i need help with a passage from Moby Dick

[Anonymous No.11108747]

>In what census of living creatures, the dead of mankind are included; why it is that a universal proverb says of them, that they tell no tales, though containing more secrets than the Goodwin Sands; how it is that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world, we prefix so significant and infidel a word, and yet do not thus entitle him, if he but embarks for the remotest Indies of this living earth; why the Life Insurance Companies pay death-forfeitures upon immortals; in what eternal, unstirring paralysis, and deadly, hopeless trance, yet lies antique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago; how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss; why all the living so strive to hush all the dead; wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city. All these things are not without their meanings.

what is the 'significant and infidel' word? whats the point hes trying to make about Adam?

[Anonymous No.11108771]

>>11108747
The word is "dead." Re: Adam, methinks the narrator is suggesting that, as Adam was expelled from Eden, cursed to live a life of suffering and pain, that he's dead and therefore escaped that pain should give us some solace. Yet nonetheless we fear death immensely, "the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city."
Iono, what do you think about it all, OP?

"All these things are not without their meanings" is the impetus of Moby-Dick itself --- excessive analysis

[Anonymous No.11108805]

>>11108747
the basic point is that if you believe in an afterlife, then death is just like going on a journey, like embarking to the remotest indies, as he puts it. he's then pointing out various tensions in our thinking about death--we don't treat dead people as if they are just visiting another country, we act as if they are completely nonexistent (e.g. mourning for those who still exist in heaven).

the point about Adam is just that even though he is the very first man, and died "sixty round centuries ago," he still exists in some sense

[Anonymous No.11108817]

I was thinking "late" or "departed" for the word.

[Anonymous No.11108818]

>>11108771
so he's saying we call dead people dead if we're able to see them die and give them graves but we don't call them dead if they go on a voyage at sea because we can't really be for certain that they're gone? that's how i interpreted it originally

no idea about the Adam stuff, though, but overall I think the passage was Ishmael pointing out the hypocrisy between how some christians act versus what they believe

[Anonymous No.11110369]

>>11108805

This, basically.

(The word is "late"; as in "the late Mr Smith, who died yesterday".)

He's saying that we have trouble dealing with death emotionally and the way we think of the dead is confused and inconsistent in several ways:

a) We don't count dead people when we think of populations. So for example if we think about the "people of the USA", we only think of the living ones, not the living and dead all together, as might be more sensible.

b) We say "dead men tell no tales" and take comfort in that even though the dead as a group must know a huge amount.

c) The minute someone is dead we call him "late", but if someone just goes away, and is never seen or heard of again, we don't have a special word for that, even though that person is just as much removed from our lives.

d) Adam died about 6000 years ago (if you take the literal dates from the Bible) and what state is he in now? Did Jesus really go down into Hell and bring out all the people who died before him? (Theologians worried about this a lot - the idea that no-one could have got into heaven until after Christ had died.)

e) We think of death as a sad state despite also believing the dead are in Heaven.

f) We say it's sad that a person has died and left us, but the idea of the dead coming back to life fills us with horror.