turd. That’s a semi-flat rat! Woo-Hoo! Wife’s horse must’ve stomped that sucker last night. Ahab should’ve been so lucky.
Uhhhh...
^Post of the Year!
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
Wonderfully told, Sancho! But don´t let bounty read that post, as the rescue of rat Ahab isn´t possible any more.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Haha. Thanks, guys.
Also I’ve been trying to figure out how to break it to bounty that my own amateur analysis of this book is — it’s one of the greats. It’s big, it’s brash, subtle at times, hilarious at times, and maddeningly wordy at others, but it’s one for the ages. Even the chapters that, on the surface, seem bogged down with minutia have meaning and purpose. The whole thing was fascinating to me. When I got to the end I found myself wishing there was more. That said, I don’t think it’s a good High School subject, or for that matter an Eng101 college subject. Springing this book on some poor, unsuspecting teen is cruel and probably detrimental to their future interest in literature.
Uhhhh...
I can do a long distance mourning for the unfortunate rat...
I just recently relocated I think what was mouse #7 from my house.
its okay Sancho, im still confident in the good company, teenagers, college freshmen, and otherwise, who hate the gosh darn thing! smiles...
ive been wondering how zane grey's going for you andddddddd, since you mentioned an interest in moby continuing, I find myself wondering if you've ever read the bounty trilogy, of which, mutiny on the bounty is first.
bounty,
I find myself wondering if you've ever read the bounty trilogy, of which, mutiny on the bounty is first.
Read Mutiny On the Bounty many moons ago. Was utterly fascinated by the story since I was a little kid, saw the movie, with Charles Laughton, and read the book some time in the late 1960s. Don't recall when precisely for sure.
From the beginning I felt Captain Bligh was innocent and that Mr Christian was the heel. For many years it was assumed by many that Bligh was a terrible dictator who was cruel to his men. Revisionist historians teach something quite different. That while he was disciplinarian, he was not as cruel as had been projected. He was cleared of cruelty charges and later appointed as a governor somewhere in the South Pacific where he lived out his life in prosperity.
I'll see you in Hell, Mr Christian!
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
I smell varmint poontang! On the bright side, having a rat in the barn pretty much cleared the mice out of there.
I have not read Mutiny on the Bounty, but I have a copy of it around here somewhere. I was actually thinking of reading it now that I’m sort of tuned into the nautical lingo. I did read Herman Wouk’s Caine Mutiny not long ago. Most of the sea adventure/shipwreck books I’ve read are nonfiction: Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade, Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton, Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Andrea Pitzer, Mighty Fitz: Sinking of the Edmond Fitzgerald by Michael Schumacher, Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz, Farthest North by Fridjof Nansen, The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin, In the Heart of the Sea and Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick, The Outlaw Sea by William Langewiesche. I sure I’m forgetting a few.
I’ll get back to Zane Grey soon.
Uhhhh...
i recently read poppin that the laughton version of the movie did either a disservice to the facts of the story, or the book, I cant remember which.
Sancho---if you wanna stay in a sea vein, and don't go the direction of mutiny on the bounty, lemme recommend to you, the sea wolf by jack London.
ive got bunches of the master and commander books, and horatio hornblower, and those have been enjoyable, but after mutiny, londons been my favorite.
... disservice ...
I do believe the Laughton movie did that to the book. In the actual story Captain Bligh stood up at trial for some personnel that he could not fit into the small launch that the mutineers gave him. The prosecution tried to convict them but they were innocent and released thanks to his testimony. In the movie he prosecuted those innocents who did not rebel.
... Sea Wolf ...
One of my fave sea stories. London also wrote short stories about Pacific Islanders. Very good reading.
James Michener's Alaska is largely a sea story. I especially was struck by the story of Captain Micheal Healy. Billy Budd, Treasure Island, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Narrative of Arthur Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, Man Without A Country by EE Hale, etc. I'm sure there were other books I read of the sea but just cannot recall them at the moment.
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Jones
I read Ice! and portions of a couple of other books but dismissed much of this as fiction. Jones was a self promoter who wrote highly embellished stories in which he claimed to be heroic. Fish stories abound in his work but they are mildly entertaining.
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
We've discussed some sea faring movies and I believe this is the greatest of all time ~ Battleship Potemkin
In the original Russian it was "Mutiny on the Potemkin":
https://www.historytoday.com/archive...utiny-potemkin
The ending will have you on the edge of your seat. The movie is absolutely staggering.
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
Sounds interesting, but I guess I don't watch movies too much anymore. I don’t ever seem to have 2 or 3 hours to burn. Even with streaming services where I can hit pause then pick it up a month later and my TV remembers where I was, I just don’t watch many movies. I have gotten hooked on a few series though. I think movies are made to be watched in one sitting, but a good series I can watch at my own pace, an hour here, 5 minutes there, who cares? If I’m watching an episode with a hook at the end, I’ll go ahead and watch 5 minutes of the next episode then click it off. British crime dramas are like that. Also, I don’t want to spoil the show for anyone, but if you’re watching a season-long British who-done-it, it’s usually the least likely guy or the guy with the best alibi in episode 1.
Currently watching Season 3 of Slow Horses on Apple TV. Great fun.
Uhhhh...
I think lots of good seafaring type movies---haven't seen Potemkin but hard to beat the hunt for red October and crimson tide.
I actually like the slow watching of movies---i'll ride indoors for 20-45 minutes over a period of days and make the movie last.
Battleship Potemkin is one of the greatest films in the world. I´m sure you will like it if you take the time to watch it, Sancho.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
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