- Apr 2016
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On Being a Book Character (and an improsional one at that!) Captain Vere · April 10, 2016 Respond to On Being a Book Character (and an improsional one at that!) SourcePossibly Incomplete Game Description Mantrap: The Billy Budd Game, team 3This game's players are: Jeaninne, Shadika, Niurkalis, Travis, Josie, Ezra. Our "gamified" Billy Budd will be unlike any novel you're read and unlike any game you've played (though for RPG fans, maybe a bit more familiar). Each of us will play one or more roles. Roles can be: "inside" the text of Billy Budd (and remember, it's already … Ah
improvisional* oops - don't think there's a way to edit text after posting.
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- Mar 2016
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www.gutenberg.org www.gutenberg.org
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marlingspike
A tool used to splice rope and wire (google) https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=what+is+a+marlinspike
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hoar frost
frozen water vapor (can be found on vegetation etc) (google) https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=what+is+hoar+frost
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dominies
"Dominie" might here mean pastor (google) https://www.google.com/#q=what+does+%22dominie%22+mean
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sphynx-like
Does this imagery aim to draw a parallel between these "negroes" to a historical point in Africa predating the slave trade? (The Egyptians are considered to have one of the greatest ancient civilizations.) This imagery is at a contrast with primitivism.
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but in the case of the ship there is this addition; that the living spectacle [pg 118] it contains, upon its sudden and complete disclosure, has, in contrast with the blank ocean which zones it, something of the effect of enchantment. The ship seems unreal; these strange costumes, gestures, and faces, but a shadowy tableau just emerged from the deep, which directly must receive back what it gave.
This quote, along with a later section (p.63 in our book : when Delano is deeper in the ship and meets the sailor holding the symbolic knot), make me wonder if there is a parallel between "the ship" and the enchanted forest we encounter in works of Shakespeare. (Even if Melville is making a slight satire?) Both "places" are able to border reality or create a new space where the truth, which is hidden or obscured in reality, is able to come to light.
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oakum
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Babo
The footnote on p.41 in our book tells us that Melville combines "Delano's More" and Babo, "captain of the slaves" into this one character.
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saya-y-manta
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surtout
a man's overcoat (google) https://www.google.com/#q=what+is+a+surtout
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freebooter
another term for a pirate (google) https://www.google.com/#q=what+is+a+freebooter
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which has gained for the negro the repute of making the most pleasing body-servant in the world; one, too, whom a master need be on no stiffly superior terms with, but may treat with familiar trust; less a servant than a devoted companion.
Toni Morrison addresses this use of language which is often of a paternal relationship between whites and slaves, or the relationship of an owner to a pet. This language is dehumanizing and looks to create a justification for slavery. Morrison says that the "willful blindness" of Delano's language "...absolves him of all responsibility." Morrison believes Melville does this to reveal how racism is constructed to sustain slavery and argues that the "'happy, loyal slave'" discourse has present-day consequences. http://www.thenation.com/article/melville-and-language-denial/
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