¶ In Moby-Dick, a sperm whale “smokes his last pipe,” before being killed by Stubb. In the following chapter, Melville makes recommendations for improving the harpooning process. I could hardly put the book down, so I read it all over again, and, this time, I had a faintly clearer idea of the events transpiring. Does blood really seethe and bubble when it pours into the ocean? Sounds like claptrap to me.

¶ Not much happens in Don Quixote, but it’s far more amusing. The canon from Toledo denounces the faults of chivalric romances in a tirade that all but clicks with castanets.

Fuero de esto, son en el estil duros; en las hazañas, increíbles; en los amores, lascivos; en las cortesías, malmirados; largos en las batallas, necios en las razones, disparatados en los viajes, y, finalmente, ajenos de todo discreto artificio y por esto dignos de ser desterrados de la república cristiana, como a gente inútil.

That the canon takes it all back a page later only adds to the fun.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
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