The Humor of Moby Dick

As my readers will know, I am reading Moby Dick.  I mentioned that there's a bit of humor in the book and I read a passage the other day that literally made me laugh out loud.  Let me give you a bit of a intro: the main character, Ishmael, is about to go to sea, but has a night to kill before boarding the vessel.  So  he's wandering around the town of New Bedford looking for a place to stay, but doesn't have a lot of money so he can't be choosy.  He finds an inn and asks the landlord if there are any rooms.  The landlord smiles and says it's all full, but he can share a bed - and not to worry the bed is big.  He'll have to share it with a harpooner who will be in soon, but for the moment he's out selling human skulls.  This makes Ishmael quite nervous.  Anyway, as the story goes, he ends up getting into bed thinking this harpooner won't turn up; but he does and is a huge guy, fully of tattooed.  He is frightened to find Ishmael in his bed, rightfully so, and arms himself to attack.  Ishmael calls for the landlord who manages to calm the man down and it's revelaed that this big harpooner, Queequeg, is actually a gentle giant.  So the next morning they awake and Queequeg decides he'll get dressed first and leave, allowing Ishmael to get dressed in private.  And that's  where I'll pick up the text: "He commenced dressing at top by donning his beaver hat, a very tall one, by the by, and then - still minus his trowsers - he hunted up his boots.  What under the heavens he did it for, I cannot tell, but his next movement was to crush himself - boots in hand, and hat on - under the bed; when, from sundry violent gaspings and strainings, I inferred he was hard at work booting himself; though by no law of propriety that I ever heard of, is any man required to be private when putting on his boots." 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!  Makes me laugh every time.

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