Thursday, September 24, 2009
Herman Melville on Douchebaggery
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Certain I am, however, that a king’s head is solemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad. Can it be, though, that they anoint it with a view to making its interior run well, as they anoint machinery?
Much might be ruminated here, concerning the essential dignity of this regal process, because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. In truth, a mature man who uses hair-oil, unless medicinally, that man has probably got a quoggy spot in him somewhere. As a general rule, he can’t amount to much in his totality.
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From Melville’s Moby Dick, Norton Critical Edition p.101 (h/t Marcel Douchechamp )
