Caity Weaver's Doubloons: Part II

"Like is Ahab crazy or 'crazy crazy.'"

If you’re still wondering what to get that special someone for Valentine’s Day, nothing says “I like your face and the other bits too!” like a book on George Washington or an 1892 murder in Memphis. If you order it from Oblong, I’ll personalize it. If you don’t have time for all that, send your receipt to studymarrykill@gmail.com and I’ll mail a little note to the object of your affection tout suite.

ICYMI: “Caity Weaver’s Doubloons: Part I”

Caity Weaver @caityweaver

Moby-Dick was my favorite book I read last year. I’ve been dying for someone to ask me about it, but I figured the window of opportunity probably closed about ~170 years ago. Then God sent an angel… https://t.co/HOQpAPBcXw

Alexis Coe @AlexisCoe

In this week's newsletter, @caityweaver's Doubloons: Part I. In this Q&A, Caity posed a question that blew up *whale Twitter.* The answers were more than worthy of another post, so "Caity Weaver's Doubloons: Part II" drops tomorrow. https://t.co/AkcAzzKDjT

A Twitter Roundtable: "Like is Ahab crazy or ‘crazy crazy.'"

At the end of our Q&A on Moby-Dick, Caity Weaver raised an important point:

And I don't understand how Ahab was able to, by hand, nail a gold coin to the ship's mast. It seems like it would be really hard to drive a nail through a coin. Then again, I've never tried to do it, so maybe it's easier than I think. 

I took the question to Twitter and the replies were an absolute delight. And that’s the takeaway here, folks: Moby-Dick sparks joy.

HOW IT STARTED:

Joseph Rezek @RezekJoe

do your thing whale hive

Alexis Coe @AlexisCoe

An important question about Moby-Dick: Is it hard to drive a nail through a coin by hand?

HOW IT’S GOING:

Hester Blum @HesterBlum

@RezekJoe @kwazana @proffwolff @AlexisCoe @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @vicesimusknox It will take more than something shooting from Ahab’s dilated nostrils and inhaled by me to experiment with nailing this beloved treasure

Jeffrey Insko @JeffreyInsko

@MEASeybold @RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana (my students have told me at least 700 times that is what happens in the Moby-Dick episode of SpongeBob)

benjamin aldes wurgaft @benwurgaft

@RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana "soft enough for Ahab, but PH balanced for an Ishmael," I think, is how the advert would go.

Tim Cassedy @vicesimusknox

@RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana Okay, when I tried put a nail through the center of my replica doubloon on the telephone pole outside my house I got absolutely nowhere and had to put the nail on the rim instead. (1/3)

Tim Cassedy @vicesimusknox

@RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana However, mine is a zinc die with gold electroplating. Ahab’s coin was solid 22k gold, which you can scratch with a fingernail. I think it would have been easy to nail through. (2/3)

Tim Cassedy @vicesimusknox

@RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana For interested parties: (3/3) whysoever.com/collections/al…

Matt Seybold @MEASeybold

@RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana The easier it is to nail, the more likely it is to be counterfeit. Melville is familiar with the history of counterfeit currencies (especially central to The Confidence-Man).

Hester Blum @HesterBlum

@proffwolff @JeffreyInsko @vicesimusknox @RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana #hardcore #Carpentererasure That is hard which should be soft, and that is soft which should be hard.

Joseph Rezek @RezekJoe

@HesterBlum @proffwolff @JeffreyInsko @vicesimusknox @AlexisCoe @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @kwazana Where is the billionaire who will donate an historically accurate doubloon so we can settle this once and for all

Hester Blum @HesterBlum

@RezekJoe @kwazana @proffwolff @AlexisCoe @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner OK OK just out of another delightful Rosenbach virtual class to say: DID YOU KNOW that @vicesimusknox made replicas of the coin and I have one????

Joseph Rezek @RezekJoe

@HesterBlum @kwazana @proffwolff @AlexisCoe @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner @vicesimusknox GIVE ME A HAMMER FOR THIS RUTHLESS HAND

Jeffrey Insko @JeffreyInsko

@steinjordan @RezekJoe @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @ashleyrattner @kwazana what a fun question! but I doubt I have the best answer. but gold is very soft and I believe an Ecuadorian coin from the 1840s would be reasonably close to pure, so... (also shameless plug: my Paris talk will be in the next issue of Leviathan)

kyla wazana tompkins @kwazana

@RezekJoe @proffwolff @AlexisCoe @HesterBlum @JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @ashleyrattner I thought the point was textural: a doubloon is gold therefore softer than say a shilling or a penny.

Joseph Rezek @RezekJoe

@JeffreyInsko @steinjordan @AlexisCoe @proffwolff @HesterBlum @ashleyrattner @kwazana Like is Ahab crazy or “crazy crazy”

A CALL TO ACTION:

I want to read a really smart romance novel about a newly divorced Moby-Dick expert who goes to this “Melville’s Energies” conference in Paris and, while monomaniacally pursuing the perfect croissant, gets her groove back.

ON A RELATED NOTE:

Two of the experts featured above have edited new editions of Moby-Dick: Jeffrey Insko’s take is over at Norton and Hester Blum’s is at OUP.

Don’t sleep on Blum’s posts “Weird Moby-Dick” and “Moby-Dick is the answer. What is the question?”

UPCOMING PUBLIC EVENTS:

March 23rd: Keynote on George Washington. Raynham Hall Museum. Oyster Bay, New York.

April 11th: In conversation with Alexandra Petri. The Bell House. Brooklyn, New York.

May 17th: Interviewed by Christy S. Coleman. The Jamestown Settlement. Williamsburg, Virginia.

See you soon! Until then, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram, and the books we’ve mentioned on Bookshop and Amazon. If you’d like a personalized copy of my books, please order them from Oblong.