Click to Subscribe
‘Kicked by a Great Man’
Under a Troubled Master-Eye #5: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Chapter 31
© 2019 James LaFond
AUG/18/19
“Such a queer dream, King-Post, I never had. You know the old man’s ivory leg, well I dreamed he kicked me with it; and when I tried to kick back, upon my soul, my little man, I kicked my right leg off!”
On Stubb, rants about his dream to his junior among the ship Pequod’s three mates, finishing with, “What a phiz!” referencing the science of physiognomy, indicating that the merman in the dream had a frightening face.
Flask, the least of his three-man caste in this rocking kingdom of the sea, advises Stubb, well, being long practiced in forging his identity positively around the negative anvil of industry:
“He used his ivory leg, didn’t he? Yes, he did,” says I. “Well, then, “wise Stubb, what have you to complain of? …It wasn’t a common pitch-pine leg…you were kicked by a great man, and with a beautiful ivory leg…In old England the greatest lords think it a great glory to be slapped by a queen, and made a garter-knight of; but be your boast, Stubb that ye were kicked by old Ahab, and made a wise man of.”
Stressing wisdom gained through bad times and bad signs, Flask makes the case for sanity among the cogs of the heartless machine of HOLY ECONOMY worshipped by their masters like the one true God, marking the whaling captain, like any captain of industry, as like a king under heaven, his nation being the theocracy of gain. Finally Flask accounts dishonor at the cruel feet of a soulless system to be an honour, that a man remained human enough to be chastised by the morally dispossessed and done the signal compliment of having risen, as a living being, to the status of a momentary inconvenience for the undead process of civilization.
Finally, Flask mentions the white whale with which their master is obsessed and advises Stubb to be agreeable in its hunting.
Organa: The Malfunction of Tray Sorenson
‘Khan of the Plank’
under a troubled master-eye
‘The Constituents of a Chaos’
eBook
son of a lesser god
eBook
masculine axis
eBook
under the god of things
eBook
sons of aryas
eBook
triumph
eBook
songs of aryas
eBook
book of nightmares
eBook
cracker-boy
eBook
night city
eBook
menthol rampage
eBook
the year the world took the z-pill
eBook
hate
eBook
z-pill forever
eBook
wife—
eBook
the lesser angels of our nature
eBook
barbarism versus civilization
eBook
solo boxing
eBook
when you're food
eBook
predation
eBook
fanatic
eBook
on combat
eBook
blue eyed daughter of zeus
eBook
the greatest lie ever sold
eBook
song of the secret gardener
eBook
fiction anthology one
eBook
into leviathan’s maw
eBook
ranger?
eBook
on the overton railroad
eBook
the fighting edge
eBook
the first boxers
eBook
america the brutal
eBook
thriving in bad places
eBook
let the world fend for itself
eBook
sorcerer!
eBook
orphan nation
eBook
uncle satan
eBook
advent america
eBook
time & cosmos
eBook
the combat space
eBook
dark, distant futures
eBook
your trojan whorse
eBook
by the wine dark sea
eBook
the gods of boxing
eBook
the greatest boxer
eBook
beasts of aryas
eBook
winter of a fighting life
eBook
within leviathan’s craw
eBook
logic of steel
eBook
taboo you
eBook
all-power-fighting
eBook
fate
eBook
logic of force
eBook
honor among men
eBook
broken dance
eBook
the sunset saga complete
  Add a new comment below:
Name
Email
Message