Excerpts from The Adventures of the Prequod.
“I’m thinking of shipping, Captain!”
If I’m going to take a journey into knowing something as big as knowing, I need a precept. I need a model for the painting of this picture. Without a precept, no concept, and the forward observers in my war on personal ignorance will be without the support of my Intelligence Services. I would be sending them to certain death. What I need is…
a ship to sail.
Fact: The arena of knowing is vast.
Fact: There are a lot of maps, some good and some stupid.
Fact: The Seas of Knowing seem to have unending and uncharted waters.
“I’m thinking of shipping, Captain, and I’ve heard of this craft…”
“Ye pretend to sail through the Unknowing Straights, do ye now? Ye’ll need more than a wish, pilgrim!” said the Captain.
“I’ll build my own ship and cast my bread on many waters, Captain. I will remember you, and call my ship the “Prequod,” I replied.
A ship it is; a worthy precept. I’ll provision it with ALL provisions, and I’ll leave nothing out, science or religion.
Chapter 2, The Cosmic Fly Swatter
Daniel Hightower's Unexpected Journey Begins
A few days later, after wasting time on my motorcycle, I decided to get back to my search for what is knowing. I sat on my patio making notes when suddenly my ship, the Prequod, came into my mind and robbed my present surroundings of my full attention... I exited my cabin on the good ship Prequod, and walked the decks, to check my heading towards the Seas of Knowing. But no sooner had I gained position upon those decks when a helicopter strafing the Hotel where I sat, returned me to my patio in Pasadena, CA. The ship thing, this silly metaphor was asserting its own momentum. I had changed position in a moment of time. My awareness of this began to increase with just such occurances. It was clear to me now that I was living mentally in two worlds separately and at the same time...
Chapter 5, The Cosmic Fly Swatter
The Prequod's Position and Momentum
As you can see, my thoughts were taking me nowhere. I made the mistake of laying down on my bed. And of course, my mind began to drift...
I returned to the Prequod. The storm was still upon us. I say us because, besides me, the Pilot and the First Mate, there was a whole crew of men in the rigging. We were
free of the anchor and riding a gale. The blackness and force of the gale was still strong but perceivably fading. We were rising and falling in a steady rain. I was nauseous and
dazed. I didn’t know where we were. The Pilot was at the helm. He was yelling orders to the First Mate, who relayed the orders up the rigging to the crew.
“Clew up, clew up, ye laggards! Close reef the fore-tops’il!” yelled the First Mate.
I looked up at the rigging and noticed something. I was looking at a particular crew member. He lost opacity and I could see right through him. He became indistinct. So I
looked off to the side while keeping him still in the corner of my eye. He gained opacity and I could see part of his form more distinctly. But I couldn’t see exactly where he was. I could only see his activity, his momentum, his working on the sails. So I looked back directly at the spot in the rigging where he was and his form turned transparent. I tightened my grip on the halyard. A loose block and tackle was slapping against the main mast, whipped about by the violent winds. The thumping reminded me of the rap that I had heard in the café. It rose in my mind...
Position and Momentum
Measurements in time
An inner outer space
Not easy to define
I’m down here… I’m in it
I’m down here… I’m in it
I woke up...
Chapter 8, The Cosmic Fly Swatter
The Prequod escapes Twin Falls Bay
I fell asleep within the first half-hour and dreamt…
I was hanging on for dear life to a lanyard fastened starboard on the quarterdeck. The
Prequod was keeled over riding the seventh wave in Twin Falls Bay. It was raining
violently and the whole bay swirled about its center like water going down a drain.
“Ye’ll have to make for it on this pass, Captain, or risk our sinking!” yelled the Pilot.
I looked over the bows and saw the eastern gate fast approaching. The crew was
everywhere I glanced aboard the ship, wrestling in the rigging. Mr. Neuman was
shouting from the deck below. He looked at me waiting for a command that I knew I
must give.
“We can be no more with you than we are now, Captain!” he cried.
We were on the rim of the circling tide staring at the promise of certain destruction in
the watery grave swirling below and center.
“Make for the gate, Mr. Neuman, and may God help us!” I shouted.
“Let out to larboard, and clew down in the lee!” Mr. Neuman shouted to the crew.
Off the port bow, a bolt of lightening struck the granite gate-wall. It dislodged a great
plate of rock, that rotated outwards from its base and crashed flat into the boiling water
ahead of us. The water then rose in a swell before us. We were steering directly into it,
and I thought we would be washed stern wards into the drain. But the waters gave way before us and we dashed bows-down through the gate.The ship righted as we cleared the rocks to either side. Then another swell outside the gate rose before us, and as we crested it, it formed into Gorgon’s back. We topped his watery shoulder and shot headlong in front of him. I looked to the stern to see his transparent form rise above us, his head shaking back and forth in rage. Colored refractions darted inside him in all directions. But they shattered as bolt of lightening struck his head. His water-form dispersed before the gate and back
into the sea. The crew cheered and I awoke...
Chapter 23, The Cosmic Fly Swatter
The Adventures of the Prequod is a story within a story; a story within the
The Cosmic Fly Swatter