Symzonia: Clearly A Burlesque!!
Dear reader, have patience and peruse the following:
"Of nautical instruments, chronometers, and books treating upon matters in any way connected with my object, I provided liberally. Least of all did I omit Symmes's Memoirs and printed Lectures. Finally, having completed all my arrangements and settled all my affairs, I took leave of my wife and children, whom, as I had no particular friends, I left to the humanity and kindness of the world, and set sail on the 1st day of August, 1817" (20).
"Whether I did or did not see a flying fish, catch a dolphin, or observe a black whirling cloud called a water-spout, is of very little importance to the world" (21).
"Mr. Slim, the third mate, expressed some apprehension, that great danger might be encountered in high southern latitudes; that if we found land, the ice might close upon us and prevent our return to our country...I was not much pleased with this. I have no patience with an officer who suggests doubts and difficulties when I have a grand project in view. I marked him, but at the same time pretended to listen to his observations, as objections of great weight, and then proceeded to remove them from the minds of the officers and people..." (39).
"A plague upon your lean carcass, thought I, how am I to answer so many impertinent questions" (46).
"...but you don't know everything; your mind is too dense to admit the rays of intelligence" (46). [on the likelihood of being roasted, as opposed to frozen, in the antarctic]
NOW, one last thing. Look at this.
"The Library of Congress catalogued the book... with no reference to Symmes. The [catalog] card erroneously described the book as 'A burlesque on Symmes's Theory of Concentric Spheres,' but this dull and earnest book is no burlesque" (Preface, J.O. Bailey, UNC, 1964)
Uh, Dr. Bailey, sir? How did you land a job in academia?
"Of nautical instruments, chronometers, and books treating upon matters in any way connected with my object, I provided liberally. Least of all did I omit Symmes's Memoirs and printed Lectures. Finally, having completed all my arrangements and settled all my affairs, I took leave of my wife and children, whom, as I had no particular friends, I left to the humanity and kindness of the world, and set sail on the 1st day of August, 1817" (20).
"Whether I did or did not see a flying fish, catch a dolphin, or observe a black whirling cloud called a water-spout, is of very little importance to the world" (21).
"Mr. Slim, the third mate, expressed some apprehension, that great danger might be encountered in high southern latitudes; that if we found land, the ice might close upon us and prevent our return to our country...I was not much pleased with this. I have no patience with an officer who suggests doubts and difficulties when I have a grand project in view. I marked him, but at the same time pretended to listen to his observations, as objections of great weight, and then proceeded to remove them from the minds of the officers and people..." (39).
"A plague upon your lean carcass, thought I, how am I to answer so many impertinent questions" (46).
"...but you don't know everything; your mind is too dense to admit the rays of intelligence" (46). [on the likelihood of being roasted, as opposed to frozen, in the antarctic]
NOW, one last thing. Look at this.
"The Library of Congress catalogued the book... with no reference to Symmes. The [catalog] card erroneously described the book as 'A burlesque on Symmes's Theory of Concentric Spheres,' but this dull and earnest book is no burlesque" (Preface, J.O. Bailey, UNC, 1964)
Uh, Dr. Bailey, sir? How did you land a job in academia?
Labels: antarctica, symmes, symzonia
posted by Cate | 9:05 AM
2 Comments:
Cate,
have you read -Hollow Earth- by David Standish? i read through it a few weeks ago for my last reread of M&D and it definately relates to ATD.
-jordan
(jeffersonista from the ATD wiki)
I'm confused. In what way do you see the passages that you put into bold as burlesque? Odd, certainly, but no less or more than, say, passages from Gothic novels or tales by Poe.
I guess I'm not seeing your point.
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