August 20, 2019 - Chapter One Hundred Twenty-five


This is a bizarre chapter. While helping Ahab with a ship task, a member of the crew who is Manx is teased by Ahab for his national origin: “Here's a man from Man; a man born in once independent Man, and now unmanned of Man.” I’d thought this was an anachronism, but a bit of research showed that, while Man was technically part of the U.K. and subject to its monarch as far back as the Middle Ages, it was only in 1765 that the island became a direct possession of the monarch him-/herself – in this case, George III. While not within Ahab’s lifetime, it was at least history of the preceding century and not akin to thinking of William the Conqueror or further back.

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