25 January 2011

To Overwhelm Nature

From Charles Olson's "Call Me Ishmael":

"Americans still fancy themselves such democrats. But their triumphs are of the machine. It is the only master of space the average person ever knows, oxwheel to piston, muscle to jet. It gives trajectory.

To Melville it was not the will to be free but the will to overwhelm nature that lies at the bottom of us as individuals and as a people."

No comments:

Post a Comment