I’m fascinated by the queer handkerchief with all gay flags of known nations printed on it. In Thailand, purple is used as a symbol for homosexuals rather than rainbows, so maybe the handkerchief had a purple flag, a rainbow flag– Okay, actually I was taken back by the idea that he calls the nations’ flags gay, or happy, as he undoubtedly meant it. I never see flags as happy. Kind of solemn, actually. Solemn like patriotism is solemn. Maybe the flag of Argentina is gay.
And then this idea of known nations. It’s so strange to think that today, nearly 200 years later, all nations are known. Or are they?
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I’m excited that there are maps at the start of the book. Excited because there’s the prospect of reading about he 19th American century view of the rest of the world. In the introduction, Feidelson mentioned that America was expanding at the time Melville wrote this and I can’t help but think, at the time I am reading this book, the world is shrinking. The world is smaller than it was when Melville wrote this book
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The man mildly loved his mortality?
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These days, there would be the word “whale” in Arabic and in Chinese.
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Whale in Thai: ปลาวาฬ pblah-wann
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Whales are named for roundness? I would think they were named for massiveness.
