tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8570718375010661810.post5136350011417570887..comments2024-03-15T18:01:26.787-05:00Comments on Melvilliana: Sophia Hawthorne and Melville's Emersonian "fluid consciousness"Scott Norsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00458190971293597545noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8570718375010661810.post-31765023661108556702015-06-12T20:42:32.062-05:002015-06-12T20:42:32.062-05:00Jamison is new to me, thanks for the link! So she ...Jamison is new to me, thanks for the link! So she reads that talk with NH about annihilation as a suicide threat? Interesting how many different takes there are on that one quotation. The "made up my mind" part sounds like it might have been a joke--only funny I guess if you're continually arguing fixed fate vs free will. If that's what he really said. Brian Yothers must have something to say about that in his new book which so far I have only dipped into here and there.Scott Norsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00458190971293597545noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8570718375010661810.post-83546049726596130752015-06-12T16:33:27.840-05:002015-06-12T16:33:27.840-05:00> "When I really should be packing for Tok...> "When I really should be packing for Tokyo"<br /><br />Coming back afore breakfast?<br /><br />> "Yes, I'm thinking we'd better call in a biologist."<br /><br />Melville certainly carried the manic-depression gene that likely killed his father, brother, and son. "Fluid consciousness" would a pretty good clinical description for the hypomanic state, short of disorganized mania, which is the state of maximum creativity.<br /><br />You've probably read <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=T5jYtG0zDBgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:Czjx0svBu1UC&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMIsOCGjIuLxgIVwgqSCh2EtgDT#v=onepage&q=%22Allan%20Melvill%22&f=false" rel="nofollow">Jamison's sketch of the Melville family</a> -- you'll find "fluid consciousness" (in so many words) to be characteristic of most of the writers and poets she describes, from Coleridge to Kit Smart.Robert J.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12937384579138400443noreply@blogger.com