Tobias Langhoff > Recent Status Updates

Interesting that this passage predates Walt Whitman's poem by 14 years: "Oh, my captain, my captain! [...] O master, my master, come back!"

Omen? omen?—the dictionary! If the gods think to speak outright to man, they will honorably speak outright; not shake their heads, and give an old wives' darkling hint.—Begone! Ye two are the opposite poles of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is Starbuck; and ye two are all mankind; and Ahab stands alone among the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors!

"live in the game, and die in it!" – Stubb has some philosophy in common with Omar Little.

Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.