Hold It

 

Pip the Crown Jewel of MOBY-DICK

"Nor smile so, while I write that this little black was brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king's cabinets." #MelvilleMonday

In Moby-Dick Chapter 93 The Castaway, Melville thus compares the "fictitiously" enhanced brilliancy… pic.twitter.com/CmaZdnaYHf

— Scott Norsworthy 🇺🇸 (@Melvilliana) May 4, 2026

 

Did you hear of the _______?

Did you hear of the _______? by Scott Norsworthy

A shared 5-gram in "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" and Herman Melville's "The Lightning-Rod Man"

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Polysensuum in MARDI and the PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA

“An admirable story,” cried Media. “I had no idea that a mere mortal, least of all a philosopher, could acquit himself so well. By my scepter, but it is well done! Ha, ha! blind men round a banian! Why, Babbalanja, no demi-god could surpass it. Taji, could you?”

“But,… pic.twitter.com/zTWHNdk0dQ

— Scott Norsworthy 🇺🇸 (@Melvilliana) April 20, 2026

 

Remaking OREGON, HO! in prose and dialogue

Remaking "Oregon, Ho!" in prose and dialogue by Scott Norsworthy

DRAGOONED: Writing, talking, and rewriting like Herman Melville in "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" (1851-1853). Number 9.

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Amigo Mio! #8 in my open investigation, DRAGOONED: Writing, talking, and rewriting like Herman Melville in "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" (1851-1853)

Amigo mio! by Scott Norsworthy

Didn't you desert me on the eve of a snowstorm?

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Related posts on Substack

• DRAGOONED #1: All I want is a good listener
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/all-i-want-is-a-good-listener

• DRAGOONED #2: Tokens of Ghostwriting
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/tokens-of-ghostwriting

• DRAGOONED #3: As a sailor might say
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/as-a-sailor-might-say

• DRAGOONED #4: Wolf howling, music and romance
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/wolf-howling-music-and-romance

• DRAGOONED #5: Home-feelings, philosophy, and the magic of feminine logic
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/home-feelings-philosophy-and-the

• DRAGOONED #6: Literature on the Little Arkansas
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/literature-on-the-little-arkansas

• DRAGOONED #7: After Supper
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/after-supper

• DRAGOONED #7a Grassy glades oh!
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/grassy-glades-oh

• DRAGOONED #8: Amigo Mio!
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/amigo-mio 

• DRAGOONED #9: Re-making Oregon, Ho! in prose and dialogue
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/remaking-oregon-ho-in-prose-and-dialogue

Project MUSE - A Third Update on Books Owned, Borrowed, and Consulted by Herman Melville

Link below to a gem in the latest Leviathan with exciting news of recovered markings and marginalia in Melville's set of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. By Christopher Ohge and Brandon Hurst who are also taking the editorial reins at Melville's Marginalia Online.

Project MUSE - A Third Update on Books Owned, Borrowed, and Consulted by Herman Melville

🙏🙏Thanks to Founding Editors Steven Olsen-Smith and Peter Norberg and every contributor to https://melvillesmarginalia.org/ for a monumental job well done! 👍👍

Kant's head on the larboard

Why Kant? I mean the right whale's head in Moby-Dick chapter 73, suspended on one side of the Pequod, counter-balanced by the sperm whale's head on the other side. Why make the right whale Kant and the sperm whale Locke? Much can and has been made of the dueling philosophies (say… pic.twitter.com/3UL3WLqbcF

— Scott Norsworthy 🇺🇸 (@Melvilliana) March 23, 2026

 

Capturing a sperm whale

Capturing a sperm whale by Scott Norsworthy

Re-presenting the animated 1823 description by Henry J. Pickering aka "Thomas H. Bennett"

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Grassy glades, oh!

Grassy glades, oh! by Scott Norsworthy

a shared trigram in MOBY-DICK and "Scenes Beyond the Western Border"

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After-supper dialogue with "I. F." = IMAGINARY FRIEND

After supper by Scott Norsworthy

DRAGOONED: Writing, talking, and rewriting like Herman Melville in "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" (1851-1853). Number 7.

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The Meters - Mardi Gras Mambo

 

Falling harpooners per Scoresby and Melville

Accidents at Sea, North (falling into Right Whale's mouth) and South (Sperm Whale's head) #MelvilleMonday

"The harpooners not unfrequently fall into the fish's mouth, when it is exposed by the removal of a surface of blubber; where they might easily be drowned, but for the… pic.twitter.com/DAIvdfR0Ou

— Scott Norsworthy 🇺🇸 (@Melvilliana) February 16, 2026

 

Literature on the Little Arkansas

Literature on the Little Arkansas by Scott Norsworthy

DRAGOONED: Writing, talking, and rewriting like Herman Melville in "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" (1851-1853). Number 6.

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The Pretti Case Exposes a Dangerous Lie

Like the roses and pearls in the fairy tale

“At breakfast the other day, a mountain girl, a cousin of mine, who for the last two weeks has every morning helped me to strawberries and raspberries, which, like the roses and pearls in the fairy tale, seemed to fall into the saucer from those strawberry-beds, her cheeks—this… pic.twitter.com/WPLVqPYsxP

— Scott Norsworthy 🇺🇸 (@Melvilliana) January 16, 2026

 

Attributions of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to deceased portrait artist Josph Wood and the late Rev. John W. Curtis

Attributions of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to deceased portrait artist Joseph Wood and the late Rev. John W. Curtis by Scott Norsworthy

Two posthumous claims, both of them wrong, issued during the lifetime of Clement C. Moore

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2026 Moby-Dick Marathon