a. natasha joukovsky
extracts blog
After Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, where he tracks allusions to whales and cetology, I keep a running list of references to recursion, innovation, mythology, and glamour.
Henry James | THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
'Well, you're not in love with her, I hope.'
'How can that be, when I'm in love with Another?'
'You're in love with yourself, that's the Other!'
Herman Melville | MOBY DICK
"And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned..."
Ovid | METAMORPHOSES
"As he tried
To quench his thirst, inside him, deep within him,
Another thirst was growing, for he saw
An image in the pool, and fell in love..."